PepsiCo Inc. plans to launch a line of mobile phones and accessories in China in the next few months, a move that’s both a bit of novel marketing and a sign of the rising commodization of the mobile phone market.

The company, best known for chips and soda, is working with a licensing partner to sell Pepsi-branded Android handsets that carry a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, 1.7GHz processor and 16GB of storage. The model is known as the Pepsi P1. It’s expected to cost about $205.

PepsiCo spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez compared the move to other branding deals the company has struck with makers of high-end headphones and shoes. But Gonzalez wanted to make one thing clear: “Pepsi has no plans to get into the mobile-phone manufacturing business.”

What is less clear is whether Chinese consumers will buy it. The line of failed branded mobile phones is long. There was the HTC First, known as the Facebook phone because it carried the backing of the social media giant. The Motorola ROKR, known as the iTunes phone. The Kodak phone. And the Amazon Fire phone.

“Regardless of the power of the Pepsi brand, it’s going to be tough,” said Tuong Nguyen, a personal technologies analyst with research group Gartner.


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