Yu Yunicorn to launch today; expect it to go big on software

While Yu Televentures co-founder, Rahul Sharma seems to be a on a rather destructive mood lately, breaking and burning things up in teaser videos, the day has arrived that the Yu Yunicorn finally becomes official. With the launch (set for a few hours from now) of the Yunicorn, Yu is expected to redefine the flagship smartphone. But after what appears to be an  unimpressive first attempt with the Yutopia, should we expect something better this time? Not much has leaked about the Yunicorn so far. Tweets from the co-founder reveal little, Yu did put a teaser video teasing the design of the new smartphone that appears to be very similar to the LeEco Le 1s Eco . The video shows off the beveled sides of a smartphone that appears to be made of metal. On the front there is a home button below the display that is expected to accommodate the fingerprint scanner. https://twitter.com/YUplaygod/status/737263995699089408 Also visible at the bottom is the USB Type C port at the bottom end that is flanked by speaker grilles on each side. As the phone flips over in the teaser we get a glimpse of the back that seems to have a fairly clean look with just the camera module centered at the top end. The only other element on the back is the YU logo. Up top lies the 3.5mm headphone jack, accompanied by the secondary mic, while the volume rocker and power/unlock button reside on the right side. But with so many affordable flagships already out there, the focus is expected to be on the software. We recently had a chat with the co-founder (who seemed pretty calm compared to the teaser tweets). He said that Yu’s focus is indeed on software and that it plans to take advantage of its Around discovery platform, “You will be seeing a lot of features on our AroundYU service which will also be present on these phones. We want to concentrate on developing AroundYU platform on our Yu phones to offer even more services. We are working towards that.”. One of the teasers also hint at e-wallet software feature. https://twitter.com/rahulsharma/status/736503141307404288 And the focus is on software indeed as Cyanogen OS, Yu’s previous highlight is no longer exclusive now that Lenovo hauled in the ZUK Z1 in India. With exclusivity gone and hardware not being in the highlight, Yu’s only chance with the Yunicorn will indeed be its software offering and this may begin with its own custom OS; one that seems to be an approach similar to what OnePlus pulled off in India with OxygenOS. Let’s hope Yu works out a balance of hardware, software and an impressive price tag as the competition is showing no signs of giving up just yet. You can check out the launch for yourself below as the event will be live streamed online.