UMI X2: Synopsis of the delay!

And another week passes by and there is no news of the UMI X2. It is a catch 22 situation of this newly launched company in India. While the bookings are have reached an astronomical figures (UMI says 20000+ bookings, rumors says it has crossed a lac!) we are all yet to get a whiff of the real thing!

Customers who were over eager to book this phone went ahead, despite repeated pleas from UMI not to, and deposited the entire booking amount of 14000INR to the UMI account as soon as it was announced. Now every one is venting their frustration on UMI for not delivering the product.

UMI X2 the Hit that never was!

Though UMI tried a series of tricks up its sleeve to pacify customers such as rushing a pre-production unit (directly from the factory) to respected Indian Blogger Gogi, it has failed to stop the negativity and the criticism. 

This should go down in management text books as the biggest Hit of the Year that never was!

But what are the reasons for this delay? Despite such a spectacular demand what is taking the company so long to deliver?

RAM Compatibility

The top reason given for the delay was the incompatibility issues UMI had to face while developing the phone. The 2GB RAM running on a MTK 6589 is the first such device in the world and arguably the only device to have achieved this feat. The Jiayu G4 was expected to have 2GB of RAM and so was the Zopo Zp980 but till date these devices run on only 1GB RAM.

Yet UMI had a breakthrough in this area and was able to get the 2GB RAM running but by then Chip prices too soared. We ran a detailed review on this here

Black Border

The Black Border issue has been almost solved- Almost!

First noticed by fans when UMI started sending out the promotional pics announcing the arrival of the X2 in India. The black border was the remains of the on screen buttons which remained despite having touch sensitive physical buttons. UMI is said to have raised the panel height in the front just enough to cover it.

From the recent unboxing photos we got our hands on we can see that the size of the border is in millimeters, but then again it still is there. The promised black version of the device may solve this issue completely!

A cure for all ills! The black version of the phone may solve the black border issue!

Customs

Being an FDI in India means facing a host of issues, legal and otherwise. This has also slowed down the supply of these devices drastically.

Customs delay to add to UMI's woes

This was largely felt when the first prototype devices arrived in India for review. The customs clearing itself took a lot of time. We wonder what would happen when a consignment of lacs of phones would arrive to clear the pending demand.

In addition to this the UMI India Facebook page too is under a lot of attack. It had to ban loads of users from spewing hatred online but equally in bad taste is the promotion of certain individuals by the page who promote UMI. here is one such example

Such use of strong language by the company official page just shows its immaturity

Remember the scandal that hit Samsung recently when it was revealed that it bribed college students to spread rumors and fake reviews about its competitors? It damaged its reputation badly. An official page should always be neutral and refrain from making comments with such harsh language

Bloggers too haven't taken the continued promises by UMI not too lightly

Its April 21 and we are yet to see any deliveries!!

Recently Andi at Gizchina lashed out at UMI in his post titles "WTF UMI" he came down heavily at the company at its marketing gimmicks. This coming from a man living in China, who's life is about writing on latest of Chinese phones was indeed disturbing.

Although Gichina has gone ahead and posted positive news of UMI too but they still remain critical on the X2 and its performance.

We at GizChai too feel that the company should stop any more such promise-the-moon-deliver-the-dust type of gimmicks and concentrate on supplying all the pending backorders first.

It needs to move and fast as this would not only reinforcce the faith of the few fans it has still left but also help win back the dissapointed lot back into its fold.

Here's wishing the company all the very best!!