The Russian company Red Soft announced the creation of a joint venture with the Chinese manufacturer Passion – they will produce smartphones, tablets, laptops and augmented reality glasses based on the Red OS and mobile Red OS M operating systems.
One of the flagships will be a foldable smartphone on a MediaTek chip. Unlike the company’s previous B2B products, this device is aimed at the mass consumer. Sales of the gadget are expected to start in the summer of 2025, and the first branded retail store will appear in the Moscow shopping center “Afimall”.
Until now, devices running Red OS M were sold in the corporate segment — about 10 thousand units were sold last year. The new project involves switching to modern hardware and an attempt to gain a foothold in the B2C segment. At the same time, the main task remains to ensure compatibility between the Linux-oriented system and components. Analysts believe that the manufacturer’s participation in the design will help avoid problems with drivers, which often arise due to heterogeneity of supplies.
Experts call the project potentially promising, especially considering the possibility of entering the Chinese market. However, there are risks – Passion has no experience in developing devices from scratch, and Red OS M itself is based on an old version of Android without deep adaptation.