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Recently, there was a rumor claiming that ASUS could be killing off its Zenfone lineup by merging it with its ROG gaming phones. The company swiftly followed up with a statement denying those rumors, claiming that they will continue to produce its Zenfones as well as its ROG phones and maintaining two separate product lines.
This is a good thing.
We say that it’s a good thing not so much because we’re massive fans of ASUS and love their Zenfone lineup. In fact, the company’s share in the smartphone market isn’t particularly big or meaningful. The company is better known for its PCs and PC components like GPUs, and less for its phones, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an important role to play.
The problem with the smartphone market is that it is essentially dominated by a handful of companies, or rather two major companies – Apple and Samsung. China’s Xiaomi commands a respectable third place, but otherwise the gap between them and Apple and Samsung is still pretty wide.
This means basically, you have two major tech companies who are “telling” you what goes into your smartphone. There might be many other smaller companies who want to innovate and push the envelope, but the dominance of these companies means that they are taking a huge risk if it doesn’t pan out.
Image credit – Let’s Go Digital
LG is a good example of that. While Samsung was trying to push its foldable phones, LG interestingly enough stayed out of it. Instead, the company announced their plans to launch a phone with a rollable display. Whether or not LG’s plans pan out isn’t the issue here, but at least having another major tech company challenge Samsung in their field could have spurred greater innovation.
These days, all foldable phones look more or less alike where we have one phone-tablet hybrid and one flip form factor, hardly the most exciting thing in the world.
Now, with ASUS reassuring customers that they will not be killing its Zenfone lineup, it’s a good thing for everyone. We’re sure that Samsung and Xiaomi would love nothing more than having one less competitor to deal with, especially in the budget and mid-range market where most of the profits are made, but having ASUS stick around means having one more company keeping these other companies in check.
It is similar to how when OnePlus first came onto the scene back in the day, touting a phone that was dubbed the “flagship killer”. While it might have been a bit of hyperbole, it really did make us rethink how much a phone should cost, which ultimately paved the way for more smartphone makers to try and create better-value-for-money devices.
All in all, whether or not you’re a fan of ASUS’ smartphones, it’s good to see that the company isn’t going anywhere. Whether or not their statement holds true remains to be seen, but for now it’s definitely a good thing.
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