The growing popularity of smartphones has sprouted a thriving auxiliary market for mobile accessories like power banks, headphones, data cables, memory cards and phone covers.
The ancillary accessories market is at least one-fourth the current handset market size of Tk 10,000 crore and growing exponentially, said industry insiders.
The global mobile phone accessories market is expected to reach $107.3 billion by 2022, according to alliedmarketresearch.com.
The major factor that boosts market growth is the increase in adoption of smartphones in urban as well as rural areas.
Currently, India's mobile accessories market size is worth about $1 billion and is set to grow 20-25 percent year-on-year, according to a report of Hindustan Times, published in November last year.
“Alongside our handset business we are paying attention to our accessories business too, which is actually growing faster,” said Jakaria Shahid, managing director of Edison Group, the parent company of handset market leader Symphony.
Edison Group started its accessories business in 2012. It imports mobile accessories from China.
Shahid said they are working to start a factory to assemble mobile accessories like batteries and chargers to meet the growing demand.
Bangladesh's mobile accessories market value is about Tk 2,500 crore to Tk 3,000 crore and it is growing more than 30 to 40 percent year-on-year, said Shahid, who is also the general secretary of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association. Alongside popular accessories, some other items like selfie sticks, zoom lens, tripods, mobile ring stands and lens kit are also available in the market. Global brands are also getting into this segment of business.
For instance, Chinese handset maker Huawei is offering a wide range of accessories like bluetooth headphones, fast chargers, power banks and selfie sticks.
The demand for original accessories is gradually increasing as people are now becoming more conscious about authentic products due to their superior quality, said Ziauddin Chowdhury, deputy country director of the device business department of Huawei Technologies Bangladesh Ltd.
“We believe this sector has a huge growth prospect in the country as more and more people are now using smartphones and the government is also planning to introduce 4G technologies, which will give a boost to the overall smartphone industry as well as accessories sector,” he added.
A few years ago, only a handful of wholesalers at the capital's Motalib Plaza used to meet the entire country's demand for mobile accessories, said Md Alamgir Hossain Akash, proprietor of Prince Telecom at the market.
Now, accessories importers have cropped up in other big cities like Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, and even Narayanganj.
Every week, seven to eight containers of accessories are unloaded at Motalib Plaza, where there are hundreds of importers, Akash said, adding that mobile chargers and data cables are the best selling items.
“Teenagers, especially girls, these days use their phone cover as a fashion accessory. Many change covers to match their outfits, so they own more than one cover for a single handset,” he added. E-commerce platforms too are selling mobile accessories. Mirajul Huq, chief executive officer of bagdoom.com, said mobile accessories are selling well on the e-commerce site.
Chargers and covers are the most demanded products, said Kamrul Hassan Mohsin, proprietor of amarpriyo.com, another e-commerce platform.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/market-mobile-accessories-booms-1442281