By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is optimistic it will beat last year’s smartphone sales for the Christmas shopping period, the company projecting to sell 10,000-15,000 devices this period.
Jerome Sawyer, BTC’s spokesman, told Tribune Business: “Going into the holidays we are very optimistic that we will beat last year’s targets. This year we have got 14 franchise stores around the country. That’s going to give our customers a lot more opportunities to purchase our products.”
Mr Sawyer added that Samsung products were among the most sought after by Bahamian customers. “We see what’s happening in Samsung sales as really indicative of where we want phone sales to go overall. Samsung is one of our more popular products,” Mr Sawyer said, noting that Samsung’s market penetration in the Bahamas is about 40 per cent.
“On the smartphone side a lot of our phones coming in now are going to be LTE ready. That is new technology. In order for our customers to enjoy that LTE experience they will need to upgrade to LTE phones. People will be able to have that faster data experience as a result of the new phones that Samsung is bringing into the marketplace,” Mr Sawyer said.
Speaking with Tribune Business following a preview of Samsung’s Note 3 and Galaxy Gear models, Nicolas Lannefranque, its regional sales manager, said: “The partnership between Samsung and BTC has been very instrumental in ensuring that Bahamian users have the newest devices that Samsung has brought out.
“Obviously it’s been a very positive relationship that we have been able to build together. In the overall Caribbean market we have seen that users are looking for the latest and greatest technology. They want to get the best and the newest devices. By having this partnership with BTC we have been able to ensure that the Bahamian user has access to our flagship devices. There is a true thirst for technology here.”
Comments
John 10 years, 4 months ago
Did you hear Marlon Johnson try to explain away the reasoning for paying phone card and top up vendors 3-5% commission? He claims that the rates are in accordance with world standards. Well by damn. Marlon Johnson really think Bahamian people are fools. The world standards he is talking about are in the Latin American countries in the Caribbean, where his company, Cable and Wireless and Digicel set the standards and neither of their track records in these countries are blue ribbon ones. None of the countries have the standard of living that the Bahamas enjoys and a number of them are fighting hunger more than poverty. Haiti for example has a weekly average income of $2.00 (TWO DOLLARS) compared to the Bahamas minimum wage of $150.00. So when you can pay some in Haiti less than $2.00 a week to sell phone cards you must pay at least $150.00 for the same job in the Bahamas Notice how difficult it is to find phone cards and top up lately? Vendors cannot keep inventory because they are selling at a loss. Many are throwing in the towel or just being forced out of the market Marlon Johnson is the biggest sellout to hit BaTelCo since quickcell. Hope he keeps in the back of his mind what happens to puppets after their performance is over..Here comes the old dusty suitcase again. cable and Wireless/BTC can give away a NINETY THOUSAND DOLLAR PRIZE for Christmas, but claims they cannot afford to pay their vendors a decent commission.
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