Badrul Ahsan :
The demand for smartphones is rapidly rising in the local market because of low-cost handsets and the enhanced 3G-network coverage, industry people said.
More than 2.25 million smartphones were shipped into Bangladesh in the first quarter of the on going financial (FY), which was around 1.3 million during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
The Smartphone market in Bangladesh expanded around 75 per cent year-on-year in the last fiscal (2014-15) and more than 86 per cent in the first quarter of the current FY, according to industry people. In an upbeat note, they said that the opportunity for business in the Smartphone segment being bright, the world tilted toward Smartphone and Bangladesh would 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 Monday.
“Most of the customers, mainly young and middle-aged, now intend to get Smartphone as they can download all types of applications through it,” he said.
“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. People are gradually becoming dependant on web-based activities,” the director said.
SM Rejoan Alam, head of Hand Set of Walton mobile, said the company witnessed good sales growth in the Smartphone segment for the last couple of years. “We are happy with the growth. We now set monthly target instead of yearly as the demand for Smartphone is changing almost every day.”
“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 said.
Amina Afrin, a university student, who went to buy a Smartphone in the city’s Motalib 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 to be familiar with the global trends. Besides its utility functions, it has now emerged as a symbol of aristocracy,” she said.
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 130.35 million in June, 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 ranged from Tk 7,000 to Tk 70,000 depending on their brand, quality, origin and specifications.
