With crisis, Brazilian back to basic cell phone

São Paulo – In times of crisis, the Brazilian market of mobile phones took a step back: the sale of basic phones, without internet access, has grown 18.5% in the year 2016, in comparison with the previous year, according to data from consultancy IDC Brazil. In all, the equipment type 4,900,000 were sold in the country over the past year.
"The crisis and the devaluation of the real against the dollar, especially at the beginning of the year, influenced a lot in this movement," says Leonardo Munin, research analyst of IDC Brazil. As many of the components of smartphones are imported – most appliances are only assembled in the country, the influence of the dollar made the Smartphone market of entry be little accessible to many Brazilians. "The user who wanted to buy a new smart phone just having to get back to a more basic model," says Munin.
"Consumers can stay without a high specification product, but not without a phone," says Francisco Hagmeyer Jr., DL''s commercial Director, one of the leading manufacturers that have benefited from the more basic devices-called feature phones.
Fernando Pezotti, Director General of Alcatel in Brazil, another factor that influenced the setting was the end of the law, which granted tax exemption to some cheaper smartphones. "With the end of the law, the appliances were up 10% more expensive.
Market
The most basic phones, according to IDC, accounted for 11% of the sales volume of devices in the Country in 2016, but represented only 2% of the turnover of the manufacturers in the country. In all, the sector-including the sale of smartphones – had fall of 5.2% last year, with appliances marketed 48,400,000. In 2015, were 51,100,000 of devices.
Alone, the market of smartphones had fall of 7.3% over the year, with 43,500,000 units sold. Even with the drop in sales, Brazil remained in fourth place in the global market, in terms of quantity of smartphones sold.
The average price of the units, on the other hand, grew from R$ 882 in 2015 to 1050 R$ in 2016. According to Munin, it happened because the manufacturers began to invest in intermediate devices or above, which has a higher profit margin in a time of crisis.
For 2017, the IDC''s expectation is optimistic: the forecast is that they sold cellphone 49,200,000, 1.6% more than in 2016. Of these, about 45 million are smartphones, with expected growth of 3%. "We can say that the worst for the Smartphone market has passed," says Munin.
According to IDC analyst, this will be a year of exchange for smartphones for many Brazilians-the life cycle of a device, today, is in about two years. Because of the crisis, some consumers initially put the new purchase, but it must happen now. "The Brazilian uses both the smartphone that will accept to pay a little more than the first purchase him," explains.
For Pezotti, Alcatel, besides slight improvement in the economy, another factor should help sales of smartphones this year: the looting of the dormant accounts of the guarantee fund for length of service (FGTS), to be held until July. "With the crisis and the devaluation of the real against the dollar, the user who wanted a new smartphone ended up having to go back to a more basic model," says Leonardo Munin, an analyst at IDC Brazil.