The smartphone market in Thailand has become saturated, with handsets costing less than 5,000 baht dropping in popularity as there are not many first-time buyers.
The Thailand Mobile Expo 2017, which runs from now until Oct 1 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, confirmed this trend.
New smartphones have been paraded at the event, including the Samsung Galaxy J7 Plus priced at 12,900 baht, the Huawei Nova 2i four-camera at 10,900 and the Oppo R9s Pro at 13,990. Gionee, a new brand from China, also debuted at the event.
Samsung and LG, both based in South Korea, have campaigns for their flagship smartphones offering a free digital TV set with 36-month instalment programmes.
The latest Galaxy Note8, with a data package bundled by mobile operators, cut its price by 5,000 to 7,000 baht from earlier retail levels. Prices of the iPhone 7 have also been aggressively cut in anticipation of the incoming model.
Intense competition among smartphone makers in the last quarter of this year and the higher price of handsets will drive sales at the four-day event to 2 billion baht, said Opas Cherdpunt, managing director of M Vision, an organiser of the expo.
"This is the first time the value will reach 2 billion baht," said Mr Opas.
New features such as dual cameras will encourage users to buy a new device, he said.
Chanon Jirayukul, sales director of Oppo, said sales for house-branded handsets by mobile operators priced below 5,000 baht are declining as users have more experience with technology and prefer to buy products with higher specifications.
This year, sales in the local smartphone market have contracted for the first time by 2% in terms of individual units sold, while the overall value of the smartphone market has actually grown by 5.5%.
"Users are focusing more on devices priced between 7,000-15,000 baht, accounting for over 30% of sales," said Mr Chanon.
Nutchanon Boonsorn, market analyst at IDC (Thailand), reiterated that sales of house-branded handsets are declining, with subsidised price promotions for low-end brand handsets having ended.
The country's smartphone penetration rate is now 60%. Smartphones priced below 5,000 baht made up 73% of the market in first half of 2016, but accounted for 55% in the first half of this year.
House-branded smartphones by operators also declined from 54% in the first half of 2016 to 23% during the same period this year because mobile operators are feeling less pressure from subscriber migration.
The average retail price for smartphones has increased from 5,800 baht to 7,300.
