It is a fair accusation that the majority of North American consumers have no idea that the Vizio Company, known mostly for making televisions and other electronics, has their own line of cell phones. In 2011, Vizio made their first attempt at the mobile market with a device appropriately named The Vizio Phone. While the phone was well received at the 2011 CES, the hype rapidly died down and Vizio pulled the phone from the North American market and focused towards marketing the device in China. It was speculated that this decision to was due as a result of North American carrier politics.
More recently, two additional handhelds were debuted at the 2013 CES. Vizio did not confirm or deny that they will attempt to re-enter the North American market, however they did confirm that they will be available in China before the end of Q1. It is unclear if the decision to come to North America will be persuaded by sales in China or if the decision has already been predetermined.
It makes one wonder as to why the Vizio Company would parade two devices at CES, if they will only be available overseas. Having said that, experts agree that it is likely that the devices will eventually make their way to back to the western part of the world, however that is pure speculation. Surely success in China will give Vizio additional leverage if and when they reattempt to negotiate with North American carrier companies.
If the device does make a North American debut, it is unclear how consumers will feel about a mobile phone made by a company that predominately makes high definition televisions. It all seems too familiar, as the same could be said when the company began making personal computers in 2011. Today, Vizio computers are not only gaining respect in the computer industry, they are shrugging off naysayers who felt that Vizio personal computers would not be successful. Will Vizio phones see a repeat of this? Ultimately, that remains to be seen.
Both devices will ship with a stock 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. The larger of the two devices will come with a 5-inch 1080p display, a duel-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm processor, and 2GB of RAM. The smaller handheld will have a 4.7-inch 720p display, duel SIM slots, a 1.2 GHz MediaTek processor, and 1 GB of RAM.
