In a strange turn of events, the excitement of the new ZenFone launch comes with a bit of disappointment. It seems the ZenFone 7 is going to be one of the most limited ZenFone releases in years. A true surprise for us as we saw a real uptick in interest thanks to the ZenFone 6 and figured this would result in greater aspirations for the ZenFone 7. Will the expression “less is more” pan out for ASUS?
So we only learned yesterday that North America is officially not getting the ZenFone 7. This came the way of an official statement from ASUS so it’s 100% accurate.
According to a Digitimes story, at the online launch conference ASUS said the ZenFone 7 would become available in Europe and Japan at a later time. With that statement, it would be unwise to assume there is going to be a large number of countries added beyond those mentioned at the launch conference.
We can now add another country to the non-ZenFone 7 release list. We’ve read on Tech Advisor that the UK is not getting a ZenFone 7 release either.
Running tally list of countries not getting the ZenFone 7:
With the US, Canada and now the UK, those are some big tech savvy markets with a big online presence. It will be interesting to see if consumers care or if it’s only the hardcore enthusiasts who care about this. Will there be much in the way of complaints from these markets from being excluded? So far we aren’t see much.
Will those big tech sites bother reviewing a phone that won’t be available to buy in their main market? A lot of reviews and articles are done for affiliate revenue and if you don’t have links to sell the phone, will some websites simply opt out? What’s the point of reviewing a device that isn’t available to buy? Imagine reviews a product while knowing full-well that your main audience won’t be able to buy it. Many readers must question this. It would be like being duped in a way. We’re afraid this is about to get a bit more weird.
We’ve started this post to keep you updated on what countries are actually getting a ZenFone 7 release.
What about India? There is one big market that is very tech savvy and loves their smartphones. The most common question I see online is, “when is the ZenFone 7 coming to India?” Whelp, it may not be a matter or when, but more a matter of “if” it is coming to India. It’s interesting to see that the ASUS India Twitter channel hasn’t posted a mention of the ZenFone 7. It’s eerily quiet in that regard. Perhaps many India consumers made the assumption (as we did) that just like every other year, they would get a release.
For us this is still a bizarre situation. It’s unfolding so this should get interesting in the next couple of weeks.
So, are you ready? If you have been watching and following up to the ZenFone 7 release and live in a country that won’t see a release, we feel your pain. You may have to switch your thinking from ZenFone 7 to ZenFone 8 and hope that ASUS is more generous with release countries next year. Odd to think this way considering the phone just launched!