VietNamNet Bridge - Like Apple’s products, which bear the words “Designed by Apple and assembled in China” on their backs, BPhone shows the words “Designed by BKAV - Made in Vietnam”, which has raised curiosity.



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Vietnamese doubt that BPhone is made in Vietnam. And they have every reason to be doubtful about BKAV’s statement that it is a 100 percent Vietnamese made product.

There are many smartphone models bearing Vietnamese brands, but they are, in fact, made in China. This means that Vietnamese companies order Chinese partners to make the products in accordance with their design and import to Vietnam to sell under their brand names.

Vietnamese people don’t believe that Vietnamese technologies are advanced enough to create such high-technology products like smartphones.

It is obvious that the father of BPhone is a Vietnamese. However, it is unclear if it is a Vietnamese product or is it  just a product bearing a Vietnamese brand? This has been a hot topic on technology forums.

Meanwhile, Tech In Asia, a well known technology website, on May 26, when mentioning the launching of BPhone, reported that this was a “homegrown” smartphone.

Hoang Tuan Anh, an administrator of a website, commented that the “birth certificate” must not be the only basis referred to when identifying the “nationality” of a product.

“The words ‘made in Vietnam’ mean that the product is made in Vietnam, either by multi-national groups or Vietnamese companies,” he commented.

“Samsung Galaxy S6 is well known as a South Korean product, even though it shows the words “made in Vietnam’ on its back,” he said. “Intel’s CPUs are assembled and verified at Intel’s factory in Vietnam, but its nationality is the US.”

Nguyen Tu Quang, president of BKAV, said BKAV spent four years and multi-millions of dollars on researching and designing BPhone.

BKAV’s staff designed the appearance of the device, set up many details and systematic configuration and customized Android 5.0 into BOS - its own operating system and integrated some BKAV’s technologies and applications.

After completing the design, BKAV bought over 800 electronics and mechanical engineering accessories from 82 suppliers in the world and created the finished BPhone in Vietnam.

BKAV, with its current capability, cannot organize production with a large scale like Samsung or LG. It has to outsource components to foreign factories and assemble BPhones in Vietnam.

An expert, relating the process of BKAV designing BPhone, said that BPhone is “a product developed by Vietnamese”.

The definition “Vietnamese product” will determine many things, including the pricing policy.

Ha Manh Tuan from Hoang Ha Mobile, a phone distributor, noted that VND7 million would be more reasonable for a Vietnamese product. He noted that VND11 million is high, which makes BPhone uncompetitive. 

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