Asus is putting a lot of hopes into their Zenfone line-up of smartphones. When you look at their sales from 2014 to 2015, this excitement could be understandable. In 2014, Asus shipped 8.5 million smartphones and in 2015 they shipped 20.5 million. That’s a substantial growth in one year.
Even with their growth in 2015, it’s not going to be easy in 2016. The overall growth of the smartphone market is not expected to be as strong in 2016. On top of that, there is going to be more pressure from other brands like Huawei who will be targeting the same markets and price points.
Asus however did prove with their Zenfone 2 launch, that they are a serious player. If you look around at customer reviews, they are near maximum positive. There haven’t been hardware or software issues with the Zenfone 2 which bodes well for building a brand in the market that is cheap and reliable. More for less without having to worry about device issues. Asus cleared this hurdle in 2015 which means the Zenfone 3 is poised to do great numbers this year.
So in 2016, Asus is targeting sales of 30 million. To achieve this goal, industry insiders believe that sales in emerging markets is critical to make their sales targets. Countries like Russia, Africa, Brazil and India will be key markets for increasing sales. Southeast Asian countries are also a major segment of the market that will require increased sales. These countries include: Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Malaysia.
[source: Digitimes]
