Wholesale Cell Phone News: There’s Still Life In Feature Phone Market

Luxury smartphones may be the in-thing right now, but there is an interesting market in wholesale cell phones that was thought to be dead but is really not at all – the humble feature phone.

These so-called dumbphones and are often thought of as cheap, disposable pieces meant to be sold as packaged bulk phone orders. They are obsolete, lacking in power and nobody simply wants to buy them – or so most people think.

Feature Phones Fill An Oft-Ignored Niche

The major players in manufacturing premium phones – Samsung and Google in one camp, Apple in the other – are slugging it out in the high-end market. They are all struggling to outmatch in other in the extremely lucrative end of the mobile phone industry, with every one of them vying for customers with deep pockets.

Feature phones, however, are an ideal solution for wholesale cell phones in the entry-level market. The big players are so busy hunting for high rollers that they forget all the folks with tight budgets that have very specific needs from their phones. A well-informed consumer can easily find a lot of affordable bulk phones that meet their needs (like Internet access) without overpaying for features they don’t need.

Feature Phones Are Getting More Features

Another reason wholesale phones are becoming a force to reckon with is because they are actually getting more features while still keeping costs way down low. The feature phones of today are capable not just of handling calls and SMS but can also come with cameras, can hook up the Internet via web browsers and even handle social networks like Twitter and Facebook. There are even some with basic digital camera capabilities.

The best part is that these phones are still as low-cost as they were before, with many feature-rich feature phones well under the 50 USD mark. They’re still not as all-around as smartphones but they will definitely appeal to individuals with very specific needs in mind. This allows suppliers to stock the phones in bulk without worrying about costs going up over time to compensate for more essential features.

Huge Opportunities In Untapped Markets

Markets in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are all markets that have a very high demand for feature phones. Low-cost wholesale cell phones with basic features will thrive in these markets where the consumer is much more mindful of his or her budget. It also helps that white label bulk phones will be hit the least by local customs and tariffs – a factor that makes expensive smartphones virtually unreachable for most people in developing markets.

An entrepreneur in these markets with links to suppliers of wholesale cell phones can make a killing with feature phones, especially if the local culture is one that embraces feature phones over the scattershot approach of smartphones. One solid example of culture impacting phone sales is in Japan. The people here have gotten so used to feature phones that it continues to dominate the market even when smartphones try to muscle their way in.

Feature Phones Can Thrive With New Mobile OS Players

Google’s Android mobile operating system is constantly under siege from Apple’s legal department, with both operating systems getting butchered by claims and counterclaims. Manufacturers of bulk phones are looking for new mobile operating systems that will not suddenly be pulled out because another company won a claim from the local courts.

This is where new players like Firefox come into the picture. Manufacturers of feature phones will be the first to embrace these new mobile operating systems – paving the way for wholesale cell phones to become ‘smarter’ without having to push up prices. This in turn is due to the low – even non-existent – costs of adopting these new mobile operating systems. They can even be better secured with rudimentary anti virus and anti spam software.