GfK study: When it comes of gadgets, Romanians prefer to buy the new ones

Cristina Blanaru Consumption Habits, Digital & Media, Marketing, Mobile, Studies

Romanians prefer to buy new IT and Telecom products, although their buying power decreased during the last years, and 82% of the ones that own a mobile phone – normal one or smartphone – say they bought it new, according to the most recent GfK Omnibus study.

The preference for “new” is supported largely by good offers given by telecom providers for new devices, but also by the desire to own a newly manufactured phone, as a guarantee of a lengthy and without problems usage.

According to GfK Temax, the total value of Romanian mobile phones and smartphones market increased 18% in Q1 2013 compared to the same period of last year, to Euro 88M (non-subvention estimated value).

The newly launches of smartphones contributed to the increase of this segment by 58%, while the decrease for mobile phones generated a negative growth of -29% for these products.

Still, there is a consumers’ category with a high sensitivity to the price that prefer second hand devices, bought mainly from other people, avoiding the interactions with official channels, online or offline stores. This way, 81% of Romanians owning a second hand mobile said they bought it from another person.

People that own prepaid cards are mostly oriented towards buying a normal phone, second hand. This is a solution everyone can use and doesn’t need a very big financial investment. Bucharest inhabitants (96%) and subscribers (95%) are the ones that prefer the new phones.

When it comes of smartphones, men, people with low income (less than RON 1,000), young people aged 19 – 24 y.o and users of pre-paid cards are largely interested in buying them second hand. For those segments, the desire to be aligned to the advanced tech is confronting with financial limitation, which makes the need to have a new gadget irrelevant.

Among second hand smartphones owners, 75% said that they preferred buying from another person, while only 10% used buy-and-sell websites.

The trend is similar also for IT products, with 83% Romanians owning a computer (desktop or laptop) saying they bought it new, as they wanted to have a guarantee term and avoid the problems that can appear with second hand IT products .