In June, LeEco, a popular tech company in Beijing, announced that it was gearing up for its officially entry in the United States, hiring market specialists along the way to affirm a market presence in the country.
LeEco recently distributed press invites for its Oct. 19 event in California where it's expected to unveil a smartphone and a video-on-demand service that will compete directly with Netflix. LeEco is one of the biggest Chinese companies specializing in online video, where it's primarily known for until it ventured in the smartphone arena, when it released the Le Max in January this year, followed by the Le 1s in February. The Le2 and Le 2 Pro followed suit in April. Then the Le Max 2 in May and then Cool1 in August. LeEco has released a total of six smartphones even before the start of Q4.
Most notably, LeEco released its flagship device, the Le Pro 3 in China on Sept. 28, selling over 500,000 units in 15 seconds. The company likely sees a potentially lucrative market in the country. Chinese smartphones have been known to come way cheaper than their competitors, and the reason is that they don't have to pay patent-related fees. However, now that the LeEco is entering the U.S. market, it seems that it's prepared to step in, despite the arduous patent affair.
LeEco's mum about what it's officially going to reveal during the event, so there's still a chance that they might have something unexpected up their sleeve.
Some of you may not be familiar with the company, as the name is fairly nascent. But it's worth noting that some refer to it as the Chinese counterpart to Google, and that juxtaposition alone speaks volumes. LeEco is famed for selling beefy specs with affordable price tags. No wonder why the Le Pro 3 sold that many units in just a quarter of a minute. The phone is loaded with Snapdragon 821 quad-core CPU, 4 GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 display, 32/64 GB of internal storage, 16/8-megapixel front/rear-facing cameras and it comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. All these for $269, once converted to U.S. currency.
The Le Pro 3 is currently unavailable in the United States but the Oct. 19 event might announce an official release date for the country.
Interestingly, the company also recently acquired Vizio, a popular consumer electronics company, for an astounding $2 billion, likely a strategic gateway to strengthen its footing once safely settled in the U.S. shore, greatly expanding LeEco penetration into the TV sector.
