Asda launches a phone for £5

Following the wallet-friendly Tesco Hudl, Asda is putting Britain's cheapest mobile phone in your basket.

The Alcatel 1010 costs just £5 on pay as you go. Asda reckons it's the "UK’s lowest priced phone," and is "expecting shoppers of all age" to take advantage of the diminutive price tag.

You can buy it in branches of the supermarket or online. No minimum top-up is required, so it really does cost just a fiver.

The no-frills 1010 is an old-fashioned candybar phone with a traditional 3x4 keypad. Above that is a 1.45-inch colour screen. It plays FM radio and your MP3 tunes, although there's only 3MB of memory. The phone weighs 59g.

Supermarkets are really going for it on the technology front, clearly recognising the public appetite for mobile devices. Tesco recently launched an own-brand wallet-friendly tablet, the Hudl, costing £120 -- or less if you use your Clubcard points.

Do you have a cheap back-up phone? Is a phone for a fiver a great bargain or a sad indictment of globalisation? Tell me your thoughts in the comments, or join the queue for the self-service tills on our Facebook page.