BKAV CEO Nguyen Tu Quang: “Those who are critical of Bphone, BKAV is building Vietnam’s smartphone industry”

To re-appointment, every time BKAV launches a new generation Bphone, the Vietnamese technology community gets a stir.

In the past few days, the case of Bphone B86 failing to obtain Play Protect certificate has attracted a lot of attention. Bphone’s failure to not only make users unable to download some applications like Netflix, but it also raises questions about whether BKAV is licensed to use Google applications such as Youtube, Maps or Gmail legally or not.

Bphone B86

BKAV later admitted that there was no direct agreement with Google for the Play Protect certification. The reason given by BKAV is that Google requires 1 million units per year – a number that Vietnamese smartphone manufacturers cannot meet. Google has “advised” BKAV to cooperate with a number of smartphone design partners that already have certificates (which are mostly from China), but BKAV has denied this to preserve the “Made in Vietnam” value. As a result, instead of cooperating with Google, BKAV has “signed an agreement with an authorized Google partner” with similar rights.

Currently, it is impossible to verify whether the information given by BKAV is accurate or not. However, there are still many opinions to oppose BKAV, claiming that the manufacturer of Bphone is using the “waving” arguments to justify the shortcomings of the product.

Before these reactions, BKAV CEO Nguyen Tu Quang recently had an article on Facebook talking about this.

Thereby, Mr. Quang said that BKAV is “advocating on core technology and designing and manufacturing Bphone products in Vietnam by itself, in order to promote the smartphone industry in Vietnam in a sustainable manner”. Mr. Quang even confidently said that BKAV is one of the rare high-end smartphone manufacturers, “able to compete technologically with the world’s biggest names.”

In Mr. Quang’s opinion, grasping new core technologies is difficult and when it is available, other things (such as Play Protect certificate) will become easier.

Bphone B86 failed to achieve Play Protect certificate

To the antifans, Mr. Quang wanted to emphasize that BKAV is trying to build a Vietnamese smartphone industry. “Those who are critical of Bphone, do you want this? Bphone is at fault in this?”

BKAV once said that there was a long-term plan for Bphone. However, up to now, it has been 5 years, however, the market share data shows that Bphone still has not been on Vietnamese smartphone map. In contrast, the smartphone brand from Vingroup, Vsmart, has made impressive breakthroughs in recent years.

Compared to Vsmart, one of the biggest barriers that Bphone encounters is the selling price. While Vsmart products usually have a relatively comfortable price (<5 million VND), Bphone has a much higher price (6-10 million VND). This makes it difficult for users to access Bphone, especially when BKAV is a brand with a little name.

In the near future, BKAV will launch two cheaper Bphone models, Bphone B40 and Bphone B60, ranging from 5.5-7 million VND. These are evaluated as two strategic models of BKAV aiming to expand market share. Unfortunately, Bphone B40 and Bphone B60 missed appointments with users when expected to be sold in July, instead of June according to the original plan.