We have used PriceTRAX handset retail pricing data to analyse some smartphones which are available across various BRICS countries.  The results available in this full write up show mixed tendencies;

South Africa had the highest average smartphone pre-tax retail price closely followed by Brazil and Russia.   The report highlights the differences in smartphone product availability across these countries. For example South Africa showed a strong bias towards high end devices which results in the higher retail ASPs.

Overall, Brazil had the highest average retail price when taxes were included and India had the lowest, irrespective of product type, with the remaining BRICS countries jostling for position in the middle ground– full details on p.2

Non-smartphones were approximately a third of the price of smartphones in each country, ranging from $13 (Samsung E1080) in South Africa, to $890 (LG KM900 Arena) in Brazil.

Samsung’s Corby II S3850 and Galaxy Y were the lowest entry-level smartphones at around $100 in China, India and Brazil. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 at $104 was the most affordable smartphone in South Africa.

This report analyses the differences in Pay As You Go (PAYG) or pre-paid retail handset prices across the BRICS markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which account for approximately one third of the global population. The PriceTRAX data capture for this report includes: date, country, network and operator, handset OEM, model name and retail price, tariff name, price and contract length. This amounted to 32,000 data points from 188 handsets that appeared in operator portfolios across three or more BRICS countries. 

If you want to try the PriceTRAX database for yourself, just click HERE.

Stephen Entwistle

This blog touches upon similar topics from several other Strategy Analytics services.

For more information about the mobile device market including wholesale pricing, see our Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service.

For more information about the emerging markets, see our Emerging Markets Communications Strategies (EMCS) service.