Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Habit of Filipino buyers changes, turn to less pricey mobile phones
MOBILE phone manufacturer Nokia said its sales have remained strong despite rising prices of goods in the country.
Nokia Philippines general manager William Hamilton-Whyte said the company expects a 10-percent growth in sales volume by the end of 2008.
But Whyte noted a shift in the buying behavior of Filipinos. Those who bought Nokia’s high-end models are now buying middle-end units instead, he told a press conference in Cebu City last Saturday.
Whyte said Nokia gets “much more than half of the market share” in the country.
But despite this, Whyte admitted that the company is facing several challenges, like the emergence of “second-hand” and “refurbished” models and mobile phones belonging to the so-called “gray market,” which are units that are genuine Nokia but are not meant to be distributed in the Philippines.
Phones that are considered to be in the gray market are not supported by Nokia Philippines so having them repaired later on may be more costly than those covered by warranty.
Whyte also admitted that it is difficult to put a stop to the distribution of fake phones.
What Nokia does, instead, is to create awareness on how to make sure that one gets an all-original phone kit.
Whyte said the box of an original pack has a blue sticker indicating the warranty term of the product.
Meanwhile, Nokia is also tapping the growth potential of its “replacement market,” which is estimated to cover 50 percent of its total industry sales.
Those in the replacement market, said Whyte, are loyal buyers who continuously upgrade to newer and higher models.
“They will become more important than new buyers,” he said.
By 2012, he said 3G units—third generation technology phones that are capable of high-speed data and video
streaming—will overtake the use of 2G phones worldwide.
With this, Nokia’s portfolio for 3G phones is also expected to increase. At present, 55 percent of all Nokia units are 3G-enabled.
Last Saturday, Nokia introduced to Cebu four of its latest phone models—the E71, the E66 and the XpressMusic phones 5320 and 5220.
The E71, which features a QWERTY keyboard, and the slide-to-open E66 are the latest “e-mail-optimized” devices from Nokia’s Eseries product range.
The 5320 and 5220, on the other hand, is currently being offered with 100 free song downloads from the Universal Music Group.
All four units are now available in Nokia stores nationwide. (DME)
