Nextbit Robin Set To Enter The Market

The Nextbit Robin is set to be released by the San Francisco startup when the online store of the company opens next week. The company fascinated Kickstarter after it promised to offer a phone using the cloud for its storage last year.

However, Scott Croyle, chief design officer of the company, revealed that the company will be offering a limited inventory through its online store. He said around 6,000 units will be available in the market. In contrast, 13 million units of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus were sold by Apple in the first three days the devices entered the market.

The opening of the online store and offering of the Nextbit Robin is a finale of the journey of the company. Nextbit did not offer the device through mobile service providers or online store. Instead, the company used a Kickstarter campaign to ask for commitments from potential buyers before it was able to triple its objective of raising $500,000.

However, Nextbit is not an unknown startup since it founders, Mike Chan and Tom Moss, were a part of the original Android team of Google. Croyle is also the man behind the popular HTC One. The first batch of devices is expected to be delivered by Nextbit to early supporters of the device on Tuesday. Aside from the Nextbit Robin, a number of cases, screen protectors and power cables will also be available on the online store. Instead of the standard micro-USB cable, the device utilizes a USB Type-C port.

The company revealed that the Chinese New Year holiday affected the initial inventory of the device. Updates for the next batch will be released by the company if the device will be sold out.

Nextbit Robin Set To Enter The Market - image credit: pcmag.com

The Nextbit Robin is a reasonably-priced phone offering competitive features. Its $399 price tag is much cheaper compared to the $650 price of premium phones, like the Samsung Galaxy 6S and iPhone 6S. The best feature offered by the phone is its capability of accessing a cloud offering 100GB of storage that supplements its 32GB internal storage.

Nextbit has joined a number of smartphone manufacturers that have opted to sell their devices directly to consumers rather than offering them through mobile service providers. These companies include China-based ZTE and Motorola.

Croyle said the company will be able to promote an authentic conversation with consumers by offering its device directly into the market. Nextbit is also able to reduce expenses associated with partnering with mobile service providers, like AT&T and Verizon. Instead of spending for promotions, the company can use these funds for evaluating the device. The savings also allowed the company to lower the price of the Nextbit Robin.

Croyle added that the company is not planning sell its device through mobile service providers. The company is also working on having the phone listed on a number of e-commerce websites. The company is also taking into account placing kiosks inside retail outlets and marketing the device through the South by Southwest show in Austin Texas.

With its low cost structure, the company may be able to break even by selling hundreds of thousands of devices. For the moment, the company did not reveal the number of Nextbit Robin units sold through its Kickstarter campaign. However, Croyle added that the company is expected to become profitable before the end of 2016.

Posted by Melanie Mendoza on Friday February 12 2016, 9:48 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Shopping. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0