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Ever thought of paying as little as $12 (amounts to approximately Rs 650) for a fully-functional phone? Well, we came across the Gongkai phone, which now makes it possible. It's a complete quad-band GSM phone featuring an OLED display, Bluetooth and MP3 playback. It has only basic features, but that's what one could expect at that price. The phone is a great option if you are going on a short trip/vacation or during the monsoon when people don't want to carry their expensive smartphones. Moreover, at $12, the phone is unlocked and contract-free; it also comes with a protective silicone sleeve.

After a teardown, bunnie studios reveals that the low price of the phone is possible due to several factors. The entire case snaps together and there are no screws holding the phone together. There are almost no connections inside and all components, such as the battery and display, are soldered directly to the board. There is a flipping switch that helps hard-disconnect the battery. Further, the battery also has no secondary protection circuit. Despite its slacky built, the phone features a backlit keypad and decorative lights around the edge. It equips the Mediatek MT6250DA chip and a Vanchip VC5276. The CPU clocks at 260MHz, 32-bit. The MT6250 chip is said to sell for less than $2 when bought in bulk. Apparently, the production price of the phone goes below $10. 

Last year, we came across the M2 phone from a Chinese handset manufacturer going by the name Ken Xin Da. The phone priced at Rs 1,200 was amongst the tiniest phones one could find in the market. It came with a dual-SIM, dual-standby option, rated talktime of 240 minutes and bundled a 2GB memory card.

Affordable tablets and phones are a boon for developing nations like India. In fact, we’ve had our tryst with the Aakash tablet project. We’ve seen this cheapest tablet in the world face a lot of ups and downs. One shouldn't expect superior quality or performance from Gongkai either (considering its price). The price of the device is as low as ordering a highly-loaded large pizza or a nifty pair of earphones. A sub-Rs 1,000 phone could be a great initiative for India, especially as we are looking to connect remote and isolated regions of the country.

Alcatel has not considered India as a primary market, the reason why I’m making this comment because their previous product launches in India was not that much impressive and the products like Alcatel OT 4005D and 4010E were not enough to steal the show. But notebook formula can change anytime and that happened.  The Renaissance started with their new Smartphone launch and they are coming up with two brand new Smartphones in India.  Alcatel One Touch Idol and One Touch Idol Ultra are the aforementioned latest Alcatel phones launched in India and it comes into their Android Smartphone department . Both these Smartphones were announced earlier this year.

One Touch Idol has a 4.5-inch  qHD IPS display and the  One Touch Idol Ultra boasts a 4.7-inch HD AMOLED display with Corning gorilla glass protection. Both latest Alcatel phones are running on Android 4.1. Rear shooters are having 8MP Sensors with LED Flash and 720p HD video recording.

The next thing which separates the ultra and normal version is the processor and RAM. Ultra is featuring 1.2 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM whereas the latter comes with a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. These changes reflect the price tag as well.  Alcatel One Touch Idol price in India is Rs. 15,800 and is available in  Silver, Slate, Cranberry Pink and Red colours. One Touch Ultra  comes in Black and Red colors. It is priced at Rs. 21,000. See the specification of these latest Alcatel phones for detailed analysis.

Amazon has announced its plan to roll out the Android Appstore today in over 200 countries around the world including India. The company has called on developers to submit their apps for distribution in the countries that are part of the newest rollout. 

The Appstore is set to hit 200 new markets like Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and even the Vatican City. Amazon informed registered developers who are keen to distribute internationally that their apps will be made available in the “coming months when the Amazon Appstore for Android launches internationally for consumers.” And the Appstore’s one free app a day offer would attract the most attention, we are sure. 

Amazon has slowly been making its advance into India over the past couple of years. While the Kindle e-book readers have already been on sale in India, there hasn’t been any further activity from Amazon’s end in the country. The launch of the Appstore in India could be an indication that Amazon believes the country’s market is ripe for Kindle Fire tablets too.

However, the entry of the Appstore will ensure that even while the country waits for Kindle Fire devices, an app ecosystem for the platform based on Android is already available for use. The app, which is available for download from the Play Store will ensure that you will be able to make purchases from the Amazon Store. 

Amazon is also said to be making a smartphone and Foxconn is rumoured to be manufacturing it. According to reports that emerged in November, the Kindle phone should be ready to be launched sometime in mid to end 2013. With the rollout of the Appstore to a multitude of countries currently, the markets will be ripe for the Kindle Phone.

It only makes sense for Kindle Fire devices to be introduced in India considering even Google has realised the potential of tablet sales in the country. Google released its much awaited tablet Nexus 7 in India exclusively through its Play Store earlier last month. We could be looking at an interesting war of tablets if Amazon puts the Kindle Fire up for sale here. 

At the time of the Appstore's imminent entry into India, even Google has stepped up its game by launching Play Books and Play Movies in India earlier this year. The search giant is also said to be working on bringing in operator billing support in the country with the revamped Play Store.