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Snapdeal.com is the online market chosen by Jolla to sell their phones in India. And while Snapdeal is one of the biggest e-commerce ventures in India (trying to be the ebay or AliExpress of India), I do wonder if the choice was right.

First, Snapdeal was given an exclusive right to market and sell the phone in India. I don't understand this. What did Jolla get in return? Front page marketing? If so, was it worth it?

Personally, I thought the phone was poorly marketed on Snapdeal. To list a few shortcomings:

1. A few months back, a search for "Jolla" displayed suggestions on everything BUT the Jolla Smartphone. (They seem to have fixed this now, but even when the media were advertising the exclusive partnership and tentative launch of the phones 4-5 months ago, a search for "Jolla" on Snapdeal didn't show the Jolla Smartphone as a suggestion and it seemed as if Snapdeal didn't seem to know anything about the product. Even on the launch date, and many weeks since then, the search suggestions didn't show Jolla smart phones as one of the suggestions. Only if you actually did search for the term, the Jolla smart phone launch landing page was shown in the results.)

2. The phone wasn't available for sale on the launch date and time on Snapdeal! I had to call and email Snapdeal to ask for clarification and it only showed up for sales after a few hours.

3. Last week I came across a banner ad on Snapdeal on one of their offer pages, which displayed the Jolla phone (among others) as "exclusives" on Snapdeal. Clicked it, and found only Android phones listed there.

4. If you read through the reviews and Q&A's on the product page of the Jolla, you will find that most of the users were voicing concern about the "high price" for the "low end specs" of the Jolla Smartphone. Yet the product page is still the same as when it was launched and doesn't do anything to address these concerns.

5. Nobody uses smartphones in India without a (1) screen guard / screen protector and (2) a case / cover for the phone - currently flip covers are the most popular. As a giant in online sales, Snapdeal must be aware of this. Yet, imagine my surprise that both weren't offered with the phone in India. If not the original, at least Snapdeal or the seller should have made compatible Chinese makes available.

Overall, it would have been better if Jolla hadn't made "exclusive" deals with anybody, but actually sold the phone through all the popular, and trusted online sellers in India, like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Ebay.in and Amazon.in and made some deal with them to show the phones on the front page on the launch date. It would have given Jolla better exposure, and a more diverse customer base.

Snapdeal.com is the online market chosen by Jolla to sell their phones in India. And while Snapdeal is one of the biggest e-commerce ventures in India (trying to be the ebay or AliExpress of India), I do wonder if the choice was right.

First, Snapdeal was given an exclusive right to market and sell the phone in India. I don't understand this. What did Jolla get in return? Front page marketing? If so, was it worth it?

Personally, I thought the phone was poorly marketed on Snapdeal. To list a few shortcomings:

1. A few months back, a search for "Jolla" displayed suggestions on everything BUT the Jolla Smartphone. (They seem to have fixed this now, but even when the media were advertising the exclusive partnership and tentative launch of the phones 4-5 months ago, a search for "Jolla" on Snapdeal didn't show the Jolla Smartphone as a suggestion and it seemed as if Snapdeal didn't seem to know anything about the product. Even on the launch date, and many weeks since then, the search suggestions didn't show Jolla smart phones as one of the suggestions. Only if you actually did search for the term, the Jolla smart phone launch landing page was shown in the results.)

2. The phone wasn't available for sale on the launch date and time on Snapdeal! I had to call and email Snapdeal to ask for clarification and it only showed up for sales after a few hours.

3. Last week I came across a banner ad on Snapdeal on one of their offer pages, which displayed the Jolla phone (among others) as "exclusives" on Snapdeal. Clicked it, and found only Android phones listed there.

4. If you read through the reviews and Q&A's on the product page of the Jolla, you will find that most of the users were are voicing concern about the "high price" for the "low end specs" of the Jolla Smartphone. Yet the product page is still the same as when it was launched and doesn't do anything to address these concerns.

5. Nobody uses smartphones in India without a (1) screen guard / screen protector and (2) a case / cover for the phone - currently flip covers are the most popular. As a giant in online sales, Snapdeal must be aware of this. Yet, imagine my surprise that both weren't offered with the phone in India. If not the original, at least Snapdeal or the seller should have made compatible Chinese makes available.

Overall, it would have been better if Jolla hadn't made "exclusive" deals with anybody, but actually sold the phone through all the popular, and trusted online sellers in India, like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Ebay.in and Amazon.in and made some deal with them to show the phones on the front page on the launch date. It would have given Jolla better exposure, and a more diverse customer base.