<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>2m cellphones snapped up in 10 months
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Irene Tham
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Even in this recession year, Singaporeans - wooed by telcos and retailers - have snapped up an estimated two million mobile phones in the first 10 months of the year.
That works out to a whopping 200,000 sets each month in that period.
Market research firm GfK Asia, which tracks sales by retailers, said these companies had sold 1.07 million mobile phones - 220,000 more than in the same period last year.
Its sales figures, GfK said, traditionally account for about half of the number of mobile phones sold here.
GfK's figures did not include sales through the three telcos - SingTel, StarHub and MobileOne.
GfK and consumers The Sunday Times spoke to cited the lure of attractive subsidies dangled by telcos, special offers by retailers, and the launch of new touchscreen and smartphones with Internet, multimedia and e-mail features.
GfK noted that after June, when mobile number portability was introduced, higher telco subsidies were dished out as the rivals fought to retain or win over users, who now get to keep their cellphone numbers even if they switch operators.
Ms Jacqueline Yeo, 35, who runs a public relations consultancy firm, did not ditch her telco of 10 years.
But she did ditch her Nokia N80 to upgrade to an LG Viewty touchscreen phone in April because of the offer her operator dangled before her.
She paid only $200 for the high-end Viewty, worth over $600, after redeeming a $100 handset voucher and signing a new two-year contract with the telco.
On the other hand, Ms Rebekah Woo, 35, an advertising and promotions manager at a property firm, switched to a rival telco due to a lack of promotion by her operator.
She had stuck with her telco even though it did not woo her with any incentives after the initial plan expired a year ago.
'The push to make a switch came when my mobile phone started to hang.'
In November, she signed up with a rival telco and upgraded to Sony Ericsson's C902 5-megapixel camera phone, which had a high-end camera she coveted.
The popularity of touchscreens was also a big factor in the overall brisk sales.
For instance, the touchscreen iPhone has been SingTel's bestseller since the product's launch here in August.
SingTel's exclusive right to distribute the iPhone here gave the telco its strongest quarterly growth in post-paid mobile subscribers since 2001.
During the quarter ended September, Singapore's largest mobile phone operator signed up 45,000 new post-paid customers. It also sold 62 per cent more handsets than last year.
'People are still upgrading and signing up for new lines,' said a SingTel spokesman, who declined to reveal actual mobile phone sales.
No.2 mobile operator StarHub too has seen a 'double-digit' increase in handsets sold in the first nine months, said head of consumer sales Ng Long Shyang.
The bestsellers are touchscreen and smartphones with Internet and e-mail access. These include the Samsung Omnia, Nokia E- series, HTC Touch series and the Blackberry Bold.
During the quarter ended September, StarHub registered 17,000 new post-paid subscribers. M1, which said it 'hasn't seen any drop' in phone upgrades, signed 6,000 new post-paid customers in the same quarter.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Irene Tham
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Even in this recession year, Singaporeans - wooed by telcos and retailers - have snapped up an estimated two million mobile phones in the first 10 months of the year.
That works out to a whopping 200,000 sets each month in that period.
Market research firm GfK Asia, which tracks sales by retailers, said these companies had sold 1.07 million mobile phones - 220,000 more than in the same period last year.
Its sales figures, GfK said, traditionally account for about half of the number of mobile phones sold here.
GfK's figures did not include sales through the three telcos - SingTel, StarHub and MobileOne.
GfK and consumers The Sunday Times spoke to cited the lure of attractive subsidies dangled by telcos, special offers by retailers, and the launch of new touchscreen and smartphones with Internet, multimedia and e-mail features.
GfK noted that after June, when mobile number portability was introduced, higher telco subsidies were dished out as the rivals fought to retain or win over users, who now get to keep their cellphone numbers even if they switch operators.
Ms Jacqueline Yeo, 35, who runs a public relations consultancy firm, did not ditch her telco of 10 years.
But she did ditch her Nokia N80 to upgrade to an LG Viewty touchscreen phone in April because of the offer her operator dangled before her.
She paid only $200 for the high-end Viewty, worth over $600, after redeeming a $100 handset voucher and signing a new two-year contract with the telco.
On the other hand, Ms Rebekah Woo, 35, an advertising and promotions manager at a property firm, switched to a rival telco due to a lack of promotion by her operator.
She had stuck with her telco even though it did not woo her with any incentives after the initial plan expired a year ago.
'The push to make a switch came when my mobile phone started to hang.'
In November, she signed up with a rival telco and upgraded to Sony Ericsson's C902 5-megapixel camera phone, which had a high-end camera she coveted.
The popularity of touchscreens was also a big factor in the overall brisk sales.
For instance, the touchscreen iPhone has been SingTel's bestseller since the product's launch here in August.
SingTel's exclusive right to distribute the iPhone here gave the telco its strongest quarterly growth in post-paid mobile subscribers since 2001.
During the quarter ended September, Singapore's largest mobile phone operator signed up 45,000 new post-paid customers. It also sold 62 per cent more handsets than last year.
'People are still upgrading and signing up for new lines,' said a SingTel spokesman, who declined to reveal actual mobile phone sales.
No.2 mobile operator StarHub too has seen a 'double-digit' increase in handsets sold in the first nine months, said head of consumer sales Ng Long Shyang.
The bestsellers are touchscreen and smartphones with Internet and e-mail access. These include the Samsung Omnia, Nokia E- series, HTC Touch series and the Blackberry Bold.
During the quarter ended September, StarHub registered 17,000 new post-paid subscribers. M1, which said it 'hasn't seen any drop' in phone upgrades, signed 6,000 new post-paid customers in the same quarter.
:o
