Get Mobiles Charged with Accessories

As if sorting through the maze of innumerable brands and varieties to pick up the ultimate mobile phone handset and the right cellular service provider wasn't enough to get connected to the wireless world of communication.

Now, makers of cellular phone accessories are coming up with all kinds of products to dress up your ultimate fab-looking, small, sleek, lightweight and trendy handset in style.

The choice has only become much tougher, with about 4,500 different items on fare. Whether it's a designer leather or neoprine pouches to snugly seat the cellphone, or designer facias or cases to mount the phone for good looks, or portable hands-free microphone earpiece, or flashing devices that enable you to finally overcome the missed call problems.

With cellphones proliferating by the day, the craze has not surprisingly led to mushrooming of the accessories market in the twin cities.

There are up to 50 shops in the twin cities itself selling cellular accessories, doing upto Rs five lakh worth sales a day.

Most of them deal in grey market products, which accounts for 70 per cent of the cellular accessories market. This is because of the high import duty of 29 per cent and an additional 12 per cent sales tax they need to pay on branded imports.

"The accessories market is picking up. Almost upto 30 per cent of our total sales are accessories such as cases (facias), batteries, chargers, pouches etc," says Arvind of Bhaji Mobiles. The pouches, locally manufactured as well as imported from London, China and Singapore, are anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 500.

"Earphones are the fast moving products. We stock the products that are locally made, in Mumbai and Delhi, and brought into the city by agents. They are cheaper at Rs 150," says Md Kamran of Cell Side, which also stocks pouches, antennas, panels, chargers etc.

It is the facias priced in the range of Rs 250 to 400 that are selling like hotcakes, says Md Saifuddin of ATM Mobile Phone Shoppe, who also deals in car stands and car chargers, which are in the range of Rs 200 to 300, cell batteries both branded and unbranded, in the range of Rs 400 to 2,000, while chargers are between Rs 300 and 500. Almost 20 per cent of business comes from accessories dumped into the country from China, he says.

On the other hand, the organised retail market, "a drop in the ocean," in this category is said to be worth Rs 4 to 5 lakhs per month.

While most of the unbranded goods are imported into the country and sold in the grey market, the branded accessories are ordered by the distributors over SMS.

"There are 4,500 items on offer from a single company called Fonerange. There are innumerable products within the categories of pouches, radiation shields, batteries, antennas, charges, holders, vibrating products, facias, housing/cabinets, portable handsfree (PHFs), holders etc," says Naresh R M of Venus Link, the sole distributor for the London-based company in the twin cities.

Then there are flashing products such as pens of Rs 400 or watches of Rs 575, which flash when you receive a call, even if your phone is on the silent mode. There are flashy fruits, strings, vibrating clips, key chains, planes and antennas of Rs 200 upwards.

The hot favourites are car holders of Rs 350, car chargers of Rs 650, radiation shields of Rs 175, PHFs -- both basic and one-touch -- of Rs 325, facias of Rs 450 to 725, belt clips, and even wireless handsfree now.

"By 2003, the market will grow tenfold. For the past 10 days, we have been selling in greeting card shops, bookstores, cellular service provider connects, etc and during that period did Rs 1.5 to 2 lakhs," says Naresh, who opened his distributorship just about 15 days ago, and gets his supplies from Blue Cube Communications in Chennai, which is the sole dealer for Fonerange in India.

He is currently looking at tying up with cyber cafes, coffee shops, and car showrooms etc for displaying the products. "The pricing lends itself to impulse buying. And if the taxes and custom duties are abolished, the products will be more accessible and do extremely well," he adds.