ASUS has a habit of launching multiple smartphones each year under the same model name. In 2014, the company announced the Zenfone trio – the ASUS Zenfone 4, the ASUS Zenfone 5, and the ASUS Zenfone 6 – each with a different screen size. Earlier this year, the Taiwanese smartphone brand launched a multitude of handsets under the Zenfone 2 range. Unlike 2014, ASUS launched smartphones with much improved specifications such as 4GB RAM in a couple of variants, and that attracted a lot of buyers. Now, there's a report stating that next-generation Zenfones might also include a fingerprint sensor.
Since a lot of smartphones were released this year with fingerprint sensors, even some entry-level smartphones such as the the Coolpad Note 3, ASUS is expected to launch the Zenfone 3 range in either May or June of 2016 with a fingerprint sensor. It is being reported that ASUS will use fingerprint sensors developed by Elan Microelectronics (based in Taiwan) and Goodix (based in China). Motorola and Samsung were one of the first brands to use fingerprint sensors in their smartphones, but they were swipe-based ones, and weren't that easy-to-use. After Apple used a touch-based fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, all the brands switched to similar sensors this year.
ASUS is selling a good number of smartphones in its home country as well as in developing nations like India, Brazil, Russia, and other South East Asian countries. The company is planning to expand the presence of its smartphone lineup in Bangladesh, Combodia, Egypt, Myanmar, and Nigeria in the coming months. ASUS is expected to ship 20 million smartphones in 2015, and at least 30 million smartphone units in 2016. In the Indian smartphone market, the company is facing intense competition from Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Huawei, Indian brands like YU, and Motorola.
