Middle East still a ‘major force in luxury mobile phone business’

Dubai: The Middle East always represents a big portion of global luxury mobile phone business as the billionaire population grows every year, Serge Simon, general manager of Atelier Haute Communication Limited, a mobile phone division of Tag Heuer, told Gulf News.

He said the region contributes about 15 to 20 per cent to the total global luxury mobile phone sales.

The high spending tourists from Russia and China are the biggest contributors. Luxury category is timeless but mobile phone is not because of the fast changing technology.

“Luxury mobile phone is a niche market. There are people who want to differentiate from the crowd. Mobile phone is more personal than before,” he said.

Simon said that Tag Heuer always launches its products first in Dubai and then roll out in other markets. So this shows how important “Dubai is to the luxury market.”

There is no big competition in the luxury mobile phones category as there are a very few players.

“The biggest player is Vertu followed by Tag Heuer with around 20 per cent market share. The total luxury phone market is less than one per cent to the total mobile phone market,” he said.

Last year, 100,000 luxury phones were sold globally, of which 20,000 phones came from the Middle East.

“The luxury mobile phone market in the Middle East is niche and very small. Only a couple of thousand phones are sold in the region and the most are sold to tourists coming to Dubai. It is cheaper in Dubai than the countries they are coming from,” Hamza Saleem, senior research analyst at International Data Corporation, said.

Overall, he said there is not much of a market demand here. “We don’t keep track of the luxury mobile phone market,” Saleem said.

First Meridiist 1 was launched in 2008. It still represents half of our sales. The design and shape is iconic and this why “we decided to capitalise on the same design for Meridiist 2. This is the fourth product from Tag Heuer with eight variants. The price ranges from Dh18,900 to Dh70,300,” he said.

“We don’t change the design like others. We just refine them. Take the case of Carrera 911 or Apple, Porsche is just refining Carrera 911 for the last many years,” he said.

Meridiist 2 took 24 months to develop. The back of the phone is trimmed with alligator skin with a matching stitching and antenna cover while the front is covered by sapphire crystal.

“Private concierge service around the world and around the clock with a click of a button, free for the first year,” Simon said.

From the second year, users need to subscribe the service for €1,500 (Dh7,4442) per year.

The biggest markets for Tag Heuer phones are Russia, followed by China, Hong Kong, Dubai and London. “Russia, China and Middle East contribute more than 60 per cent to the group’s sales.”

“It is very difficult for the luxury phones to follow the technology. It took 24 months for us to develop this phone by that time technology has changed twice. People who buy luxury phone in the Middle East are emotional while in Europe it is rational,” Simon said.