FOCUS: Rush for big, bezel-less smartphones drives sales to 350 bln rbl in Jan–Sep

By Yekaterina Yezhova

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- Russians’ growing interest to often costly widescreen and bezel-less smartphones boosted sales 8–11% on the year up to 350 billion rubles in January–September with almost every second device being of a Chinese brand, said top local retailers, who expect the market to maintain the current growth rate till the end of the year.

“Buyers prefer to invest in powerful cutting-edge models that will make life easier and satisfy all demands for the coming two to three years. Affordable programs of installments and exchange of old gadgets for new ones support positive dynamics of the flagship smartphone segment,” head of the mobile electronics department at M.Video-Eldorado Group Vladimir Chaika told PRIME.

The retailer calculated that smartphone sales in the country increased 11% on the year to 350 billion rubles and 4% to 22 million devices in the reporting period.

According to Svyaznoy, nationwide sales rose 8% to 318 billion rubles and 2% to 19.4 million devices.

Know-How Marketing Director Willy Kruchkov said sales of the electronics retailer rose 5% in money terms and fell 2% in units.

The average price added 6% to 16,300 rubles, Svyaznoy said, while M.Video-Eldorado put it at 16,000 rubles, but provided no comparison. Kruchkov said, “The indicator went up 7%. It rose gradually and stood at 2% excluding the iPhone.”

“People more often look at the premium segment and choose better devices for a longer period of use thanks, among others, to convenient installment offers.”

Svyaznoy said devices worth 15,000–20,000 rubles showed the best growth and accounted for 15% of all sales.

According to M.Video-Eldorado, sales of devices with a price tag of over 50,000 rubles spiked 30% in money terms and 25% in units. The share of such smartphones hit a record 25% of the market in money and some 6% in natural terms. Apple’s new iPhone 11 became the key novelty in July–September.

“In October–December, the market will keep similar growth thanks to release of new models, the Black Friday sellout in late November, and the New Year holidays as smartphones traditionally enjoy high popularity as presents,” Chaika at M.Video-Eldorado said.

Know-How expects its sales to increase 25–30% on the quarter in money in October–December, Kruchkov told PRIME.

Top vendors

Apple led in money terms, and Samsung, Honor, and Apple were bestsellers in units, Svyaznoy said.

The share of the top five brands – Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi – amounted to 90% in money and 80% in sales. Among manufacturers, Samsung retained its leadership with a market share of some 30%, Honor and Huawei together had 30%, and Apple followed, M.Video-Eldorado said.

Svyaznoy said the market share of the Chinese brands expanded to 48% in units in January–September from 38.6% in the same period of 2018. They intensively expanded in January–March into the price category of 6,000–10,000 rubles, where Russian and other brands used to play a huge role.

Trends

“The main trend now are bezel-less phones and modernized cameras. If cameras are not of importance for everyone, the screen is a different thing, it’s something with which a user interacts constantly, and a new generation of smartphones wins by style and comfort. Battery aging is also crucial as people exploit mobile services more and more,” Kruchkov at Know-How said.

Svyaznoy Vice President of sales David Borzilov said this year has seen a continued stretching of diagonals of smartphones, which add 0.2 inch on average every year.

“For instance, popular sizes in 2018 were 5.5 and 5.7 inches, this year it’s 6.1 inches and more. Sizes grow in middle and low price segments with standards of 5.5 and 5 inches respectively. The phone stretches, and the bezel shrinks. The width should be 72–74 millimeters for convenient use.”

(63.9542 rubles – U.S. $1)

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