Smartphone sales on the rise despite declining telecom market

Smartphones, which run on their own operating system, and which provide users with access to the Internet, e-mail, networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, posted higher sales in the first half of this year both in terms of value and in terms of number of units, making it one of the few rising sectors of the telecom market.
"Smartphones have experienced a net rise, both as percentage and in terms of number of units, compared with the similar period of last year," representatives of Vodafone Romania, no. 2 on the Romanian telecom market, told ZF.
The local telecom market fell by around 20% last year, with first-half results of the biggest companies in the industry suggesting that the trend will be preserved this year.
"The smartphones sales increase comes in the context of offers launched by operators to boost mobile Internet consumption, as well as amid a low starting level for the market: less than 10% of the four million mobile phones sold in Romania in a year are smartphones. For instance, Vodafone now sells Nokia 5230 touch screen for 19 euros.
"Smartphones are a mobile phone segment that has risen on a yearly basis since the emergence of the first models in 2004," says Tudor Juravlea, Product Manager of Orange Romania, adding that the operator has recorded an increase of 70% of Blackberry smartphones amid offers that brought the price of terminals to less than 30 euros.