The Flash 2 is the best selling affordable phone on Lazada

No flash in the pan: Babria (left) and Flash Malaysia country manager Gary Boon showing off the bestselling Flash 2 smartphone.

The Flash 2 is the best selling smartphone in the 5in category for the US$100 (RM430) to US$150 (RM645) price range on e-commerce platform Lazada. The Flash 2 beat other phones like the Lenovo A7000, the Meizu M2 and Zenfone 2 in Southeast Asia and India.

Flash e-commerce operations director Yogi Babria said sales of the Flash 2 went up by 600% during Lazada’s three-day online shopping sale last month. Babria declined to say how many Flash 2 phones were sold. The RM549 phone was launched in Oct 2015 and is exclusively available on Lazada, and sold in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and India.

However, users will soon be able to purchase Flash smartphones offline. “Since the demand is high and availability is tough for people in the sub-urban and rural area, we are going to offer Flash 2 offline in the next two to three months through retail network,” he said.

China’s TCL Corporation acquired Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile business 10 year ago and rebranded it into Alcatel OneTouch and also started another brand called Flash.

“So what we are doing is we are rebranding the Flash from a series into a standalone brand,” said Babria.

OneTouch will continue to exist as a separate brand along with Flash, and both are under TCL. According to Babria, the rebranding effort will start with South-East Asia with the establishment of a new management team before being rolled out to the rest of the world.

He also announced that Flash smartphones currently running on Android Lollipop will receive the Marshmallow update in March.

In addition, there will also be an update to solve some of the problems customers have been complaining about its phones. The update, which is expected to go out next week, will fix the autofocus issue with the front camera.

Users who prefer flashier covers can opt for the Rose Gold and Mica White, which will be made available as offline exclusives, alongside a new lens that offers both macro and fisheye options.

Pricing details will be announced soon.