Smartphone shipments grow over 197% quarter-on-quarter to touch 7.7% of total mobile handset shipments
According to CMR’s Bangladesh Quarterly Mobile Handsets Market Review, 2Q CY 2013, August 2013 release the Bangladesh mobile handsets market recorded shipments of 5.1 million units during the period April-June 2013. Featurephones dominated the market with a share of 92.3% of total shipments.
The overall Bangladesh mobile handsets market recorded a rise in shipments of 18.7% in 2Q 2013 vis-à-vis 1Q 2013, recovering smartly from a decline of 6.5% recorded in the previous quarter. The demand for smartphones has increased significantly amongst Bangladesh consumers, and the segment exhibited an impressive growth of 197.2% in 2Q 2013 over 1Q 2013. Featurephones also exhibited an increasing trend with shipments touching to 4,739,328 units. This is a positive sign for mobile handset players who are trying to establish themselves in one of the fastest growing handsets market of southern Asia.
“Perhaps the smartphones story has started to grow well in Bangladesh too. While the overall mobile handsets market grew only by around 19%, smartphone shipments nearly doubled indicating that the future lies in this segment, quite in sync with the global trend,” stated Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.
“This is also good news for the mobile phones industry as smartphones push up the market size in revenue terms, as well improve the profitability of the ecosystem at large. A growing market attracts more and more competition, resulting in better choice for consumers,” Faisal further opined.
Bangladesh Smartphones Market
The Bangladesh market saw a rise of smartphone shipments by 197.2% during the period April-June 2013 over January-March 2013, taking the overall contribution of smartphones to 7.7% in unit terms.
Commenting on the results Neha Shekhawat, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “Symphony Mobile have grown further in the Bangladesh smartphones segment by adding 14.4 percentage points to their market share quarter-on-quarter, touching 54.6% in unit terms during 2Q CY 2013. Launch of new smartphones at various price points has played a significant role in their dominance. This can be a threat to other mobile handset players who position their offerings for niche target groups.”
“Interestingly, Tier I player, Samsung slipped to number three spot with the rise of domestic player, Walton. Compared to India, Bangladesh domestic mobile phone brands are growing stronger in the smartphones segment as well. In India, Tier I international smartphone players still occupy the top positions. Although, it is too early to conclude that these Bangladesh domestic players have grown strong and stable, their performance in the forthcoming few quarters should see them exploring neighbouring markets including India,” Neha 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 is sometimes replaced or used interchangeably with ‘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.
