Kathmandu

Unlike yester years, this year the mobile brands could not do well in the Nepali market during this festive season. The long-standing Tarai unrest followed by acute fuel shortage just before the festivals has discouraged customers from buying new mobiles during this merry making season. The industry was gradually rising again after the massive earthquake but the Tarai turmoil again hit it hard, if not knocked down.

According to mobile distributors, the industry has experienced a huge decline in sales by around 40 per cent compared to previous year. Although mobile distributors claim to have been trying their best to improve their sales, the market does not seem to progress until the Tarai unrest is resolved.

Citing that the sales during this festive season has been largely affected by fuel shortage, Marketing Manager at Pashupati Trade Link, authorised distributor of Micromax, Sumit Sharma said, “Mobile brands in Nepal have been hit hard by the Tarai turmoil as the festive sales reduced by nearly 50 per cent.” According to him, the company is running out of stock and that it is not being able to supply the new products in the market due to the fuel shortage.

Similarly, Micromax did not come up with any consumer scheme as such due to the same reason. “We are doing

our level best to boost the sales but it largely depends on the socio-political situation of the country,” he mentioned.

The company is waiting for the situation to improve in order to launch its new products — E455, Xpress 2 E313, Bolt D305 and Canvas Juice 3 Q392.

“It was obvious for us to witness growth in sales during this festive season compared to last season as we were a new player in the market then,” said Samir Dhungana, Marketing Manager at Teletalk Nepal, authorised distributor of Gionee Mobiles. “However, the sales did not meet our expectations due to the Tarai unrest and fuel crisis,” he informed. Complaining that they could not conduct promotional activities in a full-fledged way, he said, “We could carry out merely few ground level of marketing to reach out the market due to fuel crisis.” The company launched two new models — F103 and Marathon M5 followed by Elife E8 just before Dashain. For the new launches, he stated that the market stability would determine their new launches.

Likewise, the sales of Huawei mobiles did not meet their expectation although there was increase in sales compared to the last festive season. “We succeeded to recover soon post-earthquake but due to the recent blockade has largely affected the festive sales of mobiles,” said Summit Pradhananga, Marketing Manager at Huawei Technologies, adding, “Nevertheless, we consider the sales to be better than what we expected under current economic turmoil.” He said, “Our plan is always there to provide better service to our customers but market progression largely depends on the improvement of socio-political condition of the country.”