OP-ED: Vietnam’s national pride issue and its Bphone

Hau Pham is a Vietnamese who works in Singapore as a senior associate finance manager for P&G Asia. He wrote the following piece as a status update on his Facebook page in response to current criticisms many Vietnamese people are leveling at the Bphone.

The smartphone was unveiled on Tuesday by local cyber-security firm Bkav, whose CEO Nguyen Tu Quang said during the debut ceremony in Hanoi that the device is now “the best smartphone in the world.” Quang is known for his blunt and pompous statements so many Vietnamese people have made fun of his device since the unveiling event, with tech geeks accusing the firm of copying the design from other makers and plagiarizing the ringtone Bkav said it had made exclusively for the Bphone. Not a few have frowned upon the smartphone, which the company claimed is the first Vietnamese-made device, saying Bkav might have bought parts from China and assembled them into the gadget instead of manufacturing it as it has advertised.

Tuoi Tre News carries this article, with language edits added, after securing prior permission from Hau Pham.

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