Power play: Mophie bets on the Philippine market

MANILA, Philippines -  When Pokemon Go launched in the United States early this month, battery sales for premium high-end brand Mophie went up 15 percent because the location-based augmented reality game simply sucks the phone power dead.

James Gardner, Mophie’s Southeast Asia sales manager, said the company has tied up with Verizon, AT&T, and Best Buy, among other distributors, to support the demand.

The game has since launched in Asia – Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan – in the past few weeks, and the Philippines is already rife with anticipation of its local launch.

Ahead of this phenomenal coming-to-shore of yet another technology craze, the California-based pioneer battery manufacturer Mophie has gone ahead with its local debut.

Gardner, who was in town for the launch, cited the Philippines’ close cultural connection with the United States as one of the reasons for its market entry here along with the growing need for power to support our digital lifestyle.

“There’s always a need for more power – as the processors get faster, as video content gets better,” he said.

The brand, however, is already available in 130 countries and has had a big market share in the high-end segment before coming to the Philippines. It has a 92-percent market share in the US, and a 13-percent market share in Asia (including Australia).

Asked to explain the big discrepancy, he said proximity to China makes Asia a price-driven market. The brand, however, doesn’t plan to join the price war and it will, according to Gardner, remain a premium, high-quality brand, which means unapologetically not cheap.

“We have 80-percent customer return rate, which means that people who buy a Mophie product would most likely buy our other products again,” Gardner said, adding that it is the only battery company that has been authorized by Apple.

“We are in every Apple store worldwide. We have products that Apple specifically asked us to build. We have passed all of Apple’s testing, which is very stringent,” he added.

In the Philippines, Mophie products – battery cases and power stations, initially – will be sold (from P1,950 to P6,950) exclusively at Digital Walker and Beyond the Box stores in line with its partnership with Digits Trading Corp.

“We always strive to widen the portfolio of products under the Digits band,” said Charles Paw, Digits CEO.

Never call a Mophie product a power bank, though. It prefers “power station”.

“A station is something you can rely on, banks can’t,” Gardner said in jest. “Everyone else in the industry call their product power bank, we are not just every one else. It helps us draw the line between us and every other guy.”

The high-end nature of the product, notwithstanding, it’s got a lot of “juice” going. First off, it has a line of juice packs or power packs that are unique such as its line of battery cases for the iPhone, which includes one that is waterproof and even exceeds military standards for protection, and one that doubles up as a storage device  and a protective case as well.

Gardner said perhaps the most exciting product that it has launched in the market to date is the Mophie juice pack wireless charging base because cellphone users will  never have to fuss with cables again.

Through its charge force wireless technology, power is sent to the device directly on contact. Currently available in the US, the Mophie charge force vent mount allows users to  wirelessly charge in the car, while the charge force desk mount allows users to wirelessly charge at home or at the office. The company is actually aiming to  complete a 24x7 wireless charging ecosystem for the office or the home and the car.

Gardner said demand for the innovative product is high and it will be brought to the Philippines as soon as supply becomes available.

Aside from battery cases for the iPhone, Mophie also manufactures cases for Samsung, HTC and LG. He clarified that Mophie batteries are not just for charging mobile phones, they are made to charge any device with a MicroUSB switch, which may include your Fitbit, wireless headphones, and Sony PlayStation remote control.

“This is the confusion in the market, people think batteries are only made to charge phones,” he said.

Batteries, of course, will always be included in the digital life because we have this feeling that our connections are only as good as our mobile or device power lasts.

Nomophobia, or the fear of being out of a mobile contact, according to Gardner, is very real. In fact, a survey conducted in the US by the company revealed that given the choice what people would want to have access to during a natural disaster, survey respondents cited, in order of priority, water, smartphone and food.

Staying “powerful” is power in itself. And as the tagline of the Mophie advertisement at the last Super Bowl in the US goes, “When your phone dies, God knows what can happen.”