Mobile sales below expectations

Kathmandu

The Nepali mobile industry saw a fluctuating business in the year 2015 chiefly because of the massive earthquake in April followed by acute fuel crisis from mid-year. The unforeseen decline in the number of sales has deteriorated the market expectations and performance of majority of mobile brands. However, the performance of some new players was satisfactory. The mobile dealers are optimistic about the revival of the industry in the coming year.

“The sales of Huawei phones went up this year compared to the last year but failed to achieve the set target,” said Summit Pradhananga, Marketing Manager at Huawei Technologies. According to him, due to the country’s situation, the company had to confine themselves to soft launches only. “For 2016, we are planning to do major launches — high-range and mid-range smartphones, tablets and smart watches,” he added.

“Sales that was on rise during the first quarter of the year went down soon after the earthquake and failed to perform as expected throughout the year bringing the overall sales down by around 15 per cent,” said Sachin Udas, Sales Head at Teletalk, authorised distributor of Colors Mobile. According to him, the company stuck to the launching schedules despite all odds and brought new products to the market, in which only the sales of low-end mobiles were high, whereas high-end mobiles could not perform up to the mark.

“We had high expectations in 2015, but due to unforeseen crisis that occurred time and again, the sales declined after the first quarter of the year creating overall decline of 25 to 35 per cent,” said Sumit Sharma, Marketing Manager at Pashupati Trade Link, authorised distributor of Micromax Mobile. “We are hopeful about the smooth performance in the coming year,” he added. As for the new launches, he informed that the company is planning to bring Canvas Pulse 4G E451, Canvas Xpress 4G Q413 and Canvas Spark Q382 soon.

“Initially, the sales was accelerating but after April earthquake, it halted the market for at least a month.

Moreover, the acute fuel crisis since the second half of the year lowered it down than expected,” said Samir Dhungana, Marketing Manager at Teletalk, authorised distributor of Gionee Mobiles. He stated that despite being hit by the crisis, the sales of Gionee Mobiles was higher as compared to the year of its launch (2014). According to him, the sales of Gionee increased by almost 80 per cent, which would have increased by over 100 per cent was there no crisis. “We are hopeful the market environment will be better and we have made plans accordingly,” he added.

“Although sales of the average selling products increased, we could not meet our sales target for the year,” said Vinay Joshi, National Sales Manager at EOL, CG, authorised distributor of Intex Mobiles. He stated that due to the earthquake, the company could not do proper marketing. “We could not on-air even the TVC of our brand,” he said adding that they plan to on-air in coming year. According to him, one positive aspect this year was that the sales indicated people’s growing attraction towards smartphones from feature phones.