IdeaBeam: A Comprehensive Overview

IdeaBeam is one of the mobile phone business influential websites in Sri Lanka. This multi-vendor eCommerce-alike platform mainly serve users to get price comparison on smartphones and other electronic gadgets such as tabs, etc. It has a price showcase for other electronic items, household stuff, etc. The IdeaBeam also contributes to updating gold price in Sri Lanka. Even though, its popularity relies on phone price in Sri Lanka.

Phone Brands

As of March 30, 2021, the site lists over 30 mobile phone brands under “All Mobile Phone Brands in Sri Lanka”. The list of brands are as follows:

1. Apple
2. ASUS
3. BlackBerry
4. Cat
5. Dialog
6. E-tel
7. Energizer
8. Forme
9. Google
10. Greentel
11. HTC
12. Huawei
13. Infinix
14. Intex
15. Lava
16. Lenovo
17. LG
18. Meizu
19. Micromax
20. Microsoft
21. Motorola
22. Nokia
23. OnePlus
24. Oppo
25. Panasonic
26. realme
27. Samsung
28. Sony
29. Vivo
30. Xiaomi
31. Zigo
32. ZTE

The fact is that many of them are archives and “out of stock”. We never heard of some of the brand names.

Phone Stores / Phone shops

The site lists about 28 phone shops under “All Mobile Phone Stores in Sri Lanka”. The list is given below (as of March 30, 2021):

1. BuyAbans
2. Celltronics
3. Chinthana GSM
4. daraz.lk
5. Dealz Woot
6. Dialog
7. Doctor Mobile
8. emart
9. Etisalat
10. Greenware
11. iDealz Lanka
12. iStore
13. Kapruka
14. laabai.lk
15. Metropolitan
16. Mobitel
17. MyStore.lk
18. Present Solution
19. Selfie Mobile
20. SellTell
21. Senadheera
22. Singer
23. Singhagiri
24. Smart Mobile
25. Takas.lk
26. Trident Corporation
27. Wow Mall
28. Xmobile

Does “All Mobile Phone Stores in Sri Lanka” fall just only 28? The fact is that there are a few thousand shops in Sri Lanka. Colombo Liberty Plaza shopping mall hosts more than 50 shops! When it comes to counting other shopping complexes and other phone shops in Colombo city and suburbs, the number would dramatically increase, and damn sure the two-digit figure would surplus by thousands. Hereby, we can conclude that about 10 to 20 vendors aka phone stores hold the position in IdeaBeam? When it comes to checking a particular phone, you can see not all stores put their price, and some stores update is not recorded in recent price update. There are a few big questions. Does IdeaBeam only allow a small number of vendors? Will it open to other shops? As far as we heard, IdeaBeam limits stall numbers, and it does not allow other mobile shops. It charges about Rs. 15,000 to 120,000. The big guy gets first place with some features such as Company warranty, 1 Year Company Warranty, 1 Year Softlogic Warranty, 1 Year Agent Warranty, etc, and a poor guy should go to the last bench!

Do you know some popular phone shops such as Dialcom, Genius Mobile, Life Mobile, Techmart and others are not on the list?

Does the phone price in IdeaBeam correct?

The answer is NO! Why? Check out the following table (copied from IdeaBeam). 

Compare Apple iPhone 11 128GB Prices in Sri Lanka - An example:

Why does iDealz get highlight? What does it mean?

Phone Shop	Price	Variation
Greenware	Rs. 159,500	-
Selfie	Rs. 159,600	100.00
Present Solution	Rs. 162,900	3400.00
iStore	Rs. 164,500	5000.00
Doctor Mobile	Rs. 165,000	5500.00
idealz Lanka	Rs. 166,000	6500.00

When checking the official website, Facebook, and other sources, the price was different. See the table below:

Phone Shop	Source	Price
Greenware	Website	Rs. 163,990.00
Selfie	Call	Rs. 163,000.00
Present Solution	ikman	Rs. 164,000.00
iStore	Facebook	Rs. 162,990.00
Doctor Mobile	Website	Rs. 164,990.00
idealz Lanka	Website	Rs. 177,990.00

Differentiation between IdeaBeam and official sources are given below:

Phone Shop	Price (ideaBeam)	Price (owner)	Variation
Greenware	Rs. 159,500	Rs. 163,990.00	4,490
Selfie	Rs. 159,600	Rs. 163,000.00	3,400
Present Solution	Rs. 162,900	Rs. 164,000.00	1,100
iStore	Rs. 164,500	Rs. 162,990.00	-1,510
Doctor Mobile	Rs. 165,000	Rs. 164,990.00	-10
iDealz Lanka	Rs. 166,000	Rs. 177,990.00	11,990

 

Present Solution reduces about Rs. 1,000.00 from the IdeaBeam's price list while Greenware and iDealz increase about Rs. 4,000.00 to 11,000.00. Which is right? They would justify that it has Apple Care warranty, orange care warranty, etc? But it is a bait technique to attract customer? If you want to buy Apple iPhone 11 128GB, will you choose IdeaBeam or official price from shop owners' sources such as website, social media, direct call, etc? 

A few stores are marked as they acknowledge “Authority and Indemnity”. But, there is big differentiation in prices in both sources. Is it false acknowledgement? Also. many shops are not acknowledged as “Authority and Indemnity”. If you click a product, you can see a silent note under each product, and it says IdeaBeam.Com is not responsible for the goods sold by any of the sellers above. Ultimately, no one is ready to take responsibility!

So, what is the role of IdeaBeam?

Do not blame technical / typo errors or update issues. If IdeaBeam or owners’ websites or other sources are not up to date, the particular source is not correct or a bunch of lies! Sadly, there is no accurate source for finding phone prices in Sri Lanka.

Conclusion

• All Mobile Phone Brands in Sri Lanka are not right, but some of and latest phones.
• All Mobile Phone Stores in Sri Lanka are not correct. A few and selected phone stores in Sri Lanka are correct.
• There is favoritism to a few shops.
• No one is responsible for the price. Therefore, the price is not correct.
• It is price bait, not real update. 

“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey

Note: This article is written by a blogger who did an analysis and collect information from particular parties’ sources & interviewed shop owners who are part of IdeaBeam as well as declined shop owners.