The smartphone market in Bangladesh grew 17 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year as local vendors continue to churn out low-cost handsets amid the fast expansion of 3G network coverage.

However, the market for the smartphones grew only 2 percent in the January-March period compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a report by the India-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

Despite the growth of smartphone market, the overall mobile phone market declined 33 percent during the quarter from the previous one and only grew 4 percent year-on-year.

The dampened market was due to seasonality and a drop in feature phone shipments, the research firm said.

The high sell-in during the last quarter of 2014 on account of Chinese New Year also led to the decline in shipments in the first quarter.

Smartphone shipments contributed 21 percent of the total mobile phone shipments, signalling that vendors now have a greater mix of smartphones in their device portfolio.

The total shipments of mobile handsets in the first quarter were 4.5 million units. Of them, smartphones were 0.9 million units and feature phones 3.6 million units.

Symphony leads by a distance in both the overall mobile phone and the fast-growing smartphone sub-segment, clocking in market shares of 37 percent and 38 percent respectively.

Smartphone shipments contributed 21 percent of the total mobile phone shipments. Photo: Star

"It enjoys not only a healthy market share in Bangladesh but also a good mind share among its end consumer by catering to their needs and preferences," said Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at the research firm. 

Symphony V25, a $60 retail 4" smartphone model, was the vendor's best-selling model in Bangladesh during the quarter.

Samsung however bounced back during the quarter and ended up in the second position in the overall mobile phone market. It has 7.2 percent and 23.4 percent share in the shipment of smartphones and feature phones respectively.

Samsung's Tizen-based Z1 expanded its reach beyond India and made inroads in Bangladesh. The initial sell-in remained healthy and was the number one smartphone model in the country, said the Counterpoint. 

Local vendor Walton continues to target the market with its smartphone-only strategy, which, however, is paying-off, as the vendor occupied the third spot in smartphone segment with its 9.5 percent market share.Its leaner smartphone portfolio in the Primo series is doing well in the entry to mid-level smartphone segment.

Microsoft's entry level Lumia portfolio, especially Lumia 535 and Lumia 532, helped the vendor to clinch the fourth spot in smartphone segment; its market share during the quarter was 5.4 percent.

India's top brand Lava has made significant progress since its foray into the country in 2013. It is now one of the top five brands, capturing a market share of 4.9 percent during the quarter.

Lava Iris X1 was their best-selling model, followed by Lava Iris X1 mini, said the research firm.

Domestic brands like Winmax and Winstar, which continue to among the top five feature phone brands, are yet to make a mark on the smartphone segment given their reach.

Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Mobile phone subscription reached around 123.69 million at the end of March, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

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