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Thailand's Mobile Phone Market Falls by 7% Due to Seasonality and Import Ban
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Thailand's mobile phone market recorded a growth of 5% in in 2Q 2012 year-over-year but declined by 7% compared to Q1 with total shipments of 5.3 million units, according to IDC calculations.
"The feature phone market was temporarily disrupted by the ban on phones that lacked standard certificates which resulted in the shipment drop of 2% quarter-over-quarter. Moreover, demand for higher-end feature phones continued to be cannibalized by the rising popularity of entry-level smartphone," said Jarit Sidhu, Market Analyst for Client Devices Research at IDC Thailand.
"Overall smartphone market also witnessed a seasonal drop of 21% quarter-over-quarter. Contraction that happened in high end market was due to the fact that consumers chose to delay their purchasing decision and sit in anticipation of the new handsets expected to launch in Q3 and Q4."
In the first semester of 2012, the mobile phone market in Thailand expanded by 7% compared to the first semester of 2011 with shipment reaching new high in Q1.
"As anticipated, smartphone market continues to gain traction while feature phone market remains tepid. A Large proliferation of smartphones being offered to the market at different price points, together with the drives from telecom operators through the expansion of 3G service coverage and attractive bundled offers on data packages, will continue to stimulate consumer demand throughout the year," Jarit added.
IDC's updated forecasts indicate that the growth feature phone market in 2012 is likely to be flat and will maintain single-digit percentage growth from this year onwards as demand is shifting toward smartphones. As such, the smartphone market should be able to achieve the growth of nearly 40% this year. The expansion in high end segment will be because of the launch of new highly anticipated handsets while entry-level segment will be boosted by the entrance of local and Chinese vendors.
Tags: [Thailand]
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