Despite the progress, the local market is still lagging behind the rest of the region and Europe, where penetration rate exceeds 70% or even 100% in Germany’s case. Each household in Europe’s most developed economy has at least one smartphone.
The computer and electronics market was among the worst hit by the crisis, almost halving in 2009-2010, only to return to growth afterwards. The first significant progress came last year, when overall sales of both large home appliances and computers and smartphones stood at more than EUR2 billion for the first time since 2008.
Sales of smartphones were on the rise even during the crisis, despite the dwindling consumer spending appetite. The upward trend has not changed over the last few years.
“The penetration of smartphones is still relatively low in Romania in comparison with other CEE countries, assuring stable and dynamic growth,” the representatives of market research company Euromonitor say.
The local smartphone market stood at some EUR500 million last year, 50% higher than in 2013, so smartphones account for 90% of the mobile phone market by value. Smartphone deliveries accounted for about 55% of the total market by volume, according to ZF’s calculations based on information from local subsidiary of South Korea’s Samsung. According to the same source, the local mobile phone market stood at more than 4.5 million units worth over EUR550 million last year, while the smartphone market reached 2.5 million units and over EUR500 million.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)