The head of the pack in the sub-$100 race is the Alcatel Onetouch brand owned by TCL. Its brightly-colored Idol family of phones have already proven a hit in Latin America and Europe and the firm launched two new phones for under $100 at the Mobile World Congress this week that can run on 4G mobile networks being rolled out in China, Brazil, and elsewhere.
But while many players are now chasing the lower end of the market not all are, fearing that stripped-down hardware features can only lead to a commoditized market where no one can differentiate and maintain a worthwhile profit margin.
Huawei, the world's third-biggest phone maker, prefers to aim higher by increasing the proportion of its phones that sell for 300 euros ($400) or more as opposed to the low-end it defines as under 150 euros.
"We are not interested in the sale volume of those low-end, low-priced phones," said Chief Executive Eric Xu.