Mobile phone companies increased their smartphone product prices in September for the third month in a row, despite the recent increase in prices of some of these products over the past two months. Prices of mobile devices increased from 0.5-11%, including smartphones, tablets, or even some traditional mobile phones. Egypt has been suffering from a serious shortage of US dollar liquidity since 2015. This has pushed the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), in cooperation with the government, to initiate many procedures, such as adding import and customs regulations, cancelling the maximum limit of US dollar deposits, and increasing the dollar value in the formal exchange market in March by 14%. The dollar exchange rate in the banks stood at EGP 8.83 for purchasing and EGP 8.88 for selling. However, in the informal market, the price reached EGP 13. According to the price list for September, a copy of which was obtained by Daily News Egypt, the prices of Huawei products increased by 5-11%. This is the third month in a row that Huawei has increased the prices of its mobile phones and tablets. According to the document, the price of its Y3C mobile phone model increased from EGP 635 to EGP 669, while Y6 Pro's price increased from EGP 1,770 to EGP 1,965. The price of the P9 phone increased from EGP 5,955 to EGP 6,619 and the P9 Plus from EGP 7,595 to EGP 8,440. The price of x2-7-high tablet [Huawei MediaPad X2 seven-inch tablet] increased from EGP 4,400 to EGP 4,890. Samsung and Huawei companies increased their prices in July due to the high exchange rates and scarcity of the US dollar. According to the price lists of both companies, the price hikes range between 8-11.1% on traditional and smart mobile-phones, tablets, and smart watches. Huawei's smart phones and tablets saw price increases of 10-11.1%. Tecno's smart phone prices increased by 4-4.5%, while its traditional phones saw price increases of 7-10.5%. According to the price lists obtained by Daily News Egypt, Tecno's Y2 smart phone model increased from EGP 495 to EGP 515, while DP8's price increased from EGP 1,745 to EGP 1,825. Moreover, traditional phones such as T349 increased from EGP 137 to EGP 149, and T528 increased from EGP 278 to EGP 299. Sales in the mobile phone market retreated locally in the first quarter of this year by approximately 7% compared to the same period last year, according to GfK research institution. The sales in January, February, and March amounted to 4m mobile devices compared to 4.3m mobile devices in the period of comparison for 2015, a loss of about 300,000 devices. In spite of the sales decline the market experienced in the first quarter, the percentage of smart phones sold rose to 62.5% of the total market's sales or 2.5m devices sold. Also, the sales of regular mobile devices rose to 37.5% of the total sales in the first quarter, registering sales of 1.5m devices.
