News
Look West for Distribution
High Activity From the USA
The gsmExchange.com community continues to grow and to complement our successes in introducing key distributors from Africa and Latin America, we have also seen a rise in the membership from the more mature and closed markets and in particular the USA. gsmExchange.com have reported a significant increase in the amount of US companies applying for membership or reactivating their accounts in an attempt to source international contacts. The US, who traditionally was always a Carrier Controlled Market has seen a rapid increase in the volumes of Prepay offers. This coupled with a strong dollar has seen a recent surge from our US members to source new contacts and import stock into the USA. Open Source trading in the USA is more GSM focused than CDMA and as a result has encouraged international distributors to focus more intensely on the US market. The GSM market continues to grow and demand from US distributors looks set to increase through Q3
USA Exporting Apple & Blackberry Products
US distributors still have some advantages, even with a strong dollar. Their access to Apple & Blackberry products has boosted their international sales as dealers search frantically for iPads and the iPhone 4. These products are feature heavily on the trading floor with a large portion of all the trades of US origin.
Refurbished Stock.
The USA continues to be one of the largest markets in refurbished stock. Over the course of the year to date, gsmExchange.com has facilitated in the trade of thousands of refurb deals and continues to see sustained growth in this market, particularly with Blackberry, Apple and Motorola products.
We are Here to Help
As always, your gsmExchange Account Manager is here to help your business to grow. For further information about getting the most from your gsmExchange account, please contact us on +353 1 255 8555
Who Benefited the Most from the Google/HTC Relationship?
HTC have been one of the biggest success stories in the mobile phone industry over the past couple of years. After securing the lucrative contract to produce the Nexus One, Google’s first Smart Phone, HTC was propelled into the top tier of mobile phone manufacturer’s rankings and through the continued success of their own phones, HTC’s business has grown into one of the Super Powers of the Smart Phone industry. But is there conflict between HTC’s own phones and those being produced for Google? Up until recently the Nexus One was only available through exclusive channels in selected countries and it’s poor sales performance has been attributed to this distribution strategy.
On May 19th, gsmExchange.com reported that a decision had been made to change the distribution system and introduce a major distributor into the equation. In theory, this should have changed the fortunes of the Nexus One but new figures produced today reveal that trading on the open market is still poor for the Nexus One while the demand for Google’s closest rival in terms of operating system and design, the HTC Desire has exploded with supply running at only 56% of the current demand. Over the past three months of trading, demand for the HTC Desire has forced the unit price up 8.24% to €404.82 an incredible result compared to the Nexus One who barely managed to hold on its price over the same period, with a small increase of 0.4%.
What is interesting is the demand comparison between both models. The results in June have revealed that the Desire’s demand is outstripping requests for the Nexus One by more 300%. Reports from the trading floor suggest that the international trading community has accepted that the Nexus One is too difficult to source and appears to have focused attention on similar models that are more readily available, resulting in the success of the HTC Desire in this area
Overall the HTC range continues to be extremely popular on the open market and it isn’t only the Nexus One that is suffering from this success. Recent reports from HTC have highlighted the overall growth of their market share which has to have impacted Blackberry and Nokia’s results.
Are you good enough to be the gsmExchange World Cup 2010 champion??
To celebrate the start of the world cup and to make things interesting, gsmExchange would like to invite you to join us in a World Cup prediction competition, with the overall winner receiving a FREE static advertising banner on the trading floor.
The competition is simple, predict the winner in our selected world cup game everyday from now until the final and whoever is most SUCCESSFUL with their choices will be crowned gsmExchange World Cup Champion 2010! Casting your prediction take less than a second!
Just look for the icon on the right hand side of your profile page and simply select one of the two teams playing that day. We will announce the winner after the final and keep you up to date with who is playing who every day!
Good luck to everybody!
iPhone 4G, What Should the gsmExchange Community Expect?
The iPhone 4 launch is only weeks away and from a trade perspective, the wholesale community can expect a peak in prices straight after launch, with demand outstripping supply. After the launch and over the course of the following 6 months, the iPhone 4 would be expected to drop in price somewhere in the region of 4 – 6%
The three previous iPhones have all decreased in price over the first 6 months period, although this figure has continuously reduced per model. The original iPhone saw a drop of 21% in the first 6 months, the 3G model reduced by 11% and the latest 3GS only reduced by 9%.
Statistics from gsmExchange has revealed that demand for the outgoing model could remain in place for up to 6 months although the price will continue to drop. One major consideration for traders is whether or not the difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS will be so extreme that the 3GS could become obsolete overnight. In July 2009, Apple launched the 3GS model to take over from the existing 3G phone. On this occasion, the difference between the two models was relatively minimal and demand for the 3G model remained high. In contrast to this statistic the original iPhone disappeared overnight after the launch of the 3G version. phoneLot recorded a decrease in requests of up to 85% for the original iPhone between June and July 2008.
Early indications from the gsmExchange.com trading platform is showing an expectation of an event similar to that experienced in 2008. Prices fell sharply on the trading floor today with some traders posting offers up to $50 less than before the iPhone 4 announcement.
Google Revert Back To Traditional Distribution Solutions
Google has decided to change their distribution strategy and revert back to traditional distribution solutions. The news comes after months of short supply of Nexus One on gsmExchange.com and looks set to reverse the fortunes of Google in the mobile phone market. We know the Android platform is good, with over 65,000 smartphones that carry it sold every day and we know the manufacturer is good, demand for HTC phones was consistently high in Q1. So it all went down to supply and unfortunately for Google, it appears consumers prefer traditional retail to buying online.
What can gsmExchange Members Expect?
gsmExchange members can expect an immediate rise in demand for the Nexus One, similar to the requests seen after news broke of its launch date. This time however, the demand should be satisfied and we look forward to helping our members in finding new distributors carrying Nexus One stock.
Offer or Request the Nexus One today on gsmExchange.com
gsmExchange’s Security Policy, Unpopular but Necessary
gsmExchange’s strict security policies have always been unpopular with the majority of traders trying to enter the trading platform but this month has really given us good insight into why these measures are necessary. We have heard of an dramatic increase in bogus traders and this month alone was forced to reject and incredible 93% of applications for the good of the gsmExchange community. The majority of those rejected are legitimate businesses but their trading volumes were not in line with those already in the network. These measures always prove unpopular with those who have been unsuccessful in their application but as always stressed by the gsmExchange team, it is important to only invite businesses that can trade on the same level as those already using the platform.
On a plus side, we have been aggressively developing business in new and emerging markets and have successfully signed up a number of leading distributors in South America and Africa. On a whole, the community grew by nearly 30% in Q1 and we are happy to welcome the new members.
2010 to date
Dear gsmExchange Community
As Q1 draws to a close, its time to reflect on the first three months of 2010. For gsmExchange, there are two standout successes that we are extremely happy about. Firstly, the gsmExchange community continues to grow. Secondly, gsmExchange attended three exhibitions in Q1 and the response was extremely positive.
Global Exhibitions
In March, gsmExchange visited Mobile World Congress in Barcleona and exhibited at both CeBIT and CTIA. We would like to thank all of our friends and clients who took the time to visit or meet with gsmExchange during these exhibitions. We would also like to say a special thanks to everybody who took the time to film an interview during CeBIT. Your video's are now posted on gsmExchange and we hope you like them. Finally, a big thank you to everybody who attended our networking parties. We hope you found some good contacts and look forward to seeing you again next year
Feedback and Recommendations.
From our meetings with clients during Q1 we have managed to get a better understanding of your requirements and continue to strive to improve your trading platform. We appreciate your comments and will continue to use your feedback to shape the future developments on gsmExchange.com. If you have any specific suggestions, please contact your account manager.
We continue to help your business grow.
The gsmExchange community continues to grow and has seen an YOY increase of 30% in Q1. gsmExchange has looked at the potential of new markets and is proud to announce new members from Africa and South America on the platform. gsmExchange is dedicated to helping your business grow, so please contact your account manager if you have any questions regarding getting the most from your account.
Refurbishment Board
gsmExchange has acted on the feedback of the community and recently introduced an exclusive trading board dedicated to promoting business between professionals in the refurbishment sector of our industry. The refurbishment trading board has been very active and we look forward to helping businesses in this area grow and get new contacts.
Good luck for Q2
We wish your business well for Q2 and hope to see the good start to the year continue.As always we are dedicated to working hard on your behalf to generate business and introduce you to new and exciting distributors from all around the world. If you have any further questions , please do not hesitate to contact your account manager
Best regards
The gsmExchange Team
Visit gsmExchange at CTIA
Visit gsmExchange at CTIA
Following on from the tremendous success in Germany, we are delighted to inform all our members that we will be exhibiting at the CTIA Wireless Exhibition in Las Vegas. This exhibition will be taking place from Tuesday 23rd to Thursday 25th March 2010. For those of you making the trip, especially our premium members coming from overseas, please visit us at our stand # 5942 in the North Hall and we look forward to helping you network with other members from the gsmExchange community.
If you are a premium member and would like some visibility at the exhibition but are unable to make it, please contact your account manager and he will be happy to help you.