OREANDA-NEWS. Yota Devices invested only USD 15 million in development and making the first YotaPhone, 1/10th the orginal iPhone cost of development.

International companies invest much more in development of their smartphone models. For example, Nokia invested USD 200 million in this in 2012-2013, and development of the original iPhone ended up costing approximately USD 150 million.

Yota Devices had approximately 70 people working for it when the first-generation YotaPhone was being developed, enabling the company to make decisions several times faster than the decision-making process at the larger companies. And this certainly helped to cut costs quite substantially. The company explains the difference in smartphone development costs versus the world's major manufacturers by Yota's rational approach to ogsanization of its operations, Lenta.ru reports.

Yota Devices also made extensive use of freelancers and consultants, which is far less expensive than paying full-time employees. Altogether, about USD 50 million was invested in organizing the business to develop, set up the production and promotion of two YotaPhone smartphone models.

This money was spent to put together an international team, a structure for sales and post-sales service in Russia and overseas. This amount also included the cost of advertising.

As a reminder, the first YotaPhone model went on sale in December 2013. Apart from Russia and the CIS, the YotaPhone is available in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the UAE.

Its key distinguishing feature is its two screens, one the conventional LCD screen on the front, and another one based on the E Ink technology. The second display is placed on the smartphone's rear panel and can save the last image displayed without depleting the battery.

According to the company, it sold around 12,000 smartphones in the first two months. In August 2014, the company cut the retail price of a YotaPhone from RUB 19,990 to RUB 13,990. The second version of YotaPhone is scheduled for a December 2014 release.

Yota Devices is a private international company dedicated to developing and producing high-tech consumer LTE devices (modems, routers, smartphones). The company has development centers in Russia, Finland and Singapore and is headquartered in Moscow. Rostec holds a 25% equity stake in the company.