Smartphone imports rise 39pc

Smartphone imports through legal channels increased 39 percent to 56.27 lakh pieces in 2015 from a year earlier, mostly led by low-cost devices.

Although smartphone imports and sales are increasing fast, the market is still dominated by the feature phones accounting for 50 percent of the market in 2015, according to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association.

Around 21 percent of the mobile phones imported last year were smartphones. Basic phones accounted for 29 percent of imports.

Although last year's smartphone sales did not meet expectations, Rezwanul Hoque, general secretary of BMPIA, is optimistic, going so far as to forecast a trebling of market share in the next five years.

In 2015, the association failed to reach its target of importing 60 lakh pieces of smartphones.

“Smartphones will rule the future market for handsets,” Hoque said.

For 2016, BMPIA has set the target of importing 90 lakh pieces of smartphones. The total import target for mobile phones is about three crore.

Around 30 percent of the 8.92 crore active handsets in Bangladesh were brought in through illegal channels, according to the association.

To improve the situation, importers have moved to curb the inflow of unregistered and smuggled handsets into Bangladesh. At present, handsets worth about Tk 9,000 crore are sold a year and the amount is expected to reach Tk 25,000 crore by 2020, according to the importers' association.

Currently, the average price of a smartphone in the country is about Tk 3,500, which is Tk 1,200 for basic and feature phones, importers said. Symphony, the market leader, brought in 1.06 crore handsets, including 26.57 lakh smartphones, in 2015.

Samsung brought in 8.63 lakh pieces of smartphones in 2015. The South Korean giant with its 15 percent market share has been maintaining its second position in the category in the last couple of years.

The company also imported 5.45 lakh feature phones last year.

Walton, another local brand, imported some 6.07 lakh smartphones, grabbing an 11 percent market share, according to the association. Its total import figure, including basic and feature phones, stood at 12.56 lakh pieces.

The smartphone brands get registered as local companies in Bangladesh and they have no production facilities in the country. They mostly import their products from China. Symphony and Walton are now preparing to set up assembly plants in Bangladesh, senior officials of the companies said.

After Symphony, Winmax maintained its second position in the feature phone segment by importing 16.62 lakh pieces last year with a 12 percent market share. Winmax also imported 4.06 lakh basic phones last year.

The mobile phone industry got a boost in 2012 and 2013 -- especially in the smartphone segment -- mainly because of the initiation of 3G services and a rise in the number of mobile users.

In 2012, only 3 percent of the total mobile imports were smartphones, which climbed to 7.88 percent in 2013; 19.7 percent in 2014 and 21 percent in 2015, according to BMPIA.