[
THE INVESTOR] The average price of
Samsung Electronics’ handsets rose in the second quarter to the highest level in three years, data showed on Aug. 1.
According to data compiled by Strategy Analytics, the average price came to US$235 over the April-June period.
The average price has been falling as Samsung continued to roll out various budget models to tap deeper into emerging markets. After hitting US$289 in 2013, the average price of smartphones dropped to reach US$232 last year.
Over the second half of 2016, the average price of handsets powered by LTE even dropped to $227 following the suspended production of the premium Galaxy Note 7 on faulty batteries.
Industry watchers said the latest revival was made possible by the robust performance of the Galaxy S8 series released earlier this year.
By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)