Following BKAV, Viettel aims to make luxury smartphone
Though BKAV (Bach Khoa Anti-virus Center) did not succeed with its BPhone, Viettel plans to develop a ‘made-in-Vietnam’ smartphone, targeting the high-end market with a selling price of over US$1,000, according to Tinhte.vn, a leading hi-tech forum.
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It is still unclear what Viettel will name its smartphone model. However, some sources saw images of the product and said it would be called Viettel Luxury Phone – Smartphone 4G.
It is expected that the products would be introduced in the second half of 2017. There would be two versions – premium and standard.
Unlike other products bearing Vietnamese brands, Viettel Luxury Phone is forecast to target high income earners instead of the low-end market.
According to Tinhte.vn, Viettel plans a high price level because the phone is integrated with leading security chips, anti-eavesdropping technology, and automatically erases data when stolen.
A source said the extra high-end version won’t have wi-fi or camera so that security would be enhanced.
Viettel Luxury Phone would use high-end materials such as leather cover and gilded frame.
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam quoted a Viettel senior executive as reporting that Viettel Luxury Phone will be designed and made by Viettel with the localization ratio of 90%.
He said that a microprocessor in the product will be imported from Qualcomm.
BKAV once launched a ‘made-in-Vietnam super-product’ – Bphone. Its 24K gilded version 128 GB version had the retail price of VND22 million.
However, despite the advertisement campaign and market policy which aroused ‘Vietnamese pride’, BKAV did not succeed with BPhone as users said they could not find anything special.
BKAV launched its first smartphone Bphone on May 26, 2015 after many advertising campaigns.
Bphone uses Snapdragon 801 chip, 3GB RAM, 5-inch Full HD screen, 13 megapixel back camera and 5 megapixel front camera. It has a aluminum frame and two toughened glass sides.
The smartphone is 7.5 mm thin, uses 3,000 mAh battery and the Quick Charge Technology 2.0 that enables fast charging, doubling the normal one.
This has raised questions about high selling prices for a made-in-Vietnam product.
A senior executive from Viettel said some phones with anti-eavesdropping technology are priced at US$15,000-20,000, while Viettel’s product would have a security level equal to the phone being used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Viettel, one of the leading mobile network operators in Vietnam, officially launched 4G services on April 18.
