Smartphones start dominating country\\\'s mobile phone mkt

Smartphones are slowly occupying the country's feature-phone market as the demand for them continues to rise following introduction of 3G or third generation internet services coupled with affordable prices.  
The sales of smartphones currently hover around 40 per cent or above at the capital's mobile phone shops compared to feature-phones, the conventional mobile sets --- also called bar phones.   
The shop owners said high-end features, lower price regime and, above all, 3G internet services have prompted the rise in demand for the smartphone among the people.
They predict that the sales of smartphones will overtake that of the feature-phones soon as per the present market trend.
"We sell handsets of different local and global companies, but people buy mostly local Symphony or Walton-made smartphones, the prices of which range between Tk 6000 and Tk 14000," said Raju Ahmed, salesperson at a shop in the capital's Eastern Plaza.
He said, "Bar phone or feature-phones' sale is falling gradually." Normally people buy bar phones, the price of which is bellow Tk 2000, he informed.  
Muhammad Suman, another salesperson at a shop at Baitul View Tower in the city has informed the FE that of the 20 handsets that he sells, 8 are smartphones and 12 bar phones.
According to the market data, local brands, mainly Symphony, have alone occupied more than 50 per cent of the smartphone market in Bangladesh followed by Samsung, Walton, Maximus, Nokia and Micromax.  Nokia is also doing well in releasing new handsets at an attractive price.
Mohammad Anwar Hossain, salesperson at a shop in the city's Motalib Plaza, said some specific handsets of different companies, namely, W68, W71  of Symphony, EF and H3 of Walton, Star Pro of Samsung, XL of Nokia, 908 of Maximus are in high demand due to their attractive features and the affordable price.
He said Nokia XL, selling at the retail price of Tk 12900, has created a great demand among the buyers due to its impressive features. Owing to the shortage of supply of the product, the sellers are taking higher prices from the customers, it has been found.     
Global brands like Samsung and Nokia are reportedly falling behind the Chinese-made local brand handsets in the race for smartphone market's share. Given the scenario, the global brands are also releasing lower-price smartphones to carve out a strong position in the Third World countries' market.
A leading seller of mobile phone handsets mentioned that a total of 1.071 million units of smartphones have been imported in the country from January to April this year.
In terms of quantity, here Symphony occupies 55 per cent (590,000 units) market share on the basis of imports. The nearest importers are Samsung with 13 per cent (138,000 units), Walton 12 per cent (126,000 units), Maximus 8 per cent (81,000 units), Nokia 4 per cent (40,000 units), and Micromax around 4 per cent.
Symphony Director Rezwanul Huq said after the initiation of 3G services by mobile operators, the smartphone sales have undergone a sharp increase.
"In Quarter (Q) 4 in fiscal year 2013, the smartphones occupied 9 per cent of the total mobile phone market, and in Q1 in FY 2014 the figure has doubled, and it is now 18 per cent of the total market. It means the smartphone market is growing at a fast pace," he noted.
Mr Huq feels that low-price and high-quality smartphones provided by the local companies are one of the main reasons of this growth.
"We expect that in the next five years, high-price feature-phones and touch phones will be replaced by smartphones.  And within these five years, the smartphone market will hold 50 per cent of the total market share," the Symphony director made the forecast.