Cell phones were viewed as the “least affordable” in the social media-savvy Philippines among select Southeast Asian nations, e-commerce aggregator iPrice group found.

In its July report, the marketing firm looked at the average monthly salaries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore with the average costs of four cell phone models in the Southeast Asian market.

It just so happens, a mid-range cell phone would cost a Filipino two months’ worth of their salary probably.

The basic pay rate in Metro Manila, one of the Philippines’ key metropolitan cities, is P570 for the non-agriculture sector and P533 for the agriculture sector. The lowest pay permitted by law workers normally bring back home around P13,000 to P14,000 every month.

Low-end cell phones – which are fixed at the least expensive costs – were additionally observed to be “expensive investments” in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, costing more than 70% of the average monthly wage in the three nations.

Higher-end models of cell phones, the group said, are “simply out of reach” in similar nations, as cell phones would generally cost from three to six times their monthly salary.

iPrice, in any case, focused on that the unaffordability of cell phones is driven by various pay levels as well as by fluctuating cell phone pricing.

Among the five Southeast Asia markets studied, higher-end smartphones were fixed at higher costs in lower-income markets like Indonesia and the Philippines. iPrice group connected this with the developing demand for cell phones.

“Online sellers in these markets can offer high-end models at a significantly higher rate than the MRP to consumers who consider these smartphones a worthwhile if considerable investment,” it said.