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UK Phone Maker Wileyfox Is the Latest Challenger in a Crowded Android Market

The quick brown fox jumps over a sea of similarly qualified smartphones.
Image: Wileyfox

London mobile company

Wileyfox

is putting two smartphone models on the market soon running

Cyanogen OS

, a custom firmware branched off of Android that formerly only attracted an enthusiast audience, but is now directly powering consumer-level Android handsets. There's the Swift model, which starts at £129 (about $202) and Storm, which retails at £199 ($312).

The market is glutted with seemingly identical options, making it much harder for potential customers to navigate, and even harder for Wileyfox to differentiate itself amongst competitors. OnePlus has already been jabbing at mid-range budget buyers while nipping at the heels of flagship phones like the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6, while lower tier options like the Moto G have attracted critical acclaim and commercial success.

What Wileyfox is marketing, supposedly, is a cleaner, less fussy Android experience that's a bit removed from the noisier competitors—less bloated, more catered to customers with basic needs. But now that customers have a range of trusted brands, it'll be a hard market to penetrate, especially when you limit your market to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.