Vietnamese smartphone brand Mobiistar moves its base to India

As Vietnamese handset brand Mobiistar enters the Indian market, the company has also decided to make India its global headquarters.

“This is the market where all the major things in the mobile industry are happening in India… We do have a chance to try. Succeeded or not, it’s too early to tell. This is the market we want to try,” Carl Ngo, the Mobiistar founder and Group CEO told Economic Times in an interview. “After looking at the number and size of the country and growth, I have decided to be based here. The idea is to run global operations by based out of here. I am here full time.”

The Vietnamese smartphone brand was founded by Carl Ngo in 2009 and is now amongst the top five handset vendors in the country. The company had recently expanded to South East Asia with countries like Cambodia and is now set to enter the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, starting with Dubai.

The company has tied-up with contract manufacturer V-Sun Technologies to locally assemble the devices in India and is also planning to set up PCB assembling in the country.

Mobiistar aims to launch products in the 6,000-10,000 rupees ($80-150) category for the online channel, although the company also plans to go offline at a later stage. The company is looking to introduce about 5-6 devices in the next few months in the Indian market.

The company has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Flipkart to understand the shopping insights of Indians and in turn offer affordable smartphones. According to Ayyappan Rajagopal, Senior Director – Mobiles at Flipkart, Flipkart has driven the adoption of smartphones in India and grown the market and hopes that the partnership with Mobiistar will be another step to transform the market through India-centric innovations at compelling prices.

To kickstart the partnership, the company is launching the Mobiistar XQ Dual and Mobiistar CQ in India. A budget smartphone, the highlight of the XQ Dual is the 13MP + 8MP dual camera setup on the front with a 120-degrees wide angle for those group selfies. Both smartphones run a custom UI layer over dated Android Nougat.

Mobiistar XQ Dual Specifications

• Operating System: Android 7.1.2 Nougat
• Display: 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS | Asahi Dragontrail 2.5D curved glass
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | Adreno 505 GPU
• RAM: 3GB
• Storage: 32GB; expandable up to 128GB with microSD card
• Rear Camera: 13MP with dual-tone LED flash | f/2.0 aperture
• Front Camera: 13MP + 8MP dual camera | 120-degrees wide angle
• Battery: 3,000mAh
• Dimensions: 154.3×76.6×7.9mm
• Weight: 160g

Mobiistar CQ Specifications

• Operating System: Android 7.1.2 Nougat
• Display: 5-inch Full HD (1280 x 720) | 2.75D curved glass
• Processor: 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 | Adreno 308 GPU
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 16GB; expandable up to 128GB with microSD card
• Rear Camera: 8MP with LED flash | f/2.0 aperture
• Front Camera: 13MP | f/2.2 aperture
• Battery: 3,000mAh

The Mobiistar XQ Dual is priced at 7,999 rupees ($117) while the CQ is priced at 4,999 rupees ($73), and both the devices will be available exclusively on Flipkart, starting May 30.