MyPhone

my|phone
Product type Mobile phone
Owner Solid Digital Group
Country Philippines
Introduced 2007
Markets Philippines, Hong Kong
Registered as a trademark in Philippines (June 2007)
Tagline

"be inspired"
"Tatak Pinoy, Tatak Matibay"
(lit. Mark of a Pinoy, Mark of Toughness)
"Wala Ka Sa Phone Ko"
(lit. You have no match against my Phone)
"The Multimedia Company"

Website www.myphone.com.ph

MyPhone (stylized as my|phone[1]) is a Philippine mobile phone brand and multimedia company by MySolid Technologies & Devices Corp. of Solid Group Incorporated.

History

Solid Group Inc., incorporated as United Paracale Mining Co. on October 9, 1933 and renamed to its current name in June 1996, is the company behind the MyPhone brand.[2] The group owns the brand through MySolid Technologies and Devices Corporation.[3]

In 2010, the father of Solid Group's CEO, David Lim owned a mobile phone manufacturer which makes phones branded as "Amoy Solid". His father tasked his younger brother Jason to help sell the product due to being good in working with electronic gadgets in the Lim family. According to David, the Amoy Solid won't make much sales in the Philippines and remarked that “Just from the way it (the brand) sounds, nobody wanted it,”, He however took note of the phones' dual SIM feature and suggested to rename the brand. Amoy Solid is rebranded as My|Phone.[2]

Solid Group applied for the registration of the MyPhone brand with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on June 25, 2007. The brand was first introduced to the market by Solid Group in September 2007.[1][2][4] MyPhone became the first mobile phone brand in the country to have a dual active SIM feature.[5] The MyPhone brand grew into one of the primary part of Solid Group, accounting about half of the company's revenue as of 2011.[6][7]

On May 18, 2016, the company unveiled its line of ISDB-T-capable smartphones and tablets, thus becoming the third local smart device vendor to offer the feature.[8]

On November 7, 2016, MyPhone expanded into mobile app development and digital content, touting itself as "The Multimedia Company". MyPhone has also announced the AGILA lock screen app to be bundled with select smartphone models, allowing local businesses to display advertising on phones similar to Amazon's practice of "special offer" ads embedded on discounted devices.[8][9]

Production and design

The mobile phones also includes pre-installed applications and features designed by Filipino software developers. MyPhone mobile phones are reportedly manufactured in China in 2011. The most popular application pre-installed in MyPhone mobile phones as of the same year is the Catholic prayer app.[7]

Market share

In a study made by International Data Corporation, MyPhone is the third biggest brand in the Philippines in terms of unit shipments in 2014[10] In June 2016, MyPhone identifies at least 50 mobile phone brands in the Philippine market.[11]

MyPhone is also distributed in Hong Kong to cater to Overseas Filipino Workers in the Chinese territory.[7]

Issues

Trademark case v. Apple Inc.'s iPhone

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Solid Group over the MyPhone name claiming that "MyPhone" is "confusingly similar" to its iPhone brand and that it would "likely to deceive or cause confusion." The Philippine Intellectual Property Office (IPO) dismissed the case filed by Apple Inc. on May 19, 2015 stating that while both brand are similarly named by using the word "phone", the word in question is not sufficient grounds in causing confusing between the two brands and noted that "phone" is a generic term used to describe mobile phones.[1]

IPO director Nathaniel Arevalo, criticized Apple Inc.'s move describing it as "a case of a giant trying to claim more territory than what it is entitled to, to the great prejudice of a local "Pinoy Phone" merchant who has managed to obtain a significant foothold in the mobile phone market through the marketing and sale of innovative products under a very distinctive trademark."[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Apple loses trademark case vs MyPhone". ABS-CBN News. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Bernardo-Lokin, Kim (19 October 2011). "Man Behind the Pinoy 'My/Phone' finds his rainbow". Newsflash. TIMES. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "My Solid Technologies & Devices Corporation". Solid Group, Inc. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  4. ↑ Nieves, John (1 June 2015). "MyPhone Beats Apple in Local Trademark Battle". unbox.ph. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "MyPhone: Proudly Pinoy-made". The Philippine Star. 22 August 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Moran, Kathy (27 September 2009). "Myphone: lWala ka sa phone ko (MyPhone: Your phone is no match against mine)". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Gomez, Raquel (15 January 2011). "Pinoy phone holds own with sales of P2B". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on 19 January 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  8. 1 2 Morial, Daniel (8 November 2016). "MyPhone ventures into multimedia, launches Agila Rewards". Yugatech. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  9. ↑ Nieves, John (7 November 2016). "MyPhone Wants To Give People Cheaper Phones (By Showing Ads)". Unbox.ph. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  10. ↑ Dela Paz, Chrisee Jalyssa (23 March 2015). "Philippines is third-largest market for smartphones in SE Asia -- IDC". BusinessWorld. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  11. ↑ Galolo, Jeandie (27 June 2016). "Flash phones bank on e-commerce". Sun Star Cebu. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
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