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Sharp enters RI's smartphone market
Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corporation officially launched its 4G-ready smartphone, Aquos Crystal, in Jakarta on Thursday after previously launching the product in the US and Japan last year
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apanese electronics giant Sharp Corporation officially launched its 4G-ready smartphone, Aquos Crystal, in Jakarta on Thursday after previously launching the product in the US and Japan last year.
'Today's launch marks the third place where we are marketing our smartphone ['¦]. And for now, our top priority is to introduce it to Indonesia,' said Sharp Electronics Indonesia president director Fumihiro Irie.
Indonesia has so far contributed to about 40 percent of Sharp's total sales in India, Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Middle East, he told The Jakarta Post after the launch event.
Indonesia, one of the world's largest mobile phone markets, holds great potential for Sharp, he said. The number of cellphones being used in the country hit 308.2 million, surpassing its total population of 250 million people, according to Singapore-based social media marketing agency We Are Social.
However, only 23 percent of the population uses smart phones, based on research by Nielsen.
Irie said that to avoid mainstream competition in the country's smartphone market, Sharp focused its smartphone on the middle to high-end market only.
'Our target is to obtain sales from the middle to high-end market, which accounts for only 30 percent of the country's smartphone market. We won't enter into low-end products that account for 70 percent of the market,' he said, adding that the product would aim for the iPhone, Samsung and Sony markets. The five-inch Android-based Aquos Crystal is priced at Rp 3.99 million (US$302.9), offering a 'frameless' display with a screen that goes from edge to edge.
Sharp Electronics Indonesia's national sales manager for smartphone, David Leonard, said his firm already had 20,000 ready-stocks available across distribution channels owned by its distributor partner PT Surya Citra Multimedia. 'We're also partnering with online store blibli.com to sell the product. We remain open to similar partnerships with other online stores or marketplaces,' he said.
David said his firm targeted to sell no fewer than 100,000 Aquos Crystal phones during the first six months. Irie added that his firm estimated that contributions from smartphones and small-home appliances to its total sales would be just around 5 to 10 percent this year.
TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines would remain the revenue boosters with contributions of 20 percent, 30 percent, 20 percent and 18 to 20 percent, respectively, he said.
Sharp is not the first electronics company jumping into Indonesia's smartphone market.
South Korean giant Samsung and local electronic brand Polytron made their footprints in the smartphone market earlier. The two have also started manufacturing a number of phone products in Indonesia with regard to the government's planned regulation on local content in 4G smartphones. 'For Sharp, we're still considering whether we will do that ['¦],' Sharp Corporation's unit deputy general manager Junichi Iwaki said, adding that the regulation was not yet in place.
The Communications and Information Ministry has previously stated that it would launch the regulation next month, requiring a certain level of local content in the production of 4G smartphones on sale in the country in 2017.
