If you’re into tech news and recently keep coming across articles discussing Pepsi, you’re not going crazy and you’re not the blatant target of tailored ads; it’s happening because there’s been recent rumors that suggest PepsiCo, the company behind the popular Pepsi soft drink, is fixing to release a smartphone branded under the Pepsi name.
Like any sane person, when I came across these articles I chuckled, made sure it wasn’t April 1st, and moved on. There was no way that a company so well-known for a soft drink would seriously put time into a random smartphone venture.
But then more articles started popping up. I’ve seen two today that suggest that a Pepsi branded smartphone is not just some weird joke straight out of the twilight zone – this thing might actually be real. It even has a name: the Pepsi P1.
It’s important to take rumors with a grain of salt, but this one seems particularly bizarre, but also very interesting.
On the one hand, yes, it’s utterly ridiculous to think that Pepsi wants to make a smartphone. The company has nothing to do with technology, and I’m not sure there are many people out there that love Pepsi cola so much that they want to buy an entire smartphone dedicated to the cause.
But when you get past the weird thought of PepsiCo releasing a smartphone I guess it might be an interesting, limited-time thing for the company. I mean, it’s not like they don’t have the money or the resources to do it. And look how well Crystal Pepsi worked out for them. Sure, everybody thought it would be a one-time thing because at the time of its release it was wildly unpopular, but now there’s a Change.org petition to bring it back.
But as unsuccessful (but memorable) as Crystal Pepsi is, it was still in line with what Pepsi did so it didn’t seem as bizarre.
If it’s true, I imagine it’s probably going to be a one-time thing. (Maybe two, because I’m not sure arch rival Coca-Cola would go down without a fight.) I can’t imagine Pepsi taking smartphones seriously from this point on. Still, as bizarre as it is to think about, it really boils down to “Why not?” rather than “Why?”
It also looks like the phone will be decently priced, considering what you get. The Pepsi P1 is rumored to feature a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHZ MT6592 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 3000 mAh battery, and running on Android version 5.1. The device is said to cost around CNY 1,299, or roughly $201 U.S. dollars (although it is unlikely to see this phone hit stateside). The processor is on the slower end so it won't have the best performance, but hey, it's a Pepsi phone.
It’s an interesting rumor, and I think it will be even more interesting if it ends up being true, even if just for the sake of discussion. It is outlandish, but not as crazy as it initially sounds once you hear how much it’s expected to cost and what you get for it.