Vietnamese businesses are pursuing ambitious plans to make smartphones

BKAV proud of BPhone

BPhone 3, or the third generation of the BKAV Corporation-made smartphone, was officially launched into the market on October 10.

The launch showed the strong determination of the Vietnamese company to conquer the home market, where there are numerous international brands. BKAV did not succeed with BPhone 1 and BPhone 2 versions (only 12,000 products were sold), but the manufacturer doesn’t intend to give up.

Nguyen Tu Quang, chair of BKAV, when announcing the plan to make BPhone, said that BPhone is quite competitive with the world’s well-known brands, and that the Vietnamese market is still large enough thanks to high purchasing power with 15 million smartphones sold every year.

BKAV has invested VND500 billion in BPhone research and development activities so far. Though the sales of BPhone 1 and BPhone 2 were modest, Quang did not think this was a failure, saying that it was acceptable for the first products.

Quang stressed that BPhone 3 is the first Android smartphone model in the world that has infinity bottom with the screen nearly hitting the bottom bezel of the phone. Most smartphone models available in the market have a thick bottom bezel.

According to BKAV, Bphone 3’s camera has hardware configuration equivalent to that of iPhone X, which is integrated with sNight technology to help users take pictures at night more effectively. 

BKAV, established as a network security solution provider, has equipped BPhone 3 with high-level anti-theft technology.

BKAV says even with the factory reset, owners can still perform remote operations such as locating the phone, taking pictures with back and front cameras, and commands to lock the machine.

Asanzo moves forward despite losses 

Asanzo Vietnam jumped into the smartphone market in August 2017 when launching Asanzo Z5 priced at VND2.99 million and Asanzo S5 VND4.99 million.

Despite the modest sales of the two models (less than 10,000 products were sold), the manufacturer in January 2018 introduced Asanzo S2 and S3. Most recently, on October 8, Asanzo marketed S3 Plus.

Asanzo’s president Pham Van Tam affirmed that S3 Plus is integrated with latest technologies, but the price is very reasonable, VND2.58 million. The manufacturer accepts to take a loss with the first smartphone models to attract customers and popularize Asanzo as a smartphone brand.

After one year of joining the market, Asanzo has incurred a loss of VND100 billion from the sector. However, Tam said he would continue spending money to make smartphones.

US$1=VND22,000

RELATED NEWS

Mobile World stops selling BPhone 2017

Bphone 3 officially launched