Smartphone of long service life – Newspaper Kommersant No. 142 (7343) dated 08/08/2022

Demand for shockproof and waterproof smartphones in June-July compared to last year in Citilink almost tripled. The trend is confirmed by other retailers and distributors. In their opinion, it is due to the desire of consumers against the backdrop of falling incomes to purchase a gadget with a longer service life.

For the period from the beginning of June to the end of July, sales of secure smartphones in the Citilink electronics stores increased by 300% in units compared to the same period last year, in money terms the growth was 27% year-on-year. In total, the retailer sold 16.5 thousand secure smartphones of different brands. Pavel Rabotenko, Head of the Cell Phones, Tablets and Gadgets Procurement Group at Citilink, notes that in the summer, sales of secure smartphones grow by an average of 15%, but now the demand is above average. According to him, such devices are mainly chosen for extreme sports or outdoor activities, but now the buyer has paid attention to them due to a longer service life.

A partner of several large retailers confirmed the growth in demand for rugged smartphones; according to him, only the Chinese Doogee more than doubled its sales if we compare the period from January to June 2022 with the same period in 2021: this year, more than 12 thousand smartphones were sold for 193 million rubles, and last year – 5 thousand for 66 million rubles.

M.Video-Eldorado confirmed to Kommersant the positive dynamics in sales of secure smartphones, but noted that this segment still remains niche and occupies less than 1% of the smartphone market in unit sales. The representative of the retailer noted that devices in the middle and upper price segments already have a high level of tightness and impact resistance, for example, according to the IP67 or IP68 standard: film or safety glass. MegaFon agrees that secure smartphones are still of interest to a narrow segment of consumers. Svyaznoy and MTS declined to comment.

Marvel Distribution notes that they observe multidirectional trends in the segment: “In general, the demand for protected models is stable, the leaders of the segment in the Russian market are Doogee and Blackview, they are in demand among the former target audiences. On the other hand, Doogee is not only in demand in retail, but also increases sales in the corporate channel.” Their share in total brand sales, according to the distributor, has already doubled.

According to a source in the electronics market, the demand for such devices has been stable in recent years, but now the reason for the growth in sales could be the sending of “strong” smartphones to volunteers or military personnel in Ukraine. TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov agrees that such devices can be sent to employees in Ukraine and interest in such smartphones has really grown. However, in his opinion, the main reason for the growth in sales was the declining solvency of consumers, who may be counting on a longer life of protected devices.

Timofey Kornev