We’ve seen a lot of new and impressive moves from ASUS with the launch of the ZenFone 6. It appears they are more committed to their mobile phone business more than ever before. With this latest news, ASUS are hoping to ensure long-term success and loyalty via the ROM development community. If you enjoy custom ROMs and mods, ASUS hopes that by sending free ZenFone 6 phones to key developers it will spur on an active custom ROM community.
Other companies have tried this free phone move in the past and it’s a proven model. OnePlus and Xiaomi POCO have sent our free phones to the community for years. It’s hard to justify buying new phones just for the sake of development. Phones are expensive and the people developing custom ROMs aren’t making money on their works. Free phones removes one big barrier and ASUS is making a wise strategic decision here.
All this sounds good on paper, but make no mistake about it, this is all dependent on strong sales. In the past, the ZenFone series hasn’t sold in the numbers that would create a lot of interest from the custom ROM development community. Why would someone spend the time to work on custom ROMs or mods if hardly anyone is going to use them? It needs to be worth the investment of time, meaning people downloading and using their ROMs and mods. From every early indication, the ZenFone 6 seems like a sure bet to sell a lot of units which makes this effort a lot more likely to succeed.
ASUS worked with XDA-developers.com to establish the top 10 custom ROM developers and those fine folks are getting a free ZenFone 6. The list includes people from TWRP, LineageOS, OmniROM, and CarbonROM development teams. A number of other top developers that aren’t from those specific teams were also included which will create an even wider selection of mods and custom ROMs. Note that one developer getting a free phone is involved with a Google Camera port.
This isn’t a slam dunk just yet. Let’s see how ASUS is able execute on having enough units available for sale and that they can meet the demand in a timely manner. Right now the support seems strong though. In that sense these efforts ASUS is making to the ROM development community should pay off. What we can say is that this move won’t hurt. Going this route has worked for other companies so it should also work in favor for ASUS and the ZenFone brand.
