This is not Synovate or any other research data. These are the search terms that came in at Techweez over the month. It’s not usual for me to write about who searched for what when coming to this blog, but sequence of events have made me notice this, enough for it to be noticed. Over the last one month there has been an influx of search for mobile phones mainly in the low end smartphone category and feature phones. I would assume the main reason of the rise in search for these phones was the approaching switch-off by CCK of counterfeit phones and users were searching for alternatives amongst the proven and tested. The search terms were varied, but I noticed an increase search for mobile phones, more than anything. I left out search for higher end devices in this blog post, because this was not about them, plus there was some consistency in the search for low end mobile phones. Bear you these are search results from search engines, Google being one of the main ones. A total 2.4 million search results.
What I noticed predominantly was the Nokia Asha 305 which was the number one most searched for item among the mobile phones, followed by Samsung Chat 222 which has been consistent for quite some time, giving the top spot to Nokia 305. Worthy of note was the fact that Nokia 306 did not feature, maybe users were just searching for this dual sim version.
Something else I noted was that Samsung has the most represented brand among the top 14 devices searched for, these being the Samsung Chat 222, Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Samsung Chat 357, Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos, Samsung Galaxy Y and Samsung Galaxy Y Duos. Makes that 6 out of 14.
LG and Huawei came 3rd and fourth respectively with two mobile phone types each. The rest of the brands were either so down there in the search results or were absent, and sadly, the aim here was to highlight the most searched for phones of the month.
Over to another chart extracted from the same data, the four mobile phone brands had a tough battle with Huawei being the least searched. Samsung took the clear lead with almost a million searches, followed by Nokia with 863255 searches, LG was halfway through to the top and Huawei just passed the 100,000 mark.
Conclusion:
Conclusion here is my opinion, and here it goes. Nokia dual sim Ashas are doing quite well in a market that seeks to get a dual sim option that they deem non-counterfeit. You realize Nokia is a well trusted brand globally, and more so in the emerging markets. Asha phones are doing quite well. Nokia has been a leader in the low end phone, but it’s evident that Samsung is stealing the pie from Nokia’s hands, and in a fast way. Samsung has been steadily gaining in marketshare in the low, mid and high end. The same also applies to brand trust. LG on the other hand seems to be comfortable sitting in the middle, always making profits but never making a lot of noise. Seems to be a company that doesnt really like the spotlight and likes to stay in the shadows of others. Huawei as a mobile phone brand has been flourishing under the mentorship of Safaricom, a mobile network operator. The shine that was once there as the device manufacurer with the largest marketshare is waning. Huawei Gaga and Huawei Ascend Y 100 are not really doing well if search is to go by. Here is where you see Nokia’s Ashas, Samsung’s pocket, Chat and Galaxy Y devices taking over the merketshare. And since device manufacturers only tell us of how successful devices they make are selling, this would be an easy bet for how they are doing in the market. What’s your opinion?
Disclaimer: This data might not be necessarily accurate for region specific searches as traffic to the site comes from all over the world and Kenya does less than half of that.
