Smartphone Goes Up And Up, Erajaya Starts Eyeing Mobile App Business

As Indonesia's biggest smartphone retailer and distribution company, Erajaya is still ambitious in planning its way to the future. DailySocial talked to Djatmiko Wardoyo, Director for Marketing and Communications where he expresses his enthusiasm for the company to grow more than distributor and retailer, mobile app business is definitely one of the things they're keeping an eye on.

As a group, Erajaya still focuses on its core business which is the distribution and retailer for smartphones. From the data they've collected over the years, Erajaya sees how the smartphone sales number constantly climbing significantly and rapidly. "From a volume perspective, smartphone's contribution is still way lower than feature phones", said Wardoyo claiming smartphone has 28% market share compared to 72% that is the feature phone.

For Erajaya, their business strategy remains flexible following the appetite of the market, whatever the market wants and needs, Erajaya will sure to follow the lead. "The retail strategy is to focus on smartphone sales, because in modern retail consumer feels more comfortable to buy smartphone in a store with dummy demo units so they can feel the experience", said Wardoyo.

With their position as smartphone distributor and retailer, Erajaya is sitting in a very sweet spot for Indonesia mobile ecosystem. Erajaya also sees how mobile application usage in Indonesia grow each year, and according to Wardoyo it has open a tremendous market opportunity for mobile application business in Indonesia. "This is also supported by Indonesia's interest in to the app development process", he said referring to the increasing number of mobile app developer coming from Indonesia.

Determined to keep innovating, Erajaya launched the world's first retail store for smartphones categorised by its Operating System, dubbed Android Nation who sells Android smartphones from various brands. Last year Erajaya also acquired iBox, one of Indonesia's biggest Apple reseller for $18 million. Erajaya also goes digital by launching their e-commerce website Erafone in September 2011. Wardoyo also claims Erafone as the #1 e-commerce site for handsets in terms of sales.