Ooredoo's debut sparks surge in sales of touch-screen handset
Demand for touch-screen handsets surged as soon as Ooredoo Myanmar introduced its SIM cards earlier this month, staff at mobile phone shops say.
They put the jump in demand down to the fact that Ooredoo SIM cards allow Internet access, but say that after the initial sales surge the market “settled down”.
“Sales of handsets with 3G functions soared when Ooredoo introduced its SIM cards,” said Sithu Min from Mobile Image, which sells mobile phones. “New Samsung and Nokia keypad handsets have entered the market at about Ks 40,000 apiece, but they are not popular like touch-screen handsets, which are affordable and can be used to access the Internet,” he said, adding that after the initial surge, sales of touch-screen handsets were now “stable”.
Sithu Min said his impression was that customers are still waiting to see which operator will provide the best service. Telenor Myanmar is set to launch its network early next month, and has hinted that its strategy will be to undercut Ooredoo by offering cheaper SIM cards as well as cheap 3G handsets for people who sign up to its service. It said it will begin selling millions of SIM cards for Ks 1,500 or less in September. They can be used in all GSM handsets.
Sithu Min said customers were not buying handsets in advance of Telenor’s debut.
Sales staff at Mobile World agreed that there was an initial surge in sales of handsets as soon as Ooredoo SIMs hit the market, but that this quickly “settled down”. However, demand for 3G touch-screen handsets remains high, sales staff said.
“We sold a lot of handsets when Ooredoo introduced its SIM cards, but sales have settled down,” one sales person at the shop said.
Keypad handsets with 3G functions from China are entering the market at a price range of Ks 27,000 to Ks 45,000, while prices of touch-screen handsets range from Ks 50,000 to more than Ks 100,000, sales staff said. Demand for touch-screen handsets remains high, and prices of some popular models have been increased slightly, they said.
Since the government opened the telecoms sector to competition the market has seen the arrival of two foreign competitors: Qatar-based Ooredoo and Norway-based Telenor. Myanmar Telecommunications Corporation, formerly Myanmar Post and Telecommunications, had enjoyed a virtual monopoly, charging at one time up to US$5,000 for a SIM card.
Last month it announced a deal in which two Japanese firms, mobile carrier and trading house Sumitomo, in which the pair would invest $2 billion to upgrade and expand its network over the next 10 years. A fourth firm, Yadanapon Teleport, has said it should not be counted out of the race for what has been describe as the telecoms market with the potential to be the world’s fastest-growing market due a low penetration rate – estimated at around 10 per cent – and an economy that has been expanding at a more than 7 per cent rate over the past two years. That growth rate, some economists say, could continue for several years, or longer.
