Recently, Asus launched ROG Phone 3 as its third-generation gaming smartphone worldwide. But the company did not announce all the variants of the handset for India. However, the firm’s Indian head has now confirmed to launch the 16GB + 512GB of the device based on demand. Unfortunately, he also revealed the company’s plans to discontinue ROG Phone 2 in the country.
Last year’s ROG Phone 2 was only available for a short period of time in India. It was out of stock most of the times on official online retailer Flipkart. The smartphone was briefly made available last month in the country with new updated price, thanks to increased GST (Goods & Services Tax) on phones.
At the moment, the device is listed as unavailable on Flipkart, whereas the ROG Phone 3 is noted as “Coming Soon” as it is set to go on sale starting August 6. But the ROG Phone 2 may be soon removed from the platform as per Dinesh Sharma, Mobile Business Head, Asus India (via HT Tech).
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The executive confirmed the discontinuation of ROG Phone 2 in India to the publication. However, he did not mention when and hence, we believe it may be available for the last time during Flipkart sale around August 5-6 when Amazon India will be hosting Prime Day sale.
According to him, customers get a better package in ROG Phone 3 compared to ROG Phone 2 and thus it makes sense for them to remove it from the shelves. However, the price difference between the two is ₹10,000, which is more according to us.
Since India is a price-sensitive market, there is a high probability of people buying the older model, which may cannibalize the sales of the newer model. But Asus could have made use of this situation like OnePlus, which still continues to sell OnePlus 7T from 2019.
Further, the Asus executive also revealed they have no plans to launch ROG Phone 3 Strix Editon powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in India. However, they may bring the 16GB + 512GB variant of ROG Phone 3 to the country if there’s a “massive demand”.
He also hinted if it comes, it will be priced much higher and that’s the reason they stuck to only two options for the world’s second-largest smartphone market.
The Asus ROG Phone 3 will be available for the following prices starting August 6 in India.
- 8GB + 128GB – ₹49,999
- 12GB + 256GB – ₹57,999
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