Are you looking for a unique mobile case or screen protector online? Why bother to wait for it to be delivered? Drop by at Ritchie Street here, the hub for all things electronic.

Name a brand of cell phone, Indian, Korean or Chinese, and you get a mobile cover at Ritchie Street, just off Anna Salai in the heart of Chennai. There are nearly 100 stores that sell only mobile covers. And, all are doing brisk business.

From DVDs to covers Till a year ago, audio and video CDs and DVDs were in vogue. Name the artist, song or film, a CD or DVD — from the latest film to as old as Mira or Mughal-e-Azam, or collection of albums like Kenny G, Yanni or famous Hindi serials like Dekh Bhai Dekh and Zabaan Sambalkhe — it will be available for ₹100. However, frequent raids on the sale of pirated CDs and DVDs forced sellers like Ismail to change strategy to selling Chinese mobiles. People load songs and videos on the mobile and nobody buys CDs and DVDs, says Ismail, who has a petty shop selling mobile covers and mobile protection guards.

The market was flooded with Chinese mobiles with price starting from ₹1,000. However, this market collapsed with the onslaught of branded Indian mobiles that gave a run for Chinese unknown brands, he said.

The current flavour is mobile covers and accessories.

“We have covers for over 1,000 mobile models in the market. We sell products worth nearly ₹5,000 every day,” he said.

Some shops even sell products worth over ₹25,000. Considering the huge potential of the mobile industry, some of the owners have paid a huge amount on lease to sell mobile covers, said Kumar, who also runs a small shop in the market.

The cover price ranges from ₹50 (simple back cover) to as high as ₹2,500 for the see-view cover of Samsung mobiles, he said.

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