Price war looms as India phone make creeps in
By PRINCE OSUAGWU
There is likely going to be a quake in the Nigerian mobile phone market very soon, as an Indian mobile phone manufacturer plans to storm the market, threatening to shake the foundations of the existing brands in the market today.
The brand which says it has been monitoring activities of the market and its players through some incisive information from the Vanguard Hi-Tech pages among other publications say it was already doing feasibility study on the Nigerian mobile market and would surely create an upset by the time it eventually berths in a few months to come.
Hi-Tech however reliably gathered that the very weapon that gives this brand all the confidence of winning this looming war is price. The company prides itself as having all it takes to match the known and existing brands in quality and sophistication while aiming to overtake them with an irresistible pricing that would rearrange the status-quo ante.
A reliable source from the Indian brand informed Hi-Tech that the brand considers it a wicked rip-off, the prices of most of the phones refereed as high end in the market today. The source said that in a country like Nigeria where population and insatiable desire for mobile phones among users are the key potentials that can keep any investor in this line of business permanently smiling to the banks, the prices of phones in the market, were to say the least, at the roof top.
“Why would Nigerians pay what they are paying in mobile phones? It is outrageous. In India most of the mobile phones you buy at cut throat prices here are less than half the price and the functionalities are even better.
“With the population and the kind of fashionable people your country has, you are supposed to set the price for any mobile phone maker and not otherwise. Nigeria is unique and you can hardly find another market like it in Africa or even Europe and America. But wait when we come in, you would see a forceful rearrangement of the status-quo ante” he added.
Actually, some mobile phones are over priced just because of the brand name behind it even when the features are the same or more by competing brands. Meanwhile, there are different fragmented category of phones in the market, with very competitive prices challenging for buyers’ attention.
The Over 10 well known brands among other unknown brands have wide differences in prices even when some of them have similar features. Some brands of mobile phones that share the same features are sometimes sold for 5 times the price of the other.
This situation has shut many Nigerians out of their dreams of having choice mobile phones. Ordinarily, all mobile Phones serve the same primary function. Agreed that brand name, features and durability help in driving patronage, but phones that offer the same features should sell within the same range of prices regardless of the brand and consumers should be aware of the need to match functionalities of mobile phones to the price they pay .
The difference in price should be marginal and not 5 times. The importance of mobile phones to everyday life cannot be overemphasized . Although GSM only debuted in Nigeria just in 2001 but it now seems that Nigerians have lived their lives all along with mobile Phones. Mobile Phones have redefined most of Nigerian lives making communication easier and faster than ever before.
Along with the obvious convenience and quick access to help in times of emergencies, mobile phones can be both economical and essential for travelers trying to stay connected.
When it was first introduced, the prices of phones was understandably cut throat expensive but today, after a decade, it is not actually supposed to be so. If the new entrants would cause a quake with prices, they are welcome. Only Nigerians would be good for it.
