Cell phone imports grow over 104%

The legal import of cell phones has increased 104.4 percent following the launch of a recent plan by President Hassan Rouhani administration to prevent the smuggling of the item into the country.

As per the plan, cell phone users in Iran are required to register their devices with the country’s telecommunications user database, Trend News Agency reported.

Iran imported 2.192 million cell phones during March 21, 2017-January 5, 2018. The figure stood at 1.07 million in the same period last year, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.

The value of the imports also witnessed a 96.3-percent rise in the same period to reach $321.63 million.

GFK (Growth from Knowledge – a market research and user experience research group) recently said the monthly purchase of cell phones in Iran during June 22-September 22, 2017, stood at about 630,000. It added that only about 63,000 of the sold items were imported legally.

Of the total sales in same duration, Samsung claimed the greatest share (51 percent), followed by Apple (30 percent), LG (10 percent), Huawei (eight percent), Sony (three percent), HTC (two percent) and other brands (two percent).

The annual demand for phone devices in the Iranian market is reportedly about nine million.