The Chief executive of Tesco Corporation (USA) (NASDAQ:TESO) recently told BBC Radio 5’s morning show that the phone would have roughly the same specifications as the Samsung Galaxy S5 with pre-installed Tesco services. The plans for the smartphone are clearly coming on the heels of Tesco’s Hudl tablet that has sold over half a million units to date. The phone is expected to run Android.
While Tesco Corporation (USA) (NASDAQ:TESO) has certainly succeeded with the Hudl table that is priced at £119 and will see a newer version, the Hudl 2, released in September that does not convince everyone that Tesco will succeed with their smartphone.
Not going to be easy
“Tesco’s low-budget tablet might have been a good idea,” says Dr Markos Zachariadis of Warwick Business School, “but a high-end smartphone is a bold and quite unpredictable move to make for a non-traditional tech firm with no technology manufacturing experience.
“Mobile producers like Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), HTC Corp (TPE:2498), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) have spent years developing high-tech devices, that include a long list of features to accommodate even the most demanding tech users. Breaking into that category directly and gaining the slightest market share is going to be very difficult for new starters like Tesco.”
Tesco CEO not going anywhere
In addition to announcing the phone, chief Philip Clarke strongly hinted that he would remain at through 2020.
He said: “I’m 54 and I have been at it for 40 years.
“I think normally in Britain people like me retire at 60 and that gives me another six years.”
He said his role attracted “incredible scrutiny” and joked that he was “never short of people telling me how to do my job”.
Clarke also shook off suggestions that his managerial style was chasing way senior executives.
“Look at any team and how it evolves,” said Mr Clarke.
“When you get a leadership change it’s inevitable that people will want to think about what that means for themselves.
“But I have a very strong management team – some have been here 20 or 30 years and some have come in the last two or three.”
Tesco Corporation (USA) (NASDAQ:TESO) is planning to open another 12 big stores this year but the huge Tesco Extras are finished.
“It is,” he said, “the end of new big stores.”
