Asus is readying to take a leap of faith and reports suggest that the Taiwan-based company is targeting shipments of 35 million to 45 million per year.
This figure is double of what the company sold in 2016.
According to a report from Digitimes, which cites a Chinese publication dubbed Apple Daily, Asus is keen on doubling its smartphone business by 2020. In the next three years, Asus is hoping that with at least 40 million smartphone shipments under its belt, it can account for at least 3 percent of the total global smartphone shipments.
In 2016, Asus shipped nearly 20 million devices worldwide which was largely due to the success of the company's ZenFone 3 smartphone lineup.
Asus is also planning to unveil the successor of the ZenFone 3 in Q2 2017 as stated by the company's CEO Jerry Shen. The ZenFone 4 series is expected to do just as well as the ZenFone 3.
The Path Forward
Asus will be relying immensely on three smartphones that it has unveiled in the recently concluded Consumer Electronic Show 2017 to boost its sales in the current year.
The company has a trio of handsets, namely the ZenFone AR, ZenFone 3 Zoom and Pegasus 3S, which Asus is hoping do well in the market. If these three smartphones perform based on Asus's expectations, it can reach its lofty sales target.
The ZenFone AR is the high-end version and one of the first smartphones to support both Google Daydream and Project Tango, Google's platforms for VR and AR.
The ZenFone 3 Zoom, which has been added to the existing ZenFone 3 lineup, sports a dual rear-camera setup and has optical zoom capabilities. The Pegasus 3S, on the other hand, is targeted at the budget-conscious buyer and is not as feature rich.
Even though Asus is targeting the 35 million to 40 million smartphone shipment mark each year, it will be interesting to see how the company achieves this objective. Asus has reportedly not shared any plans on how it intends to reach the goal.
While Asus has a decent presence in Asia, the company is yet to conquer the U.S. consumer space.
To achieve this target, Asus will undoubtedly have to establish a strong foothold in the U.S. market so that it can replicate the Asian success story on foreign shores. One of the possible ways of doing this is to tie up with network carriers in the country for the sale of its products, instead of selling the unlocked handsets via third-party retailers.
