PRESS: Handset imports falls 3% in H1 on underperforming market

MOSCOW, Sep 2 (PRIME) -- Russia’s imports of smartphones and feature phones decreased 3% on the year to 20.7 million devices in January–June with the fall occurred mainly in April–June, business daily Kommersant reported on Monday, citing GS Group’s figures.

Supplies fell 19% on the year in April–June after a 16% rise in January–March. Imports of feature phones and low-price devices for less than 7,000 rubles plunged 44% to 7.7 million devices, or 37% of the total volume.

“Betting of importers on decreased incomes of households turned out to be wrong: the consumer needs a modern smartphone, not a feature phone,” head of GS Group’s analytical center Alexander Surkov said.

Under the pressure of the U.S.’ ban, Huawei cut supplies of smartphones to Russia in April–June by 15.1% and ceded the first place to Samsung.

A source in a retailer told Kommersant that the market is below expectations this year. There has been a year-to-year fall in the number of sold smartphones from July.

Head of the mobile department at Marvel-Distribution Pavel Vyukov said that prospects for 2019 were overestimated and there were imported far too many devices at the end of 2018. The situation could remain till the end of 2019, he said.

(66.4897 rubles – U.S. $1)

End