Mobile phone prices shoot up by more than 10 per cent

Now shed some extra money from your pocket to buy a new mobile handset on this Christmas or New Year

Christmas is the time when the mobile manufacturers usually cut down the prices of their products to lure in more and more buyers. However, the trend has changed this year; blame the constantly increasing dollar price against the Indian currency that the handset manufacturers have increased the prices of the handsets despite the Christmas and the new-year approaching.

“The rising monetary value for dollar against the Indian Rupee has forced the manufacturers to push up the prices for the products”, commented Saiprabha Pattnaik, Assistant Director, Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotional Council. While N. K. Goyal, founder member, Chairman Emeritus, Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Association Of India, feels  “The prices of handsets are inflated not only because of the dollar rates per rupee, but also due to some internal factors that have aggravated these prices.”

Mobile phone prices have shoot up by a whooping percentage in the last two months. While the month November had the prices increased by about 6 per cent, the cost further increased by another 4 per cent early this month and is on constant rise for certain mobile brands.

Nokia, Samsung and BlackBerry are amongst the top shooters in the price list. It might come as a disappointment for many that BlackBerry Curve 8520, the lowest costing phone by BlackBerry in India, as against earlier is now available at about Rs 10,550, which is about 15 per cent more than the price earlier. Other models of BlackBerry have also gained prices by almost same percentage.

Also, while Nokia has kept about the same percentage increase for most of its handsets, the increment in selling price varies in Samsung handsets. Sony Ericsson has also inflated the handset prices up to certain extend.

The price tags have not stablised even after the 4 per cent on December 5, as Samsung has increased the price for Samsung Galaxy Ace 5830 to Rs 14,400 from Rs 13,000.

The question still remains whether the increase in the prices is momentary or the swollen price tags will shrink back to the same as earlier with the stablisation in the dollar rupee rate.

* The prices mentioned above are the best prices for these handsets, and may vary.

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