'Local Brands to Dominate Indonesia's Cellphone Market'
An Evercoss tablet. (Antara Photo)
By : Vanesha Manuturi | on 7:27 PM September 14, 2015
Category : Business, Tech
Jakarta. Local cellphone brands, like Evercoss and Advan, are climbing up the food chain in Indonesia and have started eating up the market share of the top contender, South Korea's Samsung, as consumers' appetite for low-cost phones is growing amid a nationwide economic slowdown.
Evercoss captured 18.5 percent of the national market share for handset shipments (including non-smartphones) in the April-June period from 18.2 percent previously, toppling Samsung as the No.1 handset vendor in the country, according to a recent report by Hong Kong's research and consulting firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research.
The local handset brand, manufactured by Jakarta-based Aries Indo Global, also moved up to become the second-biggest smartphone vendor with a 14.3 percent market share.
Trailing behind Evercoss' path is Advan, a brand under Semarang-based Advan Digital, which broke into the nation's top-five of handset vendors in the second quarter with a 7.3 percent market share as of June, from 4 percent in the first quarter. It was also the third-biggest smartphone vendor as of June with an 11 percent market share from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter.
In comparison, Samsung's total market share for all handsets fell to 16 percent in the second quarter from 21.2 percent . The South Korean brand's market share for smartphones also saw a drop to 24.2 percent from 32.9 percent in the previous quarter, although it maintains to be the leader.
"The current economic situation in Indonesia is and will continue to drive consumers towards low-cost smartphones," Spike Choo, director of ICT consulting at Frost & Sullivan in Asia Pacific, told the Jakarta Globe via e-mail on Monday.
According to Choo, local brands are currently at an advantage to sell low-cost phones at a large volume as they continue to improve the capabilities, design and durability of the phones. The weak rupiah, which plunged 15 percent to 14,322 against the American greenback, has also made overseas handsets more expensive, he said.
With an expanding and youthful middle class, Indonesia has been among the top attractions for low-cost smartphones, be it from global tech giants like Google or local branda like Advan. Smartphone shipments into Indonesia are forecast to reach nearly 30 million units this year, up 20 percent from 24.8 million units last year, according to research group International Data Corporation.
Still, in order to maintain dominance in the market, Frost & Sullivan's Choo advised local brands to invest in manufacturing capability in order to keep up with the new brands from leading global brands, Samsung and Apple, while maintaining their low-cost price tags.
"Samsung's newer models are designed and priced for the premium market and will likely not enjoy the kind of volume sales that local brands can sell," he said. "I think [Samsung] will lose their crown by end of next year."
https://jakartaglobe.id/business/local-brands-dominate-indonesias-cellphone-market/
