Intensifying demand propelled Southeast Asia’s smartphone sales volume by 61 per cent in the first nine months.
The ongoing trend of upgrading from basic mobile phones to smartphones, particularly in Southeast Asia’s emerging markets has further deepened smartphone penetration in the region and driving robust sales of the popular gadget, finds GfK.
In the first three quarters of this year, consumers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines have spent US$10.8 billion on nearly 41.5 million units of smartphones.
Among these seven individual markets tracked, Indonesia has the greatest smartphone sales volume and value. Since the beginning of this year, Indonesian consumers have already bought 14.8 million smartphones worth over US$3.33 billion.
Thailand and Malaysia are countries with the next highest smartphone sales volume with 7.2 million and 6.4 million units sold respectively. However, in terms of revenue, the ranking of these two countries are switched with Malaysia garnering US$2.25 billion while Thailand raked in US$1.96 billion in the January to September 2013.
“The increasing affordability of smartphones, particularly in the developing markets is helping many consumers in these countries make the switch from their basic feature phones to own their very first smartphone,” said Gerard Tan, account director for digital technology at GfK Asia.
“It is worth highlighting the significant milestone of September being the month whereby sales penetration reached the halfway mark; where one in every two mobile handsets purchased in the region is now a smartphone.”
In terms of operating systems, Android, with its 72 per cent market share continues to be increasingly sought after across six of the markets. This platform is most widespread in Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore where the operating system now makes up 91, 83 and 81 per cent of total smartphone sales in the respective countries.
In Indonesia, proportion of Android smartphones sales jumped by 23 per cent within a year, from 37 to the current 60 per cent.
