While most tech observers are looking forward to Mobile World Congress, which is happening later this month, for the newest flagship smartphones, not all anticipated follow-ups are scheduled to appear at the event.
Some tech giants prefer stand-alone company events to showcase their new products. According to new speculations, Asus will be going down this road, highlighting the company's ZenFone 3 flagship at an event in Brazil later this year.
ZDNet reported that much like how the current-gen ZenFone 2 was launched last year in August, the follow-up to the lineup will most likely appear at an Asus-sponsored event in Brazil. Similar to the current-gen flagship's release period last year, fans will also see the ZenFone 3 during the latter half of the year. According to the industry follower, this decision by Asus is reportedly confirmed by Marcel Campos, marketing manager of the company's Latin America and India arm.
Reportedly, the launch of the ZenFone 3 later this year will move the focus to the upcoming flagship. In addition, there will be new Asus products to be released, too. Campos is quoted as saying, "Asus will see a lot of growth in Brazil due to the products we will be launching here in the next six to eight months."
Having the ZenFone 3 launching in the middle to the latter part of the year dovetails with earlier speculations. DigiTimes previously stated that according to unnamed "Taiwan-based supply chain makers," the ZenFone 3 will launch in either May or June this year.
While Asus has yet to confirm what will make the upcoming follow-up different from the ZenFone 2 lineup, the report stated that one feature that the ZenFone 3 will introduce is a fingerprint scanner, the first in the ZenFone series. However, while fingerprint recognition features have been a signature of premium, high-priced iterations, the ZenFone 3 will reportedly be mid-priced, a big selling point for past ZenFone iterations.
