vivo, a prominent smartphone brand, started its journey in Pakistan over three years ago. In a short span of time, the company has adapted quickly to understand and anticipate the ever-changing needs of the young smartphone users for trendsetting technologies, pro-photography features, and elevated mobile experiences.
Currently, it is one of the top smartphone brands in Pakistan and this rapid growth reflects the company’s focus on having the consumer needs effectively met. We reached out to the Product Manager for vivo Pakistan, Mr. Waseem Akram, for a short interview to get more clarity about vivo’s product strategy, the recently launched flagship vivo V20 Series, and their plans for leading the 5G technology in Pakistan.
Here’s how the conversation went:
Q: What is your key ambition behind launching the premium V20 flagship model? How does it fit in the V series?
Based on vast consumer insights and industry research, taking clearer, more beautiful photos is the main appeal for front camera photography among consumers.
With this motto, vivo’s V series is committed to creating an exceptional life for young consumers with technology and fashion, delivers impressive photography, esp. selfie features, and is design-driven. The ultimate focus is on front camera photography, sleek and stylish appearance, and powerful performance.
vivo V20 smartphone and its features also reflect vivo’s deep understanding of common user problems when shooting selfies, photos, and videos with a smartphone.
V20’s leading 44MP Eye Autofocus front camera allows users to unlock a new world of selfie capabilities. Paired with the face detection (FD) and facial landmark algorithm, independently developed by vivo, it enables rapid and intelligent focusing in both photo and video mode, so both faraway and near subjects can be tracked to deliver ultra-clear photos.
The V20 front camera is also packed with a host of additional features—Super Night Selfie, Dual-View Video, Slo-Mo Video, Steadiface Selfie Video—that enhance selfie quality and empower users to record life’s special moments.
Meanwhile, the 64MP Main Camera + 8MP Multi-Function Camera (Super Wide Angle/Bokeh/Super Macro) + 2MP Mono Camera setup features Super Night Mode on the main lens, which supports ultra-night mode for tripod shooting, wide-angle night scenes, and city night filters, enabling users to capture stunning photos in low-light scenarios and night portraits.
The device also features Dual-View Video in the front camera, which allows the user to combine footage captured by the front and rear cameras.
Q: Who is the primary audience of V20 and how does it meet their aspirations and lifestyle needs?
V20 is built as both a design accessory and a powerful computing tool for fast-moving users to complete their everyday tasks with their mobile camera technology packed in a sleek, but an affordable device. This premium flagship model has been created considering the changing trends in photography, gaming, entertainment, and smartphone design. It is a personal technology that is designed to reflect users’ unique and trendy lifestyle.
The vivo V20 is a perfect fit for all the new-age content creators and selfie generation and comes with a promising lot of intensive features. It is an ideal smartphone for those who share everyday moments on social life like hobbies and passions. They love taking selfies and flaunt their style with stylish gadgets like phones.
Q: What is the core USP of V20? What are the key specifications that drive V20 purchase decisions?
With the launch of V20, vivo introduces an industry-leading megapixel count and powerful intelligent AF with 44MP Eye Autofocus camera enables blazing-fast eye autofocus and constant focus tracking in photo and video capture.
According to the algorithm independently developed by vivo, which can help accurately identify eye positions, outline orbits interactively in real-time, and paired with hardware front/back-facing AF module control algorithm, achieve eye autofocus and tracking. The combination addresses subject motion in capture and produces high-quality image content with explicit focus and clear subject.
In rear camera photography, V20 brings the Super Night Mode to users, restores the purity of image with the noise cancellation algorithm, and coupled with the Sky Divider algorithm which seamlessly separates backgrounds for authentic touch-ups. In the added Ultra-night tripod mode, it stably increases exposure to make the image brighter and enhance image quality.
When it comes to form factor, V20 uses AG Matte Glass paired with a battery cover to provide a comfortable hold while also add a subtle luxury to the aesthetic. In combination with the ultimate hardware stack optimization scheme, the slim body gives users a simple, stylish look.
In terms of performance, V20 is even powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 720G, an upper-middle end processor, for the first time, to deliver a smooth experience to users.
Q: What is AF feature and how it is different from fixed focus? What makes this feature stand out in V20?
What distinguishes the Autofocus feature from Fixed Focus is the need to need to manually adjust the focus and then holding the camera very steady to avoid blurry shots. For single-person photography, two-person group photography, and multi-person group photography, fixed focus causes poor image clarity for people behind the group due to the fixed focal length (FF), and often only the front person is clear in the group photo.
AF is more obvious for improving the clarity of everyone in multi-person co-production, especially long-distance. For mobile phone front video applications, AF can better meet the clear demands of video users when using them.
The 44MP Eye Autofocus Front Camera will bring clear photo capture either in short or long distance and present fine content details, from close featuring face details to taking selfies with a selfie stick in super-long distance.
Meanwhile, real-time Eye Autofocus will also bring high-quality video content to users in dynamic capture scenarios such as livestreaming and vlog recording and is perfect for inspiring the budding shutterbug in you.
Q: How was the reception of V19 in the market? What are your forecast and expectations from the V20 smartphone launch?
We are pleased to say that vivo V19 was very well received in the market and the smartphone, in many ways, proved to be a game-changer in the premium league of smartphones. V19 is an example of vivo’s approach towards ‘customer-centric’ innovations.
With a superb front camera housing super night selfie, aura screen light, and super wide-angle, the V19 delivers on the promise of providing a feature-rich smartphone that elevates your camera experience.
With V20, we are aiming to further the legacy of V19 by setting newer benchmarks in the smartphone industry in terms of photography experience and smartphone design.
vivo has continuously innovated to meet the diverse consumer demands for use. In the V series with a focus on front camera photography, V20 is introduced to become the industry’s leading smartphone in front camera photography performance and build a share of mind as the front camera photography flagship.
We envision the vivo V20 to be the showstopper in the league of premium smartphones and are confident that the handset will be loved by the trendy youth.
Q: What is your go-to-market strategy for the new V20 smartphone?
vivo’s global strategy is Glocal, “More Local, More Global”. Our go-to-market strategy also reflects that we respect local talent, local partners, and local consumer habits. No matter how many countries/regions vivo enters, we will influence local consumers with local thinking, local culture, and local management, move from understanding local markets to adapting to local markets.
Vivo is very proactive when it comes to marketing and promoting the brand. We embrace a 360-degree marketing strategy including various locally available conventional and traditional mediums like ATL, BTL, print media, television commercials, social media, celebrity endorsements, and on-ground activities.
For vivo V20 too, we have adopted an identical comprehensive approach and we are emboldened that our efforts will help us in bringing the product to the market successfully.
Q: What are your future plans for the V-series?
vivo is committed to bringing innovative technology and best in class features to the users and will soon be announcing more exciting smartphones in the V series. With every innovation, we aim to set a new benchmark in the smartphone industry and the next product in the V series line up will surely take the industry by storm.
V20, the latest product in the V series, has a more powerful photography function to make user’s capture experience richer and funnier and a sleek design to complement their lifestyle. V20 series will be continuously updated and upgraded based on consumer insights and focuses more on functionality.
Users can expect the entire V20 series to have further improvements in performance over its predecessors, remains unchanged in the price level, and offers users with a better product
Currently, we are focusing on our latest flagship launch V20 in the V series and introducing it as the front camera photography flagship with innovative features, sleek and stylish appearance.
Q: How has vivo’s journey been in Pakistan and what are a few learning outcomes that the brand has experienced over the years?
Pakistan has always been a very exciting and important market for vivo. We are a young brand in the nation, but our new-age approach has enabled us to leave a positive impression in the Pakistani smartphone industry. Within just three years of entering the Pakistani market, vivo has carved a niche for itself in designing and developing the latest in smartphone technology.
As a consumer demand-focused company, vivo has conducted in-depth market research in different geographies to better understand the users’ demand in Pakistan. The youth nowadays is constantly on the lookout for a smartphone featuring excellent front camera photography to record great moments in life and slim, sleek look to keep up with the latest trends. Keeping this ‘customer-centric’ approach at heart, we have crafted all our products to meet the spirited lifestyle of the youth.
The Pakistani youth is actively adopting a more vibrant and trendier lifestyle and we are seeing an inclination in photography hotshots in the nation. To meet this gap for a powerful photography device that suits the spirited lifestyle of the youth, vivo has conceptualized the V20.
With the vivo V20, we aim to deliver a device that compliments and awakens the inner photography buff in the youth and are very optimistic that the smartphone will revolutionize industry standards around the globe.
Q: How does the smartphone landscape look from this standpoint and what is the kind of trends that can be expected out of the market going forward?
The smartphone landscape of the Pakistani market is flooded with opportunities as the market is multiplying manifold and houses tremendous potential.
The number of mobile connections in Pakistan in January 2020 was equivalent to 75% of the total population with more than 75 million internet users. Therefore, we are highly optimistic that Pakistan will become one of the fastest-growing smartphone markets very soon.
With the smartphone industry on the verge of blossoming, we are expecting to see a growing demand for innovative smartphones with leading camera capabilities and sleek design. There might also be fast-paced advancements in the 5G capabilities in the nation and there will be a rise in the demand for smartphones that enable you to do more than what a regular handset offers.
Q: What is vivo’s vision on 5G and the way forward?
When it comes to technological innovations, vivo is committed to proactively working for the development of 5G technologies in the upcoming years.
Vivo believes that the deep integration of AI and 5G is the way to go for smartphone development in the 5G era. 5G smartphones will become the data center to bridge the users with the digital world, and a link to provide finer services to improve consumers’ lives.
Committed to the simple yet absolute goal of striving for purposeful innovation and leading technology, vivo endeavors to not only set the standard for what the smartphone industry but also become a trailblazer in mobile technology.
With innovation being its philosophy at heart, we at vivo look forward to accomplishing many more milestones in the country and across the globe.
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