Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo has announced the arrival of a new flagship handset, which could be transparent.
Vivo posted an image of the company's celebrity spokesperson Song Zhongji posing with a see-through mobile phone. Vivo did not confirm the name of the upcoming phone, but it seems that the device will be a part of the X series: X7 or the X7 Plus.
The Vivo X7 is said to be the successor of the Vivo Xshot. Rumors of the Vivo X7 have been surfacing in the smartphone space for some weeks. The handset may tout a 20-megapixel primary camera, and a MediaTek Helio X25 Deca-core processor may power the device.
The mobile phone is estimated to have 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. Most probably, the Vivo X7 may include a fingerprint scanner.
The teaser image released by Vivo suggests that either the company will launch a transparent phone or it does not want to show off the design of the upcoming smartphone.
A transparent phone sounds cool and could be a game changer. A see-through handset made an appearance in the Hollywood movie Captain America: Civil War, which shows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) holding one in his hand.
However, a transparent phone will live only in movies, at least for now. Market observers believe that it is possible to make some parts of a smartphone transparent, but a completely see-through smartphone as seen on the Vivo teaser image or in Captain America: Civil War is currently outside the realm of possibility.
Vivo has a big fan base in China, and according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, "Vivo's retail presence and marketing in lower-tier markets is particularly strong and a key factor to its growth."
"Vivo has also shipped smartphones since 2011, but unlike OPPO has been more focused on domestic markets. It first tested the global marketplace in Southeast Asia and India in 2014. In 2015, less than 10% of its shipments were outside of China," says IDC.
According to a previous Tech Times report, Xiaomi held the fifth position in the list of top five smartphone vendors in the world based on shipments made in the final quarter of 2015. Vivo did not appear in the list in Q4 2015, but it managed to overthrow its Chinese rival and grabbed the fifth position in the first quarter of this year.
A new smartphone will definitely help Vivo in retaining its position in the top five list. The teaser image has excited mobile phone enthusiasts, and it remains to be seen what the company launches in the near term.
