BQ company (Russia): mobile equipment in Russian. Best smartphones BQ Bq which country company

BQ Mobile is a not so long ago established brand that produces mobile equipment in Russia. The main difference between smartphones, tablets and accessories is very low price... The name of the company is an abbreviation that stands for "Bright and quick". The history of the company begins in 2013, when the founder of the Novaya Liniya firm, Vladimir Puzanov, decided to produce his own line of mobile equipment, despite the fact that in Russia there are many difficulties with the release of such a product. And although the country of origin is Russia, all capacities are concentrated in China, thanks to which it was possible to reduce the cost of BQ smartphones to a minimum.

About company

One of the features of BQ Mobile is the way it is called, and this name is consonant with the name of one of the Spanish brands, which produced gadgets much earlier, previously registered this trademark (in 2009) and has already managed to sue Russian BQ. However, one should not think that the history of the development of a Russian company begins only in 2013. Back in 1999, Vladimir Puzanov and his company worked in the field of distribution, which allowed them to fully study all the specifics of work in this market niche. As a result, the company turned out to be a specialist in customer demand trends, and this, in turn, gave a powerful start to the newly formed company BQ. In its first year alone, smartphone maker BQ sold nearly one million gadgets! Moreover, the company annually increases its sales and production by at least 500 thousand.

Brand principles

The main principles of the company are:

1. Low product price. Thanks to this pricing policy, the company managed to cover the widest possible target audience: almost everyone can afford a phone from BQ.
2. Original model names. We all know that today the device market is literally overcrowded, and it also includes gadgets with a very low price. Therefore, you will not surprise anyone with just one pricing policy - you need to be creative in everything. The developers here did their best and came up with their own, original name for each model. For example, many gadgets are named as famous cities in the world, such as Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Munich, Toronto, and so on.
3. Unusual design and powerful specifications... Names and prices alone won't go far, right? One of the distinguishing features of BQ smartphones is a unique modern case design, complete with powerful technical indicators. For example, the battery holds a charge perfectly, almost every model is designed for 2 SIM cards, the volume internal memory- at least 8 gigabytes, expandable by another 128 GB, and some gadgets from the line support smart gesture control.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA One of the main features of the brand is very modest displays and keypad... Initially, BQ phones entered the market just like that. The design of the gadgets is noteworthy - the phones are very stylish and look like a man - for example, BQ Ferrara. Also one of the most popular models is the New York II mobile phone, which outwardly resembles the once popular phones from Siemens. Its average price is about 700 Russian rubles. What other company can boast of a similar pricing policy?

Today BQ mainly produces budget smartphones in Russia. By the way, the BQ 5032 Element is in the ranking of the best devices from BQ for 2016-2017. Someone may be dissatisfied with the fact that the company's production facilities are concentrated in China, but this is not a drawback at all, because almost all world smartphone manufacturers, even Apple, work on the same principle, so it makes no difference where the device is assembled. With all this, the BQ brand is constantly working to improve the quality of its products and expand the range - in addition to smartphones, the company can also boast of its tablets and many different accessories.

BQ's client base is very extensive: about one and a half thousand companies have already signed contracts for wholesale purchases of Russian brand products. And with target consumers about 15 thousand communication salons, which have signed a contract directly with BQ, are in contact. However, one should not think that due to the low price of products, the company receives an average profit from the production and sale of the product. On the contrary, the company brings in remarkable income, because out of all 40 million smartphones sold in Russia, about 5% come from BQ smartphones.

Today we want to tell you more about the company BQ, whose devices have been repeatedly tested, and we want to acquaint you with this brand better.

The largest Russian smartphone manufacturer BQ, founded in 2013, offers a wide range of available devices, including reliable, stylish smartphones with high functionality, despite the affordable price, budget mobile phones and comfortable tablet computers.

In just a few years, the BQ brand has gained a strong position in the Russian market. Its devices are widely represented throughout Russia and the CIS in retail outlets more than 2 thousand partners, including the largest federal networks. BQ products are sold in the electronics stores "M. Video", "Svyaznoy", "Eldorado", DNS, "MegaFon", "Beeline", "Tele2", "KNOW-HOW", etc., as in offline retail and online stores.

In 2017, BQ entered the top 5 most popular smartphone manufacturers in terms of sales according to the Counter Point Analytics rating. In 2018, the brand, while maintaining the achieved positions, occupies 7% of the smartphone market, competing only with major international competitors. The audience of BQ brand fans is also growing. According to research, 60% of BQ smartphone owners have been using one model for more than two years, not wanting to change it to another.

The steady growth in demand for BQ smartphones is primarily due to a number of features of the company that distinguish it from competitors.

• Affordable prices

The company seeks to offer the most attractive price for the buyer - the cost of the gadgets it produces is in the range from 3 to 16 thousand rubles. A wide range of products provides a choice of devices for every taste. Currently, the consumer prefers not to overpay for expensive brands. In BQ smartphones, it will be able to have the same high functionality and high quality, but at a lower price.

In the fall, the brand came out flagship smartphone BQ-6200L Aurora with AI-powered 3D Face Unlock, a powerful eight-core MediaTek Helio P60 processor, a large bezel-less screen and smart cameras. Despite the top-end characteristics, the cost of the smartphone is only 15,990 rubles.

• High quality

BQ products are distinguished by one of the most high levels quality in the market.

Before entering the Russian market, each BQ device from a new batch is subject to strict multi-level quality control. In addition, the components used in BQ devices are not inferior in quality to those produced by the leading manufacturers in the industry, and the production process is in accordance with ISO-9001 standards.

• Localization

Another significant point is that BQ products are completely localized for the Russian market, which is especially appreciated by the domestic consumer.

Conducting in-depth marketing research allows the company to always know what the Russian buyer needs. BQ devices are developed specifically for the Russian market, while other vendors supply the same products to all regions of the world. The company strives to equip smartphones not only with the most necessary technical functionality, but also installs the most popular applications in them, such as, for example, Sberbank Online, Yandex, Auto.ru. Moreover, mainly BQ smartphones are equipped with "pure" Android, which ensures more stable and faster operation of the devices.

During the localization process, BQ engineers fix translation errors in Android OS, which increases the comfort of working with BQ smartphones.

• Hi-tech

BQ company closely monitors market trends, therefore, only the most advanced and relevant technologies are used in its products. Bright frameless screen with increased shock resistance, high-capacity battery, face unlock function, dual cameras, support for contactless payments - all of these modern technologies the Russian buyer will be able to find BQ in smartphones today and, importantly, at a very affordable price.

It should be noted that BQ partners with the three largest chipset manufacturers - Qualcomm, MediaTek and Spreadtrum. It also enables BQ smartphones to deliver superior performance and reliability.

• Service

The service policy of the brand deserves special attention, considering the quality of service for owners of BQ smartphones as one of the main priorities in its work.

And if for some reason the broken apparatus cannot be repaired, a similar model is issued in return.

It excludes the possibility of an overstated cost of repair services and spare parts during the post-warranty service period or in non-warranty cases, since BQ monitors the cost of repairs and spare parts throughout the entire life of the devices.

Guarantee High Quality services provided is also the fact that all authorized service centres BQ undergoes mandatory certification periodically.

A well-thought-out marketing strategy ensures BQ's brand awareness continues to grow. Currently, BQ has two major projects underway - a partnership with FC Spartak-Moscow and a large-scale federal project with the Hands Up! called BQ Tour.

It should be added that for about five years BQ has been cooperating with the Gift of Life charity fund, providing active material assistance to children with hematological and other serious diseases and donating part of the proceeds from the sale of each device to the fund.

BQ has been awarded various prestigious awards. For example, BQ won the award for the first ever smartphone for Spartak fans, the BQ Advance Spartak Edition. The brand also has an award in the Smartphones nomination of the Consumer Rights and Quality of Service award.

A presentation dedicated to the official entry of the BQ company into the Russian market took place. For a manufacturer that produces (among other things) smartphones, BQ has a very unusual philosophy: the company actively supports and focuses on "makers" - people who can create something on their own, on an engineering, rather than consumer, approach to gadgets. This is reflected in the range of smartphones with tablets, where among the standard models on Android there are modifications on Ubuntu, Cyanogen and Android One, and on other things produced by BQ: 3D printers, educational robotics and smart toys. All products created by BQ are open source.

BQ was founded in 2010 and is part of the technology holding Mundo Reader, which unites enterprises engaged in the development and production of electronic devices and accessories.

For people seriously interested in 3D printing, BQ should be well known for its Witbox model, one of the most popular consumer closed-design 3D printers.

Even more enthusiastic followers of the RepRap philosophy should be familiar with the name Hephestus - one of the most inexpensive “build models” on the market today.

Hephestus 2 was shown at the presentation, it is a new version 3D printer, equipped with a stable metal case (free of printed elements), more advanced slide and an extruder that supports stable printing with Flex-plastic. The price by today's standards will be, again, democratic - in the region of 60-65 thousand rubles. Sales will begin towards the end of the year.

Even a Russified interface is provided.

BQ offers various kits for assembling simple robots and ready-made robots. This toy is called ZOWI, the body for it is printed on a 3D printer, works on the basis of a proprietary board and can flicker, dance and move. However, you can reprogram it yourself using simple application Bitbloq, available on both PC and Android.

To the general public (and now in Russia) BQ is known as a manufacturer inexpensive smartphones sales of which (without reference to mobile operators) the company ranks second in its homeland, Spain. Sales of the Aquarius E series (including the E5 model on Ubuntu, 15,500 rubles) and Aquarius M (19,000-23,000 rubles, depending on the size of the screen and the amount of memory) have already started in Russia.

Sales of the top-end Aquarius X5 line will begin in March next year. The cost on the Russian market has not yet been determined, but you can start from the European price of 229 euros. This slim (7.5 mm) smartphone with a capacious (2900 mAh) battery, 13-megapixel main camera, 5-megapixel front camera and a 5-inch screen with a resolution of 720 × 1280 pixels, which is powered by the Qualcoom Snapdragon 412 platform and is equipped with 16 GB of flash memory and 2 GB of RAM.

The Spanish manufacturer of smartphones and tablets Mundo Reader filed a claim with the Moscow Arbitration Court against Russian manufacturer smartphones LLC "Antares" on the protection of exclusive rights to a trademark. This is the BQ brand used by both companies. The European company demanded compensation in the amount of 3 million rubles from the Russian, but the court sided with the Russians, it follows from the materials published on the court's website. Antares has permission to use the BQ trademark from Rospatent, the court's decision says. The general director of the Russian office of Mundo Reader Ivan Bulaev says that the company will challenge this decision.

Mundo Reader also applied to Rospatent (Vedomosti has a copy of the letter) with a request to invalidate the registration of the BQ Bright & Quick trademark by a Russian company, since, in its opinion, it is confusingly similar to its own brand.

The representative of Rospatent Igor Lisnik confirmed the receipt of such a letter, but so far it has not been accepted for consideration due to formal reasons. Rospatent sent a request to Mundo Reader, the company can eliminate the deficiencies within three months and submit a new application, he explains. Such issues are usually resolved by the Chamber of Patent Disputes Board, Lisnik continues, but it is impossible to predict the result, he said.

Another "Antares"

An operator that has received permission to build LTE networks in the 1900-1920 MHz range, owned by businessman Yevgeny Roitman, operates in Russia under the name "Antares". According to SPARK-Interfax, Antares is a telephone seller and Antares, an operator, are two different companies. The representative of the operator "Antares" confirmed that he had nothing to do with the production of telephones.

In a letter to Rospatent, Mundo Reader indicates that the exclusive rights to the BQ trademark in relation to smartphones, tablets, digital and electronic devices for reading books have belonged to it since 2013.According to an extract from the international register of marks, the effect of legal protection for a trademark (according to the rules Madrid Agreement on international registration signs) extends to the territory of Russia, the company indicates.

The Russian brand BQ was also registered in 2013 - in Rospatent, it was registered by the Novaya Liniya company, which then entered into a licensing agreement with Antares, explains Vladimir Puzanov, general director of Novaya Liniya. According to him, the name was invented as a result of "collective brainstorming - they chose the most sonorous letter combination of two letters - B and Q". And only later, according to Puzanov, an additional decryption appeared - bright and quick. The general director notes that the company did not know about the Spanish brand, it was not indexed in Yandex, and the examination did not produce any coincidences during the registration of the trademark. “It should be noted that the two letters are not registered as a trademark, only as a graphic image,” says Puzanov.

Founded in 2010, Mundo Reader produces smartphones and tablets for Android, Ubuntu, Android One, Cyanogen, Witbox, Hephestos 3D printers and educational robotics under the BQ brand. The company considers its products to be in the middle price segment. In Russia, Mundo Reader products, according to its representative, have been on sale for over a year.

The company "Antares" imports smartphones and tablets from the Chinese "Silicon Valley" - Shenzhen to Russia. At the same time, as stated on the company's website, Antares develops its own design of devices. Last year, he announced the release of the "patriotic" Moscow smartphone with interchangeable panels depicting the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The company presented one of these smartphones to boxer Roy Jones after he received Russian citizenship. Also last year, under the BQ brand, the company released a model push-button telephone Munich with a bottle opener - a special recess in the lower part of the device that serves to uncork glass bottles.

Mundo Reader submitted to the court a study by VTsIOM, commissioned by it, in which, in particular, it is argued that more than 40% of respondents (44.3%) admit that they could confuse when buying smartphones labeled trade marks of these two companies, says Bulaev of Mundo Reader. However, it follows from the court's decision that the court did not take this study into account, since graphic images, appearing in it, differed from those presented to the court.

“In our opinion, in this case there was an inattentive check of the BQ mark during registration for the presence of confusion to the point of confusion with a mark previously registered in Europe and operating in Russia,” says Bulaev. According to him, buyers systematically confuse the products of the two manufacturers: complaints about Bright & Quick products come to the technical support line of a European company, users share information about the quality of products and the level of technical support of the other company in the comments to articles about new Mundo Reader products.

The court of appeal most often relies on the assessment of evidence given by the court of first instance, and if the case comes to cassation, the dispute will be considered by the Intellectual Property Court, which checks the correctness of the application of the rules of law and does not overestimate the evidence, says attorney at the Yust Law Firm Denis Shumsky. He notes that Rospatent, when making a decision on the registration of a trademark, must check not only national registrations, but also international ones.

Bright & Quick is a brand owned by the Russian company Antares. She represents: the devices are manufactured in China, but, as often happens, they are offered as a Russian product - at the place of registration of the brand owner.

However, for some reason, Antares decided to shorten the brand name to BQ - and this name was registered in 2013 by the Spanish Mundo Reader, SL. Antares also calls itself BQ-mobile.

Mundo Reader, SL states that Antares is misusing the BQ trademark.

The quality of the goods and the price range of the two mentioned companies are significantly different, which misleads smartphone users in the Russian market.

Mundo Reader, SL

BQ Trademark Owner

The Russian company entered the market in 2015, while the Spanish brand was founded in 2010 and, importantly, is the leader of the Spanish consumer electronics market. The original BQ is smartphones and tablets for Android, Ubuntu, Android One, Cyanogen, Witbox 3D printers, Hephestos and even educational robotics. The company's annual turnover is more than 350 million euros, the products are presented in 50 countries. Digital devices are also created in China, but under the control of Spanish management, and 3D printers, robotics, IoT products are in Navarra in northern Spain.

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Later, the Russian company submitted documents confirming the existence of rights to the trademark (the decision of the arbitration court of July 14, 2016 is available on the website). A spokesperson for Mundo Reader, SL, commenting on this material, stated the following:

Completed the first instance. During the hearings, BQ-mobile presented a registered trademark in the Russian Federation. Therefore, the court actually transferred the decision to recognize the BQ-mobile mark, which is similar to the point of confusion, to Rospatent. The main hearings will now be held there. For according to the conclusion of a study conducted by VTsIOM - up to 70% of respondents confuse the two companies. European BQ entered the Russian market in November last year. Having found the "namesake", he contacted him, offering to calmly shift the accent in the names of the products to BRIGHT & QUICK - the slogan present on the logo of the Russian company. Not being heard, I had to go to court. Of course, there is no theft here. We are talking about similarity to the point of confusion and priority for a trademark among Europeans.