In Russia began to sell a domestic smartphone

Sales of the domestic AYYA T1 smartphone manufactured by the Rostec IT corporation have started in Russia. The gadget can be purchased at a price of 18.9 thousand rubles in the stores of the M.Video-Eldorado network, the press service of the retailer told Lente.ru.

Smartecosystem, a subsidiary of Rostec, has developed a device to protect users from data collection by creating a camera and microphone blocking function. Because of the possibility of “confidential communication”, the creators call their product “trustfon”. The developers claim that the gadget can be used by both ordinary users for personal purposes and companies for internal interaction. The smartphone is designed for a Russian processor and operating system, but in the current models these components are foreign. The models on sale have a Helio P70 processor from the Taiwanese company MediaTek and run Android 11.

AYYA T1 began selling in the retail market in order to study demand and test for possible problems before supplying the device to companies and government customers, a representative of one of the electronics retail chains told Kommersant. In addition, the source of the newspaper claims that the smartphone cannot be considered secure. It would be much safer to remove the camera from the device altogether. The gadget also lacks protection against water and dust, and its operating system does not support cryptography.

Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin also stressed that the smartphone is too expensive for its functionality and packaging. Its Chinese counterparts on the market cost no more than 8-9 thousand rubles. Therefore, the expert predicts that the manufacturer will not be able to sell even a small batch of devices: “Sales will be, at best, tens of units by the end of the year.”

There have been several smartphone development projects in Russia, but none of them have released the final product. In December 2019, Infowatch, owned by the co-founder of Kaspersky Lab Natalya Kaspersky, closed the project of a secure phone for the public sector Taigafon. In the same month, Kaspersky Lab announced its own gadget for business and government based on KasperskyOS, but to date, the device has not yet been released. In 2013-2017, Rostec also took part in the project of creating a smartphone – it was YotaPhone. In June 2018, the corporation sold its stake to a consortium led by China’s Trinity World Management.