Drawing attention to the changing consumer behavior in the consumer electronics market with the pandemic, Uygar Saral, Chairman of the Board of Directors of domestic technology manufacturer Reeder Teknoloji, said, “We observed an e-commerce-oriented purchasing change in purchasing places rather than purchasing habits. The chip crisis manifested itself very seriously from November last year to February of this year. Due to the chip crisis, we saw a market in which phone supply could not be made for almost a month in November of 2021,” he said.
Stating that the instant dollar rate changes do not affect the preferences of the consumers, Saral said, “However, the global consumer is now making a much more informed decision. It also acts according to this information in price changes. Consumers tend to buy technology because it is technology, and we see that focal points such as brands are gradually disappearing in purchasing decisions, both in Turkey and in more developed markets.
‘PEOPLE’S CONTROL WILL INCREASE’
Stating that technologies in the traditional consumer electronics market such as smartphones and tablets have reached a certain point, Uygar Saral said the following about the products and services that will come to the fore from now on:
“I think the concept of ‘digital detox’ will come to the fore in the coming period. Therefore, products related to digital detox may stand out in the market in the new period. In addition, security will again be a prominent element. In the coming period, I expect a period in which people’s control in the interaction of products with people, rather than products, increases.”
“WE STARTED WITH THE E-BOOK READER…”
Uygar Saral, Chairman of the Board of Reeder Teknoloji, shared the trends in the smart technology products market, especially phones and tablets, and his work in this field with Habertürk:
– When we started this business with an e-book reader in 2009, my uncles who were contractors asked me, ‘How many e-book readers make a flat?’ they had asked. Then ‘now Android We are in 2.1, this Android will grow a lot, if I give 10 years to Android, I will definitely earn more than you’ I replied.
– When we reach 95 percent market share in e-book readers and customers start to attract us to other products; We also started to produce products such as tablets, phones, robot vacuums, smart watches, smart wristbands, and finally smart TVs. We’ve expanded our portfolio, but in today’s terms, our focus is on the smartphone.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION CAPACITY OF 2 MILLION UNITS
– As of now, we are the player that produces the most phones in the Turkish market. We are a company that produces nearly 100 thousand phones per month. We manufacture smart phones, tablets, smart watches, smart wristbands, robot vacuums and LCD televisions in our facilities in Samsun. Together with our new facilities in Samsun, we have increased our annual phone production capacity of 750 thousand by 2-3 times. We are currently using about half of this capacity. We currently use half of our annual capacity of 2 million units in phone production.
– The number of our employees is currently 600. We employed 150 people just last month. We currently have stores in 42 provinces of Turkey, we plan to reach 100 stores by the end of the year and 250-300 stores next year.
“WE WILL PRESENT IN BARCELONA”
– In the field of software and R&D, we have studies not only in Turkey but also with companies abroad. One is a product developed jointly by a ‘neuroscience’ firm in Silicon Valley in the USA and a firm in Finland. We will launch this (security focused) product in Barcelona. After it is introduced, I am sure, Elon Musk will take names like Mark Zuckerberg and put them on his table. The technology side comes from the USA, the software side comes from Finland, and the hardware side comes from Turkey.
“TO BE AVAILABLE TO CONSUMERS IN 2023”
– We have serious studies on artificial intelligence. Our most exciting work is a technology that we will launch in Barcelona and which is not currently in the world and will be presented for the first time. This will be a working prototype. According to our plans, the presentation of this technology to consumers as a real product will be in November 2023. Its brand will also be Reeder. The security technology in it will be a neuroscience-based security technology. It is a completely high-tech product.
– It is a fact that everyone knows that the security technologies we currently use on phones are not really security at all. It is possible to find a way to bypass security options such as password, face recognition, fingerprint. This is a phone, but one that unlocks with a security technology that has never been offered to users until now. It cannot be opened with that person’s face, finger or password; In order for it to open, that person must be there alive.