Asus Plans to Unveil 2nd Gen ZenFone Smartphones at CES 2015
Asus, Taiwanese smartphone maker, has revealed its plan for the next quarter. Asus CEO Jerry Shen on Thursday said that the company plans to introduce the successors to the popular ZenFone 2 series of smartphones next year at CES 2015.
Shen also said that the company is going in to business with another chip maker to swell their shipments next year. He stressed that the new chip maker will help the company produce affordable devices which can be priced as low as NTD 4,990 which is Rs. 10,000 approximately.
Currently, Asus uses chipsets from Intel for its devices starting from the price tag Rs. 5,999 for the ZenFone 4 in India. However, Shen did not reveal the name of the chip maker. The company is planning to bring second generation of ZenFone series with two of the biggest Chinese carriers – China Mobile Ltd and China Telecom Corp, along with various other models designed for global market.
“All of the new phones scheduled for release at the annual trade show will be powered by Intel Corp. chips and will support 4G LTE connectivity. LTE-enabled phones will account for about 30 percent-40 percent of Asustek’s total smartphone shipments in 2015,” Shen said in an interview.
He also added that 4G-LTE handsets powered by Intel chipsets will start at the price of NTD 9,990 (Rs. 20,000 approximately). This is quite high comparing to the current offerings by Asus in India.
The Taiwanese handset maker estimates that it will ship 8 million smartphones by the end of this year and 16 million next year. It intends to double its shipments with availability of its ZenFone series to about 6 new markets, currently the company is present in 14. Shen said that the company will now focus on China and Japan.
