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The History of Cherry Mobile Part II

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The Cherry Mobile G1 is the first locally-made phone with Android One

Expansion, Steady Competition, Continuous innovation

In 2013, the company started expanding in neighbouring countries like Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

In 2015, Google launched the Android One project. The project aims to bring low-end Android devices with fresh updates from Google itself, bringing in both security and software updates. Today, Android Go fulfilled this program while the current iteration of Android One is upgraded for OEMs to use.

Cherry Mobile and My|Phone launched the first locally-produced Android One phones namely the Cherry One and MyPhone Uno in 2015, respectively. It is based on Google’s reference design and are powered by Mediatek MT6582 quad-core chipset.

In that same year, Cherry released a phone with Windows Phone as its operating system, these phones include the Alpha Prime 4 and Alpha Prime 5 respectively, and both were powered by the budget chipset Snapdragon 210.

Cherry Mobile Alpha Prime 5 with Windows Phone OS

In 2016, the company started operations in Germany, thus beginning its global expansion and its official presence in Europe.

The company also expanded to other parts of the world including South America, Papua New Guinea, Tunisia, and other parts of Africa.

The company also diversified in other products. In the same year, Cherry launched the Explorer 2, the first-ever Android-based Action Camera. The Explorer 2 is also what pushed them to launch their own IoT devices.

In 2017, IDC (International Data Center) reported that the company became the top-selling smartphone brand in the Philippines; accounting for 23% of all smartphone shipments in that year, which was followed by Samsung by 17% and Oppo by 12%. In translation, they shipped 3.45 million units over the 15 million units shipped overall by all brands.

Counterpoint’s Philippine Smartphone Shipment by Brand in CY2018 and CY2017

This was no surprise as the company’s handsets are affordable to many Filipinos alike. In 2018, the company ranked high in smartphone shipments again. According to Counterpoint, the company shipped as many phones as Samsung on the CY2018 smartphone chart. Garnering a total of 19% of the Philippine smartphone share alone. In that year, the Flare J3/J3 plus was the best-selling smartphone by the company.

The J3/J3 Plus was the company’s best-selling phone back in 2018

PRESENT DAY:

Cherry had a long line of successes. So what did Cherry do starting 2019? That is the term for what we call “present day”

In 2019. Cherry Mobile launched the next line in their flagship Flare S series, the Flare S8 series with the tagline “The Game Changer”. The series was seen as a shock to everyone, because the phones brought in more aggressive pricing with rich features. Something other companies may lack. Indeed, truly a Game Changer.

Tagged as “The Game Changer” the series boasted rich features at affordable prices

In that same year, Cherry also released the Flare X3, a phone with an iPhone X-like notch that is intended for budget gamers. It is powered by a Mediatek Helio P60 and triple cameras

In 2020, the brand shifted its focus to selling not just smartphones but also Internet-of-Things devices and appliances.

Last September, the company launched a new initiative, called “One Cherry One Ecosystem”, with the goal of dominating the Philippine market by providing a wide array of products and services under one conglomerate. Since then, the company launched products under the “Cherry Home” IoT brand which includes extension cords, a Wi-Fi repeater and multi-colour bulbs.

Under this initiative, Cherry also changed its logo (although the old logo is still used on its “Cherry Mobile” branding). The new logo has the signature colours of Cherry Mobile: Red and Grey/Silver with a resemblance to the Yin-yang symbol

In late 2020, the company dropped the “Flare” branding for the S series and instead adopted the new “Aqua” branding. These phones include the Aqua S9, Aqua Infinity and Aqua S9 Max.

The Aqua S9 and Aqua S9 Max both won Gizguide’s Smartphone of the Year awards, particularly “Entry-level Smartphone of the Year” for the Aqua S9, and “Budget Smartphone of the Year” for the Aqua S9 Max.

Like the Flare S8 series, Cherry shocked consumers by again providing excellent specs-to-price ratio, which is the current strategy by many smartphone makers today, including Samsung, Xiaomi and Realme.

Cherry Mobile: The local smartphone company that stood out from the crowd

Cherry is a company with lots of ambitions, and with appropriate pricing and rich features, Cherry rose to the top quickly and is loved by many Filipinos.

Cherry Mobile stood out from the crowd from other local companies by being aggressive in pricing. They know their audiences very well, despite the stigma that the company’s handsets are underwhelming or low quality. The company continued to impress by improving their handsets over time, including removing unnecessary bloatware and going full-stock Android.

The Cherry Cares Initiative

In gratitude for the success of Cherry, Meynard also shared some of his successes through multiple programs, such as Cherry Cares, an initiative that is similar to a charity. Helping those in needs, from customers and employees, to rehabilitation of Schools and tree-planting, all through the acts of stewardships. Meynard explained that the Cherry Cares program is their contribution to nation-building.

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