Filipino tech firm Starmobile announced on Thursday, June 15, that it has started its mobile phone production efforts in the Philippines, making the company the first Filipino brand to assemble mobile phones locally.
Star Telecom Alliance Resources Inc., the parent of Starmobile, said it has started the assembly of 20,000 units of the UNO B208 feature phone in a facility in Calamba City in Laguna.
?Since we started five years ago, it has been the company?s goal to contribute to the local economy and provide employment by assembling phones in the Philippines,? said Starmobile COO Michael Chen.
?Aside from bringing us a step closer to our dream of building up the Philippines an important player in the global tech scene, this will also benefit our bottom line, as it will result in more cost and time-efficient logistics and shipment around the country. In addition, because we will have parts and an assembly facility locally, we expect this to improve our after-sales support for our customers.?
While smartphones are more popular than ever in the Philippines, the demand for basic call-and-text feature phones still thrives in the country, the company said.
?Their affordability allows them to be great daily drivers for a large segment of the population, while their focused call-and-text services and compact screens allow them to be very power efficient,? it stressed.
The Starmobile UNO B208 is a dual-SIM feature phone with an FM radio, camera with flash, expandable memory, flashlight, multimedia playback, and a battery life of up to two days. It is available in red, blue, or black.
