Asus enters RP cellular phone market

Asus, the world leader in mother-boards, graphic cards, and notebooks, formally entered the lucrative but highly competitive mobile phone market in the Philippines with the unveiling of three feature-packed models in a press conference held at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City last Thursday.

"These three mobile phones are only the first to be launched by Asus in the Philippines; more Asus phones will be available in the local market in the coming months," said Benson Lin, Asus general manager for Asia-Pacific and MEA sales group.

Following Asus’ recent appointment of Taiwan-based TID Group, the leading global supplier of renowned products for mobile phones and the IT industry, Asus mobile phones will be exclusively distributed locally by FoneTech International, the Philippine sales office of the TID Group.

Top of the Asus trio of new models is the P34,900 P505, a tri-band smartphone with full PDA functions (GPRS mobile Internet access, Outlook e-mail and Pocket MSN), a 1.3-megapixel camera, a camcorder, portable game console, voice recorder, and navigator functions.

The P505’s five-way joystick allows one-handed menu navigation, while its retractable numeric keypad provides a larger screen area when the keypad is not needed. It also has hand-script recognition and voice command.

Running on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform, the P505 allows synchronization with a PC’s PDM (personal data management) functions, and supports Internet Explorer, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Pocket MSN. In addition, SmartKeeper, a unique data backup feature, automatically saves information and system status when battery power is low.

Its 1.3-megapixel camera provides six photography modes and continuous shooting function and even allows photo editing into MMS messages. The camera is also capable of MPEG4 video recording and supports Windows Media Player‘s full-screen viewing. It is compatible with MIDI, WMA and WAV files. Photo album and slide show functions are the other camera features.

The P505’s built-in Bluetooth allows the device to connect to the Asus GPS-BT100 global positioning device wirelessly and easily. Combined with the GPS software that comes out of the box, users can locate and reach their destinations with ease.

The mid-level Asus is the P14,800 M303, a mobile phone with MP3 player functions and a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera. The clamshell M303’s integrated MP3 player incorporates control keys on the external front panel to allow users to play, stop, pause, or select tracks without the need to flip open the phone.

The handset has a song list editing feature which allows users to reorganize their favorite tunes in their preferred order. The bundles earphones also come with a control for switching between phone and MP3 player modes.

The M303 is equipped with stereo speakers for true stereo sound quality. With a miniSD memory card reader, the M303 has unlimited capacity to download photos, videos, and play hundreds of songs which can be used as ringtones.

The flash-equipped camera is capable of making up to 16 multiple shots, 20 different photo frames, 15 editing special effects, zooming and recording videos.

Representing the entry-level Asus handset is the P9,900 blue- or silver-colored V66, a tri-band monoblock phone with a 4x zoom VGA camera with brightness contrast adjustment, a large 1.8" 260,000-color screen, 64MB of user memory, miniSD memory expansion slot, USB 1.1 support and video capture.

The V66’s exclusive MV Director combines photo, video clip and music and allows users to star in their own music video.

The V66’s 3/6/9 multi-shot function allows one to take three, six or nine photos consecutively while its media player supports MP4 and MPEG4 formats which can play through the built-in speaker.

The V66 also has an FM radio, a 300-entry address book, calendar, calculator, alarm, voice note recording, currency exchange, and world clock functions. The phone also supports USP PC synchronization and enables direct download of contacts and appointments to the phone.

"We are here because the Philippines is a remarkable market and we intend to change the lifestyle of Filipino mobile users with our first-class technology," Lin said.