Abu Dhabi: Sales of home appliances are taking a back seat at this year’s Abu Dhabi Electronics Shopper (AIDES), with most customers focusing on smartphones and tablets, suppliers said.
While customers are not purchasing much of home appliances, the latest television sets are an exception, but their demand still follows that of smartphones.
Amjad Mahammad, marketing director at Hisense, said that visitors at the exhibition are only window shopping for home appliances, without actually purchasing any.
Though Hisense is offering various special offers on home products, customers are still choosing to purchase mobile phones and tablets, with the main demand for home products coming from television sets.
Similarly, Toshiba was not expecting to see strong demand for home appliances, saying that visitors at ADES are more interested on the latest gadgets and everyday technology rather than bulkier products.
“There are some good deals for home appliances, and lots of offers. The primary interest and the strong demand, however, are on smartphones and tablets. The [demographic] of consumers who go for home appliances is also different, but if you’re comparing the two categories, then smartphones definitely get the higher share,” said Dony Cyril, director of exhibitions at Dome Exhibitions, the event organiser.
He added that the main attractions of the event will be smartphone launches by Samsung, HTC, and Hisense, with each brand set to showcase its latest gadgets before releasing them in the market.
Drawing more than 30 exhibitors and over 70,000 visitors during its four day run, ADES 2015 convenes at a time when the country’s domestic consumer electronics market is expected to increase in value to $4.8 billion by end of 2015.
In 2014, the event saw 60,000 visitors, and generated Dh35 million in sales.
The event, which kicked off on Wednesday, will run until March 21 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec).
