(Yicai Global) Dec. 9 -- China’s Gree Electric Appliancesput its first fifth-generation network-based smartphone Dasong on sale on Dec. 7 starting at CNY2,699 (USD413) on its online shopping mall, following its defeat in the handset arena in 2015. The phone controls intelligent home devices on user-defined demand.

The phone equipped with Qualcomm’s 765G processor comes in black and blue. Gree has stickered the handset with its 6-gigabyte random access memory and 128GB read only memory at CNY2,699 and the model with 8GB RAM and 256GB ROM at CNY2,999. The phone uses a liquid crystal display with a charging power of 18W, the parameters show.

The smartphone field is characterized by fierce competition, so Gree’s price will turn off buyers in the absence of sufficient competitive advantages, the Securities Times reported, citing telecommunications pundit Xiang Ligang. Some 75 buyers have placed online orders for the phone as of today.

The Zhuhai-based firm’s positioning in the 5G smartphone field this time has a nexus with its Internet of Things strategy in smart home and other fields, said Song Jia, director of the innovation center of the Beijing-based Machinery Industry Economy Management Academe, adding the Dasong smartphone will become a pivot of exchange and control of cross-brand smart home data if it can connect home appliances of labels other than Gree.

The company will have to make greater efforts to improve the phone’s competitiveness such as the quality, brand and channel-building, Xiang stated, noting using smartphones to promote smart homes is not actually a good idea for the firm if it fails to deliver.

Phone Flop

Gree’s chair Dong Mingzhu announced the firm’s foray into the smartphone field in 2015, and the firm released three generations of Gree-branded mobile phones, but wound up selling no more than 10,000 units for each model.

Dong, however, is quite optimistic about smartphones. “I hope Gree can rank second in smartphones worldwide when Huawei Technologies tops the list,” Dong once said, seeking to position the firm to “defeat Xiaomi” and “sell 100 million phones.”

Gree posted CNY209 million (USD32 million) in operating revenue from smart devices, making up only 0.3 percent of the firm’s total operating revenue, the company’s first-half semi-annual report said, noting its operating revenue from air conditioners makes up 59.48 percent of the total, still the largest share.

Random-access memory is a type of computer memory able to be read and changed in any sequence, and usually used to archive working data and machine code. A RAM device allows data items to be written or read in nearly the same space of time regardless of their physical location inside the memory. Read-only memory is a non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic gadgets. Data stored in ROM may not be electronically altered after manufacturing of the memory device is complete.

Editor: Ben Armour