The vice president of Vivo, and director of the Chinese business, Liu Hong has been sharing some insights regarding the future of its 5G phones. Hong shared that Vivo is back on track, and aims to manufacture up to 100,000 5G smartphones per-day, due to the unexpectedly high demand.
This demand is surprising, considering the coronavirus outbreak, and sales are still expected to fall 30-50% in Q1 due to the virus. COVID-19 has been affecting the speed of manufacturing, which led to a decrease in 5G phone sales for both Vivo and many other companies. But this hasn’t majorly impacted Vivo’s production targets.
Cut-price 5G phones
Vivo has already released three 5G phones this year – the Vivo Z6, iQOO 3 and Vivo NEX 3S. And the demand for these devices has exceeded expectations.
Yet Vivo is still managing to stay on top of its 5G manufacturing game, with five plants across the globe that have the capacity to output 200 million devices per year. And all the factories are already working at 90% capacity due to the growing demand for 5G phones.
However, a challenge many companies such as Vivo face is an increasingly crowded market. Mid-range 5G devices are plentiful, and the premium high-range market is competitive, but Hong expects to launch 5G devices that cost as little as CNY1,500 ($215) by Q4 2020.
This would be huge for customers that are potentially missing out on the latest technology due to the price barrier. Vivo is continuously pushing the switch from 4G to 5G and hopes the future-proof aspect of 5G smartphones will continue to boost sales.
