Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cell Phone Makers Lose Ground in 2009


By Waseem Afzal

Thanks in large part to the dramatic decline in the economy, very few industries have emerged unscathed. It is no secret that one of the most negatively impacted has been the producers of cell phones and corresponding handsets. The industry that produces these items are suffering not only from a significant decline in demand but increases in material costs has lead to major problems. Because Sim free mobile phones are comprised of many components produced from petroleum and oil prices have been increasing, the cost of these products have greatly increased over time.

Over the past several months, the market leader in cell phone sales has been Nokia and the company has reported a 66% drop in its profit margin. It also pointed out that sales declined by more than 25% during the exact same timeframe the prior year. The company's competitors in the mobile phone market, Ericsson, Sanyo and Samsung, have also reported sharp declines in sales as well.

The one bright spot on the books for Nokia was their sales of smart phones. According to the company, Nokia was able to expand it market share and sell more smart phones than ever. While the company expects the sales of smart phones to remain steady or even increase, they are not expecting a sudden rebound in sales of their traditional Sim free mobile phones. According to most expects, as long as the global recession continues, consumers will be willing to hold onto their old Sim free mobile phones rather than replacing them with a newer, flashier models.

Can customers expect special deals or price declines?

Thanks in large part to the significant drop off in sales figures, cell phone manufacturers have opted to become more desperate. Some of these manufacturers are not looking at expanding their market. They are looking at simple survival. Despite being a market leader, Nokia has decided to completely avoid looking at plans for significant market expansion. Currently, the company is hoping to remain the leader of the current depressed industry. Despite the fact that there are prices the Sim free mobile phone can not decline beyond, it is possible that prices will continue to slowly be reduced as the economic slowdown expands across the globe.

In a plan to increase sales, Nokia has been strong-armed to reduce the price of traditional products such as handsets. Surprisingly, the traditional price of the average Nokia handset was reduced from $104 last year to roughly $88. Despite its lower price, Nokia saw sales of fewer than fifteen percent fewer devices this year than what the figures were well over 12 months ago. Thanks to a problematic economic environment, corporations have little choice but to reduce prices in a last gasp attempt to maintain sales volume stability or, at least, to a point that is nearly stable.

Makers of Sim mobile phones are also aware of the fact that the trend in mobile phone is going away from traditional cell phones and toward devices like the smartphone and Iphone that provide custom content. However, there are also know that their business still relies on sales of traditional mobile phones to keep them afloat.

From this point on, it can be difficult to predict the type of prices or deals customers can look forward to. It has become an economic reality that as long as the recession continues to unfold, mobile phone manufacturers will be required to reduce prices to deal with declining demand.

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