Reflecting on Vsmart's glorious past, the surprising farewell, and the regret over a Made-in-Vietnam phone maker

Founded in 2018, Vsmart quickly gained popularity among Vietnamese users. It was the first Vietnamese phone brand with the potential to become a national technology icon, making a certain impact on the domestic smartphone market and even making strides abroad. However, after just 3 years of operation, on May 9, 2021, the company officially announced the cessation of phone and TV production.

Since then, many tech enthusiasts have truly regretted a promising Vietnamese brand. Let's take a look at this article at the shining journey before saying goodbye to Vsmart users.

Introduction to Vsmart and the formation of the Vsmart brand

Which country is Vsmart's phone company from? With a team of experienced engineers, Vsmart has an ambition of 'Vietnamese using Vietnamese products' and competing with big brands from abroad.

The Vsmart brand is owned by VinSmart Research and Production Joint Stock Company - a pioneering technology company under the VinGroup conglomerate - and was launched at the end of 2018. Despite being a relatively young brand, Vsmart has still won the hearts of many and received positive feedback from Vietnamese users.

VSmart phone models, are Vsmart phones good?

Super cheap smartphones - Vsmart Bee, Vsmart Star

At the time of its launch, Vsmart Star 5 was priced at just 1.5 million VND, targeting users with low incomes who wanted an affordable device to experience Android's many features. It featured a sturdy plastic back, rounded edges, and a waterdrop notch display, which was quite popular in its price segment at the time.

The Vsmart Star features a large screen with a waterdrop notch for a large display area, making it easy for everyday users, especially tech-savvy drivers, to observe and work. It can be said that Vsmart has been very successful in producing extremely cheap phones that can still be used stably.

Cheap smartphones - Vsmart Joy, Vsmart Live 

Following the success of the super cheap phone line, Vsmart has also achieved great success with these 2 phone lines. Users get stable performance, along with the trending hole-punch display at the time, plus a large battery, all at an affordable price.

Mid-range smartphone - Vsmart Active 

Still focusing on the average user. Vsmart Active 3 offers stable performance, long battery life, and is a device that is not only stylish but also very practical.

High-end smartphone - Vsmart Aris series

The launch of the Vsmart Aris Series marks the successful pioneering position of the Vietnamese brand in the international technology market. The camera hidden under the screen and the quantum security chip are Vsmart's breakthroughs to change the technology game, providing users with the opportunity to experience cutting-edge innovations worldwide.

This is the highest-end product line of the company, Vsmart Aris Pro features a large 6.39-inch screen with the highlight being the camera under the screen, enhancing the viewing experience like never before.

In addition to the breakthrough in camera technology with the Aris Pro model, the Vsmart Aris Series also features the Quantum QRNG Security Chip from ID Quantique (Switzerland) and FIDO2 network authentication lock technology to enhance security and privacy for data, especially banking, personal finance, and medical data.

In terms of performance, the Vsmart Aris and Aris Pro are equipped with the Snapdragon 730 octa-core processor with 2 cores at 2.2 GHz and 6 cores at 1.8 GHz, paired with Adreno 618 GPU. At the price range below 10 million at the time of launch, the Vsmart Aris series is a bargain that users can support the Vietnamese brand.

• VOS 4.0 update for Vsmart Aris Pro: What's new?

VOS

VOS is a proprietary operating system developed by VinSmart that allows the Vsmart user community to enjoy the utmost convenience. In the early days, VOS was not highly regarded because it was quite simple. However, Vsmart quickly improved the user interface, added features, and upgraded.

Vsmart has been very successful in the budget segment

Sales of budget phones have been impressive. VinSmart once captured 16.7% of Vietnam's smartphone market, officially setting a record for unprecedented growth in the market just 15 months after its launch. The information was announced in the March 2020 report by market research firm GfK—one of the most reputable market research companies in the world.

GfK noted that Vsmart smartphones have a significant advantage in the budget phone segment, priced from 1-3 million VND. Among them, the Vsmart Joy 3 model is a breakthrough growth factor, with a record of 12,000 units sold in the first 14 hours of launch. By the end of March 2020, the Vsmart Joy 3 (2GB and 3GB RAM versions) had entered the top 3 best-selling products in the 2-3 million VND segment, accounting for 13.3% of the market share for VinSmart.

Vietnamese people's ambition to use Vietnamese products from Vsmart has been warmly received and supported by users. The smartphone user community is very excited about Vsmart because it is a product of Vietnamese people that should be supported by Vietnamese people.

They also expect Vsmart to bring national pride, similar to what Samsung has done in South Korea, such as expanding its product line to include tablets, headphones, accessories, and even building its own ecosystem for Vietnamese users.

Why did Vsmart stop producing phones?

The smartphone market is no longer an easy cake to eat. After more than 10 years of development, the smartphone market has become saturated to the point where companies have to compete fiercely to catch the attention of users.

'Manufacturing smartphones or smart TVs no longer brings breakthroughs or creates differentiated value for users. Meanwhile, developing especially smart car lines, smart homes, and even creating smart cities will bring many benefits and superior experiences to humanity. Therefore, we are determined to focus all resources on this spearhead.' - Mr. Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice Chairman and General Director of Vingroup, said.

VinSmart stopped producing smartphones when, after nearly 3 years, the company had once dominated the top 3 smartphone market share in Vietnam and was honored as the best Vietnamese phone brand at the Tech Awards 2020.

Yet Vsmart has stopped, leaving behind many unfinished projects such as producing flagship phones, bringing 5G technology to Vietnamese people earlier, and doing business in the U.S.

The company wants to focus more on the electric car market, a 'nascent' field that is also a lucrative one. Nevertheless, this decision has caused immense regret among the Vietnamese people in general and Vsmart users.

After VinSmart announced the cessation of production, users rushed to buy the remaining stock as souvenirs to preserve national pride. The number of customers accessing the website as well as visiting stores to inquire about and buy phones has increased significantly.

Vsmart's final gift for users

Although production and business operations have ceased, Vsmart continues to release VOS updates for its users. VOS 4.0 is the latest version released by Vsmart on June 15, 2021, bringing many new experiences to consumers with their phones.

• 8 new features on VOS 4.0 that are so 'cool' they make you want to update immediately

This shows that VinSmart highly values the support of its customers, which is also a token of gratitude to customers for sticking together until the day the company has to part ways with users.

For Vsmart fans, they are both sad and happy because their beloved brand cares so much about the user community, yet they are heartbroken because they won't see Vsmart on shelves, on the streets, or even accompanying hardworking people on the road in the future.

• List of Vsmart devices receiving the software update for March 2022.

Conclusion

Vsmart was truly a hope for the Vietnamese people regarding a phone brand Made in Vietnam. Vsmart's cessation leaves a lot of regret for the tech community as a phone company with many good products is not further developed.

I believe that, like me, many people are also looking forward to a day when Vsmart will return to Vietnam, to those who love Vietnamese products, or a new Vietnamese brand that will bring the intelligence and value of the Vietnamese people to the world in the future.

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