Good things are ahead for Flash 3C!
You’ve probably heard by now that Flash is now a wholly independent brand from Alcatel, though both brands are still under the auspices of their parent company TCL. Yesterday the newly independent brand launched the follow-up to last year’s bestseller, the Flash Plus 2. We caught up with Mr. Lei Zhang, Flash PH Country Manager to talk about the brand, their split from Alcatel and the future of Flash 3C in the PH.
We were curious to know why Flash split off from its previously parent brand Alcatel. Despite what other people may think, Mr. Zhang chalked it up to positioning and the difference in target markets. “You have a well-known Alcatel brand. What’s their position in the market? And it’s a big grand with a lot of history,” he says.
“Flash is different. Where do we want it to be positioned? For young people, hip, cool. It’s for the young people, aged 18 to 33 years old, the generation that likes playing with their gadgets,” he added.
Despite their split, Flash still has the same R&D resources that they had before (they share it with Alcatel now), but now they can focus on actually providing the local market with devices specifically tailored for the users in that area.
“If you know about the old Alcatel, their design focus is on the open market. In our experience, when you bring Alcatel in SEA countries, it may not do well. If specs is good enough , the price is high. If price is good, the specs might not be competitive enough. That’s the real reason why we wanted to separate. So we can focus on Filipino consumers to make some phones for this market. Not for other markets,” Zhang says.
Zhang also said that Flash wouldn’t just be selling smartphones in the near future, but different kind of gadgets as well, from wearables, to cameras to VR accessories.
“We are not just focused on smartphones. We also do smart gadgets. You saw, what we did with Flash 2. I can tell you that one is really selling well in Lazada and the price is not cheap. People in this age, they like to try new gadgets. We’re planning a phone bundled with VR, maybe an action camera as well.
