Cherry Mobile aims to be the alternative in smartphone market

Monday, December 5, 2011

THE increasing availability and demand for Internet-capable devices have prompted a Filipino-owned phone manufacturer to go up against the early entrants into the smartphone and tablet business.

Saying it has no choice but to diversify, Cherry Mobile recently launched a slew of Android products, where customers can multitask between applications and enjoy a refined game/play interface.

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"We know that it’s a tough task to compete with branded models but still, we want to be an alternative choice for Filipinos," Cherry Mobile Brand Alliances Manager Agnes Conopio told Sun.Star.

Being an alternative means bringing their prices lower than the established in the categories the company wants to compete in, she said.

Asked if they have compromised quality to reach the low price tags of between P4,000 and P17,000 for tablets, Conopio said the two-year-old company is not in the business of putting customer satisfaction at risk.

Cherry is taking advantage of the increasing number of Filipinos who are getting more wired each day, according to the media research firm Nielsen.

In its inaugural Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report, Nielsen said that Filipino digital consumers were the second heaviest Internet users in the region, averaging 21.5 hours online per week.

Based on the same report, 64 percent of Filipinos now own an Internet capable mobile phone, almost equal to the ownership of a desktop PC (68 percent) or notebook computer (58 percent).

Close to one quarter of Filipino Internet users (24 percent) access the internet on a daily basis through a mobile phone and 56 percent intend to access the Internet through this device in the next 12 months.

While these figures remain encouraging to mobile phone players, doubts linger as to whether Cherry Mobile is capable of competing with its rivals in terms of functionality and style.

The company has been aware of criticisms of their products, including the short lives of the phones, Conopio said, adding that these issues will be addressed in the near term.

“'We have already expanded our service centers that will focus on after sales and attend to the concerns of customers. We also make sure that those found defective will not exceed the two-percent return rate as mandated by the government. Fortunately, we haven’t reached that point yet," she said.

Last July, Cherry Mobile opened its flagship customer solutions center in SM North Edsa in Quezon City. This will be followed by other service centers in key areas such as Cubao, Dagupan, Cagayan de Oro, Samar, and Zamboanga. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)