Strong sales seen for affordable, China-made gadgets, phones

DESPITE projecting single digit growth in sales, a company, which tracks sales trends of consumer durables and gadgets, still sees big big growth for China-made brands this year like Cherry Mobile and My Phone in the country.

Jake Savellano, GFK Philippines country general manager, said the government had initially projected 16 percent growth in sales in this sector but because of the recent conflicts in oil-producing countries like the Middle East and Africa as well as the recent crisis in Japan, a realistic projection would just be single digit growth.

“These factors have affected oil prices and the remittances of OFW (overseas Filipino workers) from the area has declined. Some OFWs ending up coming home. These factors affect purchasing power, which can translate to fewer units sold or lesser revenues,” said Savellano.

With these factors, Savellano said pricing would drive the purchasing behavior of Filipinos.

Savellano said that a typical Filipino consumer would have a brand in mind when he goes to malls to shop for a gadget or cellphone.

But when he enters a store and sees a lot of other cheaper brands that he hadn’t heard of before which have similar features and designs, he said, that would be the time the consumer would compare products. And he would usually end up buying the cheaper gadget.

“This is the reason branded products now also tend to slash their prices in order to compete,” he said.

Savellano said that an LCD (liquid crystal display) television screen used to cost at least P50,000 for branded models.

Now theis has gone down to P20,000 and even P19,000 for some brands like Samsung.

“The market has shifted from very branded to not so branded but with comparable perceived quality. For example is Devant is comparable to Samsung but costs less.”

He said the same trend applies to cellular phones and electronic gadgets.

While high-end smart phones are a hit in the market with the entrance of brands like BlackBerry and Apple iPhones, many Filipinos still look at other brands like Cherry Mobile and My Phone, which also has smart features and are priced at very affordable rates.

“Cherry Mobile and My Phone are Filipino brands manufactured in China. They are being introduced here as high quality durable phones that fit the Filipino taste. They are also very bullish in the market with promotions around the country.”

He said this was also the reason for Nokia Philippines’ announcement to try to regain its spot as the preferred mobile phone brand in the country.

Nokia earlier introduced new phone models that included two dual-sim phones C2-00 and the smart phone X1-01 as its bet to regain their standing in the market.