The price of Micromax A116 Canvas HD has shot up after various e-retailers reported unavailability of the handset.
Online retailer Tradus which had listed the A116 Canvas HD smartphone for ₹17,499 is now offering the handset for a price ranging from ₹15,999 to ₹16,799. The official price of the smartphone is ₹14,499, but Tardus claims that the revised prices are discounted, leading to a discrepancy.
In March, Micromax said that A116 Canvas HD, which was launched for a starting price of ₹13,990, will be sold for ₹14,499. The retail price was raised following the government's proposal to hike duty of those handsets which are priced above ₹2,000.
"The proposed Finance Bill announced by the honorable Finance Minister of India on 28th Feb 2013 has made certain changes in the customs duty structure on all Mobile Phones with MRP greater than ₹2000/-. Because of this and other procedural issues, the shipment of your Canvas HD has been delayed by 10 working days. Along with the delay, the price of Canvas HD has also been revised to ₹14, 499," Micromax had said.
Thanks to the Canvas HD low price tag and high-end features, Micromax has registered good sales since its launch on 14 February. However, the company had been facing shipment problems after the transit of the first lot. Although, the smartphone has made its way to a few e-commerce websites, it has run out of stock most of the time. It is assumed that the procedural delay in shipment of the phone has led to the price rise.
Considering its specifications, A116 Canvas HD boasts a 5-inch HD IPS screen with 1280x720 pixel resolution and 16.7 million colour depth. It is powered by MediaTek's MT6589 1.2 GHz quad core processor and runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1 operating system. Other features and specifications include a 2000mAh battery, 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage which is expandable up to 32GB via micro SD support. It also has support for 3G, WIFI, Bluetooth and GPS/A-GPS.
