Its five years of research and development prior to unveiling its first mobile phone unit in Taiwan in May 2004 has begun to pay off.
In Manila, two weeks prior to the official media launch of three ASUS mobile phone models last October 6, the first shipment of 1,000 units of ASUS M303 sold out.
Next month, the two companies will introduce two more models, and by mid-2005, at least four more. A conservative target of 5,000 units sold per month for the first three months appears attainable base on the initial market acceptance.
Looking at the bigger picture, the global sales target set by ASUSTek is 1 million units in 2005 and tripling next year.
Two factors, cited by FoneTech officials, that will push the sales of Asus mobile phones include the Filipino consumers preference for open line or non-vendor dependent phone operation, veering away from phones sourced from the gray market e.g. illegal sales channel offering no warranty and after sales support.
With negotiations with Philippine cellular phone operators still on-going, FoneTech and AsusTek are confident of ASUS mobile phones sales through the retail outlets.
Looking at the track record of FoneTech, it is Nokia’s number one phone seller and also Samsung’s number one phone seller in the Philipppines, reported Joe Cheng, Marketing Director of Fone Tech (Malaysia) SDN BHD.
FoneTech has been doing business in the Philippines for eight years now.
Cheng overseas Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippine markets.
"If you have a strong outlet, you do not have to worry with it (the ASUS phone) selling," he underscored. "Quality is a crucial thing. People (today) seek the proper items for themselves."
Added, Edward Wang, sales specialist, handheld department, Asia Pacific and MEA Sales Group of AsusTek Computer Inc., "Mobile phone is a consumer product now. So we design it based on the consumers point of view."
MODELS LAUNCHED IN RP
ASUSTek, a leader in motherboards, graphic cards and computer notebooks, formally entered the Philippine mobile phone market this month. It brought in the ASUS V66, ASUS P505 and ASUS M303 multi-function mobile phones.
In a press statement, Benson Lin, general manager for APAC and MEA Sales Group of ASUSTek said, "We are here because the Philippines is a very remarkable market and we intend to change the lifestyle of Filipino mobile phone users with our first-class technlogy."
Following its appointment of Taiwan’s TID Group, a leading global supplier of mobile phones, ASUS mobile phones are exclusively distributed in the Philippines by FoneTech International, the Philippine sales office of TID Group.
The ASUS V66 is a triband bar type phone which has a 64MB user memory, miniSD memory expansion slot, USB 1.1 and supports video capture. It’s media player supports MP3 media format and MPEG 4 video format.
The ASUS M303 mobile phone with MP3 player functions and built-in mega-pixel camera also has a miniSD memory card reader.
The tri-band ASUS P505 is a smart PDA phone that supports GPRS mobile Internet access, handwritten MMS, Outlook e-mail and Pocket MSN. As an added feature, the built-in Bluetooth support allows the ASUS P505 to connect to the ASUS GPS-BT100 global positioning system wireless easily.
These three mobile phone models are available in the country through FoneTech service centers like WellCom and Sayes.
