Asus aims to be among top 5 smartphone players in India

Taiwanese tech giant Asus today said it is working on strengthening its position and be among the top 5 smartphone players over the next 12 months in India.

Asus, which launched its 'ZenFone 5Z' today, said its focus is on "delivering premium experiences and not just premium smartphones".

"I believe that premium doesn't have to be expensive and affordable does not have to be ugly. Our focus is on delivering premium experiences, empowering luxury for all," Asus CEO Jerry Shen said.

He added that the company is focussing on driving innovation in collaboration with partners like Qualcomm and bringing in features relevant for consumers in the Indian market.

"Next 12 months starting July, my goal will be to be among top 5... a market share of 5 to 10 per cent," he said.

India is among the largest smartphone markets globally, and saw 30 million units being shipped in the first quarter of 2018.

As per research firm IDC, Xiaomi led the smartphone market with 30.3 per cent share of the shipments in the January-March 2018 quarter, followed by Samsung (25.1 per cent) Oppo (7.4 per cent), vivo (6.7 per cent) and Transsion (4.6 per cent).

Speaking about the ZenFone 5Z, Asus India Director Mobile (Business) Dinesh Sharma said the device has various artificial intelligence (AI)-based features.

"We have worked closely with Qualcomm on many Indian requirements like dual VoLTE support, enabled VoLTE across carriers, noise cancellation features that are relevant to the Indian market, he noted.

Sharma explained that one of the AI features is adaptive ringtone that adjusts the ringer volume according to the ambient noise level.

The ZenFone 5Z features a 6.2-inch screen, up to 8GB RAM, 256GB internal memory, 12MP dual rear and 8MP front camera and 3300mAh battery. The product is priced at Rs 29,999 onwards.