Asus Zenfone 3 to be launched in June, to target mid-range segment, says CEO

Last week we had seen the announcement of the Asus Zenvolution event on 30 May, just a day before Computex 2016. While there was no definite mention of what products would be launched, we all knew that Zenfone 3 launch was imminent. Now Asus CEO Jerry Shen has officially stated that the company will release the Zenfone 3 in June to target the mid-range market segment. Asus has been using Intel chipsets in its smartphones, and has recently switched to Qualcomm chipsets. As you may know, Intel recently announced that it will not be making smartphone chipsets for now. But according to a report in Digitimes, since Asus is using Qualcomm chipsets since September 2015, its production of smartphones will not be affected by Intel’s decision. But going by the Zenvolution banner, which shows an Intel logo, it wouldn’t be surprising if Asus did release an Intel chipset based smartphone. Unless that logo is meant for non-smartphone products with Intel chipsets inside - most likely PC related products such as the ZenBook. According to the Digitimes report though, around 90 percent of the Zenfone 3 smartphones will be powered by a Qualcomm chipset and the remaining 10 percent will be run on MediaTek chipsets. Asus has seen an almost 40 percent year on year growth in its smartphone sales thanks to strong sales in countries in Southeast Asia, Brazil, Russia and Europe. Shen said that the growth would remain flat in the second quarter compared to last year due to the transition to new phone models. While Asus’ main segment to target will be the mid-range market, it is also expected to release some pones in the US $260 to $307 price brackets. Asus would be aiming to compete with Huawei and Oppo in the US $300 price segment in the China market, said Shen. Shen also said that the Zenfone 3 would be selling in around six countries by August and would include products such as the Zenfone 3 Max, Zenfone 3 Deluxe and Zenfone 3.