The FINANCIAL — Mobile phone sales in the UAE are expected to plunge more than 22 per cent in 2009 to 3.99 million units compared to 5.14 million in 2008 due to economic slowdown, according to an industry expert.
"This year's sales are expected to be moderately better over 2009 as 2010 may continue to be challenging. We can only estimate a modest single digit growth but not value growth. New product arrivals with latest technology and better device functionality should give some boost to sales over previous year," Jimmy Patel, General Manager, Jacky's Electronics, said.
Quoting a GfK Retailing report, Patel said the positive factor is that consumers in the UAE always look for the trendiest and latest mobile technology available and change their device more frequently than any other gadget. So there will be a demand but it will be limited.
Outlook
According to Sandeep Saighal, General Manager of Mobile Phones at Samsung Gulf Electronics, 2010 will prove to be the year we see new multimedia technologies, advanced social network and mobile TV applications as well as various operating systems.
"We see a huge growth potential in the youth market in 2010. Through our research, we recognised that the youth mobile market is ripe waiting for the next fashion statement — youth in the Gulf region are constantly looking to express their personality through their gadgets. Mobile phones should boast the best functionally, affordable prices and fashionable looking devices," Saighal said.
"Smartphone sales should show some decent growth this year. With iPhone now coming with the latest technology models, it is good news for this category.
"This addition along with the wide range of BlackBerry models should see this segment grow," Patel said.
According to Informa Telecom and Media, mobile subscription base in the UAE is expected to grow by 7.15 percentage points to 260.10 per cent this year compared to 242.75 per cent in 2009.
Patel said the industry is dominated by Nokia, which commands a market share of around 60 per cent followed by Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG as the major brands in UAE. Industry leaders are gradually feeling the competition from emerging smartphone players like BlackBerry and Apple. This will continue this year as smartphone market will grow faster than the mobile phone with the Apple iPhone making a vibrant entry in this segment.
"It's clear that smartphones are becoming increasingly more popular as consumers more openly embrace higher-end mobile phone features.
"We are safe to project that touch screen smartphone mobile phones will continue to outperform industry incumbents. Keeping up with the global trends, we will see a huge growth in smartphones segment in the region. We expect to see various handsets with value-added features such as push e-mail, messaging, social networking applications increasingly gaining popularity. We also see a demand increase in touch phone category," Saighal said.
According to H.S. Paik, President of LG Electronics Gulf FZE, smartphones will be the segment to watch.
"This year, we will be launching more touch-screen smartphones to grab a bigger share of the market."
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