vivo says even $215 phones will have 5G by the end of 2020

In a lengthy interview, the vice president of vivo and director of the Chinese business Liu Hong shared some insights about his company and the future of 5G phones. He explained the company is now back on track and plans to manufacture up to 100,000 5G smartphones per day due to the unexpectedly high demand.

Still, the predictions are for sales to decline 30% to 50% in the first quarter of the year after the COVID-19 outbreak caused a delay in factory production, reduced customer flow on the offline scene. Effectively, once the Spring Festival was done, the market started going downhill.

However, vivo revealed it has 5 plants across the globe that has the capacity to yield 200 million devices per year, so it was well prepared for what happened and will even be able to handle the closures in other countries. All the factories are working at nearly 90% capacity because customers are actively looking for 5G devices.

Liu Hong said the company is switching from 4G to 5G since practically all major companies in China have stopped introducing 4G phones that cost over CNY2,000 ($250).

The midrange market is already becoming flooded with 5G units and the flagship scene is as dense as ever, so the next playing field is the entry-level smartphones. Expectations at vivo are that 5G phones will cost as low as CNY1,500 ($215) by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Source (in Chinese)