Smartphones account for only 3.1% of the market, but show an extremely impressive growth of 222% QoQ
According to CMR’s Bangladesh Quarterly Mobile Handsets Market Review, Q1 CY 2013, July 2013 release the Bangladesh mobile handsets market recorded shipments of 4.3 million units during the period. Featurephones dominated the market with a share of 96.9% of total shipments.
Although, quarter-on-quarter the market contracted by 6.5% in terms of overall unit shipments, but smartphones exhibited an extremely impressive growth of 222.2% in the same time-frame. Featurephones, on the other hand showed a declining trend with shipments dropping 8.5% QoQ, resulting in the decline in overall shipments. This trend is definitely a big challenge for players like Nokia whose smartphones portfolio is yet to show an impressive start anywhere around the globe.
“Home grown mobile handset companies continue to dominate the Bangladesh market. Symphony Mobile has retained its leadership once again, ahead of international players such as Nokia and Samsung. Strong distribution network, better customer support and international quality mobile phone models have made Symphony Mobile the most preferred choice of customers”, stated Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.
“This trend is quite similar to the India market, where we see displacement happening on the same pattern,” he further added.
Bangladesh Smartphones Market
The Bangladesh market saw a rise of smartphone shipments by 222.2% during the period January-March 2013 over the October-December 2012, taking the overall contribution of smartphones to 3.1% for the period.
Commenting on the results Rajat Kharbanda, Analyst, CMR SemiTronics Practice said, “The growth clearly shows the propensity of the Bangladesh customer to adopt smartphones. However, to benefit from this growth, vendors need to offer good ‘value for money’ smartphone ‘deals’ including applications adapted to local needs, bundled with affordable data plans and an efficient after sales service across the country. The ability to offer an optimal mix of these elements is what makes Symphony Mobile the market leader currently.”
“As an extension of their global strategy, Tier I multinational brands such as Samsung and Sony Mobiles are likely to introduce high end smartphones and superphones in the Bangladesh market. However, this will not necessarily make these players attain leadership positions in this space in the near future. They are more likely to continue to serve the niche, premium smartphones segment”, Rajat concluded.
Notes for Editors
- This release is based on the CyberMedia Research (CMR) Bangladesh Quarterly Mobile Handsets Market Review, published at the conclusion of every quarter.
- CyberMedia Research (CMR) uses the term “shipments” to describe the number of handsets leaving the factory premises for OEM sales or stocking by distributors and retailers. For the convenience of media, the term shipments has been replaced by ‘sales’ in the press release, but this reflects the market size in terms of units of mobile handsets and not their absolute value. In the case of handsets imported into the country it represents the number leaving the first warehouse to OEMs, distributors and retailers. CyberMedia Research does not track the number of handsets brought on their person by individual passengers landing on Bangladesh soil from overseas destinations or ‘grey market’ handsets. These are, therefore, not part of the CyberMedia Research numbers reported here.
