Smart devices see a strong market in Hong Kong

According to a recent report from GfK Group, consumers in Hong Kong show high enthusiasm to shell out money for technology that will complement their fast-paced way of life. Despite the increasing cost of living, consumers want to stay updated, connected and entertained anytime and anywhere with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

GfK Hong Kong retail tracking in the first six months of the year revealed over 1.7 million smartphones worth more than $735 million being sold—translating to a massive 68 percent growth over the same period last year. "One of the propelling factors fueling the growth of the smartphone industry is the heated battle of the operating systems," said Walter Leung, general manager of GfK Hong Kong. "The rapid development and improvements of the Android OS have brought about a significant increase in the number of brands and models launched on this platform. Enhanced performance as a result of regular hardware and software advancements have helped maintain smartphone's average selling price at $425."

In 1H10, there were only 22 smartphone models using the Android OS, accounting for only 11 percent unit share in the market. This year, the number of Android smartphones in the market has more than tripled to hit 80 and this has raised its unit share to nearly 40 percent. This means two out of every five smartphones purchased is an Android model (Chart 1).

Another tech device that has been received warmly by Hong Kong consumers, as with the rest of the other major cities around the world, is the tablet. Within the first six months of this year, consumers have spent close to $320 million on over 490,000 units of tablet sold at the average price of $645. "The tablet, with its sleeker form factor, is the perfect product to fit nicely into the 7–10in display segment previously occupied by netbooks, whose sales dipped by 50 percent in 1H11 compared to the year before," noted Leung. "Competition within the tablet industry intensified in Q2 this year and sales propelled sharply after the launch of new tablets using the iOS4 and Android Honeycomb OS."

Within the three months in Q2, some 309,700 tablets worth over 200 million were sold, signifying a massive 67 percent jump over the previous quarter (Chart 2).

"The rapid expansion of the portable technology market is very much attributed to the availability of well-developed infrastructure in Hong Kong that greatly facilitates the usage of smartphones and tablets on the go," stated Leung. "With over 9,000 WiFi hotspots around the city and a very well developed 3G-3.5G network that allows for instant and fast connectivity, we can be sure that the industry will continue to grow at an exponential rate in the foreseeable future."