Badrul Ahsan :The demand for phone sets, specially the smartphones has soared significantly in the local market propelled by its reasonable prices and enhanced 3G-network coverage, industry people said.More than 6.0 million smartphones were imported into the country in the first eight months of the ongoing financial year (FY), which was less than 4.0 million in the corresponding period of the previous FY.The Smartphone market in Bangladesh has been expanding by more than 150 percent for the last couple of years, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research, based in India.In an upbeat note, the industry people said that the opportunity for business in the Smartphone segment is bright, as the world has tilted toward Smartphone and Bangladesh will not be very different from the global scenario.Besides, aggressive pricing strategy and customised offerings by the marketers also helped expand the market, they said. “Enhanced 3G network coverage by mobile-phone operators has helped push up sales of smartphones in the local market,” Director of Symphony Rezwanul Hoque told The New Nation on Wednesday.”Most of the customers, mainly young and middle-aged, now intend to get Smartphones as they can download all types of applications through it,” he added.”Worldwide, eighty per cent mobile phone subscribers use Smartphone. In course of time, the scenario will be the same in Bangladesh as lots of such handsets are entering the local market based on customer’s affordability,” he added.SM Rejoan Alam, head of Hand Set of Walton mobile, said the company has witnessed good sales growth in the Smartphone segment for the last couple of years for which the company is now concentrating more on capturing more share of the market. “We are happy with the growth. We now set monthly target instead of yearly as the demand for Smartphone is changing almost every day,” he said.”If everything goes accordingly, then growth would increase by more than one hundred per cent every year and the trend would continue for the next 4-5 years,” he added.Amina Afrin, medical student who has come to buy a Smartphone in the city’s Eastern Plaza, said most of her friends use such mobile and the options are also helpful for her studies. “Smartphone helps me a lot download different academic materials and be familiar with the global trends. Besides its utility functions also another reason for attraction. It has also now emerged as a symbol of aristocracy,” she added. However, according to a recent study by Ericsson, the Swedish communications technology and services company, smartphones are less common in Bangladesh, but 20 per cent of respondents intend to buy a Smartphone within the next six months.Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. Mobile phone subscription reached around 120.35 million at the end of December, 2015, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.Meanwhile, after a visit to different electronic markets in the city, this correspondent found that different types of smartphones were displayed in the stores, prices of which range from Tk 7,000 to Tk 80,000 depending on their brand, quality, origin and specification.However, a good number of parents of the students those who use smart phone complained to this correspondent that wide spread use of such phones shifted concentration of their kids from academic activities to extracurricular activities.They have also alleged using the smart phones, their kids are often found surfing in nod sites that may cause creation of social nuisances. “Uses of smart phone can help our kids to be benefited in some extent, but it is also a matter of our headache that which sited are they searching,” Naima Hamid, a guardian of a English medium school said.
