New smart phone sets announced

[Nick]

Apple iPhone 4 will come to Thailand this August or September in association with Dtac-TrueMove and AIS, which will sell the iPhone for the first time, while the iPad will be sold exclusively through iStudio.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the recent political unrest will probably mean the overall smart phone market will not reach its projected second-quarter target of 900,000 units.

An industry source said Apple will launch iPhone 4, the thinnest smart phone in the world with the highest resolution display, in Thailand this September.

It will sell officially through Dtac and True Move and AIS will get the right to sell iPhone for the first time in Thailand but expects that it will be available on the grey market at least two months earlier. Moreover, Apple will launch the iPad formally to the Thai market through iStudio only but will not be bundled with a service provider.

Attaphon Satidkanitkul, research manager at IDC Thailand, said the launch of iPhone 4 will boost the smart phone market with its attractive high-resolution display, Facetime meeting application and backwards-compatible applications for developers.

Major operators are bundling smart phone handsets with data package sand installment programs to boost data revenue. In the next 12-18 months, prices are expected to decline continually due to competition.

For example, data packages which were priced mostly around 900 baht late last year should drop to around 650 baht this year.

Moreover, the downturn in handset sales resulting from the political unrest could drive operators to launch interesting campaigns to attract customers.

Wanwadee Tiavongsuvan, market analyst, telecommunications, IDC, added that this year, vendors are pricing entry-level smart phones at less than 10,000 baht, most notably especially in-house brands with Android platform priced at 6,000-8,000 baht. The growth of the Android OS and BlackBerry are expected to contribute to the decline of Symbian and Windows Mobile's market shares.

In the meantime, the affect from the political turmoil is expected to take its toll on second-quarter results due to the majority of smart phone consumption being in Bangkok and other major cities.Therefore, overall smart phone sales are not likely to reach the sales projection of 900,000 units.But even allowing for an appropriate adjustment in sales, the smart phone is still a growth area and this year user demand, compared with 2008/2009, should translate to overall growth of over 100 percent due to popularity of the handsets and social networking services.

About the author


Writer: Suchit Leesa-nguansuk
Position: Reporter

ที่มา: bangkokpost.com