Newroad Mobile Mahotsav 2017 concluded on Tuesday recording sales of mobile devices and accessories worth over Rs200 million.

The week-long fair held at Pako, New Road, drew about 500,000 visitors.

Pako has one of the biggest concentrations of mobile phone showrooms and service centers in Nepal.

Some of the mobile devices, gadgets and accessories that were put on display at the event were: smartphones, tablets, osmo camcorder, camera drones, virtual reality (VR) glasses and selfie sticks.  Most of the companies that took part in the fair offered free demonstrations, allowing visitors to use the mobile devices before making buying decisions. Taking benefit of this facility, many visitors at the event were seen busy gaining hands-on experience of devices displayed at the fair and gathering information, rather than actually making purchases.

The event saw sales of about 17,000 units of mobile devices, gadgets and accessories, according to Newroad Mobile Entrepreneurs Association, the organiser of the event.  Companies had offered free gifts such as VR glasses, backpacks, T-shirts and special discounts with most of the purchases. Colors mobile had floated buy-one-get-one-free offer on one brand of smartphone powered by Windows operating system, while Ncell had offered free sim cards loaded with 100 MB data to visitors who purchased any brand of mobile phone.

One of the most-sought-after devices at the expo was 4G compatible smartphone, according to Purushottam Basnet, coordinator of the Newroad Mobile Entrepreneurs Association.

“Since the introduction of 4G service in Nepal, more people have started looking for devices that support 4G technology,” Basnet said, adding, “Cheapest 4G smartphone available at the expo had a price tag of about Rs 10,000, while the lowest priced smartphone sold during the event was worth about Rs 7,000.”  The event also saw launch of two new brands of smartphones in the Nepali market-Zopo and Leagoo.