Mobile Accessories Returns To Growth
July 2010Telecommunications, UK
The majority of Telecoms is back into growth in June 2010 compared to 2009, helped by the low sales experienced in 2009. While Mobile Broadband and Mobile handsets grew due to the flexibility of the prepay packages and strong price promotions, Landline telephones declined due to strong sales in 2009.
Excluding Christmas which saw a moderate rise, Mobile Accessories has maintained steady sales over the past nine months, varying by just 4% volume and 9% value since October, averaging out at 566,000 sales generating £7.8million a month. This is in contrast to the first nine months of 2009 that saw a rapid rise in Accessories which was driven by the huge increase in demand for the Protection market of Cases, Covers and Screen Protectors. Resulting from the surge in popularity for Touchscreen phones and high-end Smartphone devices, this ascent came to a point in October 2009 before reaching a plateau.
In June 2010, the Mobile Accessory market saw a return to growth, once again driven by the Protection market. Cases, Covers and Screen Protectors now account for 52% of all Mobile Accessories sold, and yearly sales have grown 80% on the previous 12 months. However, the Protection market has shown to operate quite differently to the rest of the Mobile Accessories industry.
Many Mobile Accessories categories have developed to be universal across devices created by many phone manufacturers. In June 2010, these universal products accounted for 47% of Mobile Accessories excluding Protection. In contrast, the Protection market is dominated by bespoke products that only work with a single vendor. Universal products accounted for just 30% of the Protection market. The result of this is that for many Mobile Accessory categories, a single product purchase will suffice for all subsequent phones bought. However for Protection, a new purchase is required for every new phone bought, which will be driving sales as long as consumers continue to upgrade to new handsets.
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