Speculation was rife recently that Tesco would shortly announce its own smartphone. Based upon its success with the Hudl tablet, this was supposedly going to be an affordable phone. A week is a long time in the tech world though, and with the recent announcement of cheap but well specced phones like the new Motorola ones, Tesco has decided that it cannot compete.
The Hudl 2 will improve on all of these and should be out for Christmas.
A big part of Tesco’s success throughout our history has been our determination to make the unaffordable affordable, to put products into the hands of our customers that had been beyond their reach. We have used our scale to buy in large volumes and pass the savings on to customers. From exotic produce to electronics to clothing, we have helped to transform rare treats into everyday realities for millions of customers.
A year ago we launched a tablet, the hudl. For those that had them already, tablets had transformed the way they accessed information, socialised, shopped and carried out the countless activities which are important in their lives. Tablets may have revolutionised computing for many, but not for all. The best devices were expensive and beyond the budget of many. We saw the opportunity to do for tablets what we had done for thousands of products through our history: bring to market a product affordable for all our customers. It has been tremendously successful, particularly for families. The gap we saw in the market created sales of more than half a million hudls. It is important to remember too that it was a new product and a new brand, launched by a retailer not a technology company. It showed that we could make handheld devices affordable and accessible without compromising quality or performance.
We have built on the success of hudl to develop hudl 2, which will launch soon. Giving just a little detail away, hudl 2 improves on just about every area of its predecessor, from screen size to speed, design and accessories. Where the first hudl was used by many as a secondary device, hudl 2 has the capability to take its place as customers’ primary tablet in the home. We are very excited and when we launch it in the next few weeks I think customers will be too. The opportunity remains strong in the tablet market.
Earlier this year we also announced plans to develop a smartphone under the hudl brand. We were confident that we could offer customers something we saw was lacking in the mobile market: an affordable, quality 4g smartphone handset. As we developed the idea in the first few months of the year, we could see a gap we could fill for our customers. The technology sector is fast changing and constantly evolving and since then, the mobile market has become even more competitive. So in early July, I took the decision that we would put the phone on hold and concentrate on the hudl 2 tablet.
Mobile technology – phones and tablets – are transforming all consumer industries and particularly retail. Our future success relies on our anticipating and adapting those consumer trends so that we can continually improve the products and services we offer our customers.
