Bangladesh's smartphone market shipments declined by 7% YoY in Q1 2022, according to the latest analysis from Counterpoint Research.
Bangladesh’s smartphone market shipments declined 7% year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2022, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor Service. Rising inflation and ongoing component shortages led to a decline in shipments in the quarter.
“Smartphone shipments experienced weak momentum due to rising inflation leading to weakened consumer demand in Q1 2022. The brands which have not entered local manufacturing ecosystems stumbled during the quarter due to a hike in import duties to 55%, up from 28% in December. Consequently, brands such as Apple, and OnePlus experienced declines in Q1 2022. Other smartphone OEMs with significant presence in Bangladesh that had already set up local manufacturing units in the last few years did markedly better,” said Senior Analyst Karn Chauhan.
Bangladesh’s overall mobile handset market declined 29% YoY in Q1 2022 (smartphones declined 7%). Symphony maintained the top position in the handset market, capturing 25% share in Q1 2022. The feature phone market declined 38% YoY in Q1 2022 as the shift to smartphones continued. Symphony led the feature phone market with a 36% share followed by iTel, Walton and Nokia HMD. Smartphone shipments made up nearly 38% of the overall handset market in Q1 2022, up from 29% in Q1 2021.
Note: Xiaomi includes Poco brand
5G smartphone shipments grew 11% YoY in Q1 2022. 5G smartphone sales are still in their early stage, accounting for just 9% of total smartphone shipments. Counterpoint Research expects 5G smartphone shipments in mid-to-high price tiers to continue to grow in 2022. This follows work on 5G test cases and applications being started by network operators from April 2022 after the first 5G auction took place in March 2022.
With Covid cases gradually diminishing and immunization rates increasing, customers are reverting to offline stores, which have historically accounted for the majority of sales in Bangladesh.
Research Director Tarun Pathak said, “Rising inflation rates and shrinking purchase behavior may act as bottleneck for the growth of Bangladesh’s handset market in 2022. At the same time, the smartphone transition, and progressive diffusion of 5G smartphones to the entry-level price tier will help the smartphone market to grow. The $150-$249 price range has the potential to be the fastest growing smartphone segment in 2022.”
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