It’s no secret that smartphones are one of the hottest products offered in the current market. Consumers absolutely love android technology and the everlasting Apple iPhone series. Even during the holiday season where shoppers tend to plea to decrease their spending, smartphone retail sales demonstrate the complete opposite. This most recent holiday season was just roaring for retailers both physical and online.
Amazon stepped up with an unbeatable sale for Black Friday. The online superstore put over 100 smartphones on sale for just 1 cent each with a new 2 year contract. The lineup included top phones such as the Samsung Galaxy II, Motorola Razr 4G, Droid Bionic 4G, and the Epic Touch 4G. On top of that, if the customer opted to sign up for hotspot data plan on their contract; they would receive an additional $100 Amazon gift card. While major retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart began their Black Friday sales 1 day before, Amazon went Black Friday live on November 21st, one week before the biggest holiday sales day. Best Buy still managed to rise up as one of the strongest sellers of the season. Amongst all of the stand-alone electronics sold during this period, the only products with a considerable increase in sales were smartphones and tablets.
The big winner this season was without a doubt the Apple Company. As usual, Apple didn’t participate in the whole giving customers a discount fiasco. Any time of the year Apple’s loyal customers are willing to drop hundreds of dollars on the newest iPhone so the reasoning to decrease prices isn’t exactly present, yet.
One of the reasons why we witness such demand is because of the technology applied to today’s phones. The Mass are now understanding that owning a smartphone is like a having a mini computer with you, oh yeah, and with a really good quality camera. The point and shoot camera market has been one of the most affected this holiday season, dropping in almost 18% in sales as compared to last year. Consumers think it only makes sense; you take a picture on your phone, and in just a couple of seconds you have it uploaded on Facebook. You record a small video, and in just a couple of minutes you are sharing it with the world on YouTube.
It’s not just Apple Siri, all smartphones released this year allow you to simply type in or speak the address or name of the location you want to be guided to. Then, a fully functional GPS pops up giving you the most accurate directions. So why spend over $100 dollars for a GPS that requires you to purchase yearly updates when you can get a just as good GPS on your phone that updates automatically for free?
The smartphone market is simply killing the market now and how strong they finished this holiday season just proves how much consumers in the U.S love the product, and we can expect this type of momentum to continue next year.
