Nigerian CommunicationWeek

World Gray Market Mobile Phone Shipments Drops

The gray market for mobile phones will contract for the second consecutive year in 2013, with worldwide shipments dropping 12 percent as both makers and buyers of these handsets turn to branded products, according to the China Research Services at IHS.

Shipments reached their peak in 2011 with a total of 250.4 million gray-market mobile phones. But beginning in 2012, the market began to shrink, contracting to 221.5 million units.

The deceleration will continue in 2013 to 194.6 million units, followed by another steep fall in 173.8 million units in 2014.

The decline will continue at least through 2017, when shipments will fall to 133.9 million units.

The gray market overall is impacted by an accelerated decrease in the sales of lower-end handsets known as feature phones.

And while the ultra-low cost handset (ULCH) and smartphone segments of the gray market will continue to grow until 2014, expansion in these segments won’t be enough to counteract the drop in the feature phone sector.

Asia-Pacific, including China, is the largest gray-handset market in the world, and the devices have a strong presence also in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The region, however, is not immune to decline, and the Asia-Pacific gray-handset market will contract in 2013 to 103 million units, on its way to 53 million units by 2017.

The Middle East and Africa in 2012 surpassed Central and Latin America as the second-largest gray handset market, driven by increasing demand from countries such as Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

Gray-market handset shipments in 2013 to the Middle East and Africa will decrease slightly to 38.2 million units.

Central and Latin America together represented the third-largest gray-handset market, with 37.3 million units forecast to be shipped in 2013. Countries in Easter Europe, such as Russia and Ukraine, also are major target markets.

 

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