The sales of electro-IT goods (Technical Consumer Goods) in Romania declined by 1.7% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2018, to around EUR 700 million, shows an analysis by GfK.

Notably, the smartphone sales plunged to a quarter of those recorded in Q1 last year, in value terms.

Against the overall decline, the sales of major domestic appliances (18.3% of the total market in the period) increased by 11.2% year-on-year. Sales of small household appliances (7.4% of total) also increased, by 3.9% year-on-year. All the other segments but the two have contracted.

The overall market decline was mainly prompted by the weaker sales of telecom equipment (43% of the total market) and IT equipment (14% of the market). The telecom equipment segment shrank by 4.5% year-on-year, to EUR 301 mln.

The telecom market includes mobile and smartphones, phabletes (smartphones with screens larger than 5.6 inches), headphones and core wearables, such as smart clocks, Fitbit. The sub-segment that prompted the negative evolution of the whole segment is that of smartphones, which lost more than 74% of its value compared to the same quarter of 2018, reaching sales of only EUR 53 million. However, phablet sales increased 2.5 times, to EUR 231 million, which shows that Romanian consumers moved to wider-screen mobile devices.

editor@romania-insider.com

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