‘Smartphone Wars in Bangladesh’


Who knew that Bangladesh would be a competitive market in the smartphone business where local
retailers, Facebook page owners, authorized dealers and local brands themselves have to outnumber each other in their product’s price range and specification.

Seen from a bird’s eye view, the smartphone business is all about two issues; killer specs and
unbelievably cheaper price. This policy is not only prevalent in Bangladesh but throughout the world.
If there is a question as to who is the leading smartphone brand in Bangladesh, it’s undoubtedly
‘Symphony’ with device sales close to ten lakh units in a month. Symphony claims 60% market share in the smartphone business where as ‘Walton’ comes right at fourth position with device sales of two lakh units per month. The stats are easy to comprehend as international giants like Samsung and Nokia claims the second and third position with device units as close to five lakh units per month.

The scenarios have changed. It’s the time for phones which are dubbed as smart and phones with buttons are considered obsolete in people’s hands. Phones with buttons, dubbed as feature phones are still bought by customers who doesn’t believe in their phones being extremely large in the pocket, fragile and being
slow.

However, there has been a steep rise in importing the best quality device either by local brands or
international brands. The customers have a great deal of knowledge on what device they are willing to buy. They are more concerned with each specification the seller is selling them with. They never forget to check and recheck each single processor core, RAM and battery capacity the salesman is demonstrating along with the device. If there is any short, the customers prove to be way too dissatisfied.

The companies that ultimately find success in this business is because of their customer service approach despite of what their devices are in terms of quality. Take the instance of a 3000 Tk 8” Smart Tablet sold by a local smartphone importer and the device, despite its overwhelmingly low price and poor build quality is truly loved by the customer who buys it and he knows that he will be having hardware/software issues in a month but he doesn’t mind. He just loves the fact that he owns a device with a one year warranty and he will take it to that local smartphone selling company to fix that in no time. The end results, the company wins the customer’s mind with a cheap device and great customer care support.

More and more international brands are also entering the smartphone wars in Bangladesh like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei and Oppo as they are finding the population in Bangladesh to be the next big number for a lucrative smartphone business market.

Speaking with Kamrul Hasan, Managing Director and CEO of GadgetGang7, a local smartphone importer and distributor, we asked various questions if it’s possible to manufacture smartphones in Bangladesh rather than importing them. He replied that “Producing smartphones in Bangladesh is possible. But it won’t be cost effective. You see, there is a simple math as to how we push this business forward. We import devices which are great in build, both in terms of hardware and software and we try to sell it as close as possible to the local smartphone brands. We also make sure that we are great at customer service.

The end results? We are doing great.” Later, he also mentioned that local brands are planning to assemble some of their devices right in Bangladesh but there is a lot more to go since Bangladesh lacks all the necessary technology to locally produce the hardware and the necessary parts.
If you have ever been to the Farmgate area, you will notice the proliferating number of hawkers selling smartphone accessories like headphones, chargers, OTG cables, screen protectors etc. It proves that the market mostly appeals the middle class who wants a smart device that will open him a door to the whole world where information is abundant and he can also boast with that ‘extra megapixels at the back of his phone.

Great news is that Google is going to officially launch ‘Android One’ in Bangladesh as Symphony
prepares to sell devices with the Android One, a Linux based OS boasts all the exclusive Google wonders and is strong enough to work on low end hardware resulting in a 7-8 thousand Tk smartphone experience.

Let’s look forward into the future as Bangladesh is yet to enter the high tech industry with hopes that it will be smartphone hardware producing nation.

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