Handset market updates

Wholesalers are making nice profits by abusing the subsidized offers for several models - mostly low ends, but the iPhone, as we all know, is right there too.

Hot deals

First it was the iPhone. With the recent price drop in the UK it is now selling at £169 for the 8 GB version. With a wholesale price of c. £245 on our trading floor, box breakers stand a good chance of making a healthy margin, before that the market price eventually starts to drop. Incidentally, according to Mobile Today, Carphone staff has been reporting "highly irregular" buying behavior around the device!

And now Asda is heavily promoting four models: three Sagems and one Nokia, priced at £5 a piece. The models available are Nokia 1112, Sagem My212x, Sagem My220x and Sagem My150x. Industry sources estimate that Asda is potentially losing £300 000 in subsidy exploited by box breakers.

This promotion has been launched a few days ago, and we have yet to see the effect on the price of these handsets, especially on the Nokia 1112.

And more to come

Vodafone announced in their press release, that Apple has agreed to supply it with the iPhone in 10 countries. Vodafone customers in the following countries will be able to have an iPhone: Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

It will be interesting to know what effect this will have on iPhone trade. One thing for sure: there will be less iPhone exports out of the US. But, globally trade in the iPhone might actually increase: box breakers in these countries will take care of that.

We are interested to hear from you about this, and if you have seen any direct effect on the market.

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