Sachin Tendulkar lends his name to smartphone brand, with launch set for 3 May

Paris Hilton’s signature perfume, or Serena Williams’ signature clothing line. Heard about them? You must have. It has been pretty common for celebrities to lend their names to products, from time to time. We have had a litany of actors and singers doing it, right from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Michael Jackson. And Serena is not the only sporting icon in this club. Wasim Akram, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham had also made brands their ‘own’.

And now it is turn from India’s ‘cricket god’ Sachin Tendulkar to be a part of the trend too. According to a report in Business Standard, IT company Smartron had come up with the idea of a Sachin Tendulkar-branded smartphone, which has been planned for launch in India on Wednesday.

The cricket legend is the brand ambassador of Smartron and the company had reportedly received an undisclosed amount as funding from him last year.

The company has sought to build up interest on the smartphone – the srt.phone – with the catchphrase ‘Something big is on its way’. A report in News18 describes the srt.phone as a budget android device, priced at Rs 12,999 for the 32GB storage version and Rs 13,999 for the 64 GB version.

Some of the features of the smartphone include a dual-SIM with 4G-LTE support, a 5.5-inch full HD display with 2.5D curved glass, and fingerprint sensor at the back of the device. The srt.phone has a removable back panel which can be replaced with one with Tendulkar’s signature. The device also comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 4GB RAM and a 3000 mAh non-removable battery.

Brands, with which a celebrity associate him/herself, essentially use the name of the celebrity as their unique selling point, and is an innovative tool of marketing. One would remember, pop icon Britney Spears’ signature fragrance ‘Curious’ going on to sell over 500 million bottles worldwide.

This is the first-ever signature smartphone endorsed by Tendulkar, and there is already a groundswell of expectation that there may be more in the series.

Smartron don’t offer a wide suite of products, though, and at present, it only gives you a smartphone and a high-end tablet - both promoted as products ‘designed and engineered in India’.