2018 has been an interesting year for smartphones. Notches have become the rule rather than the exception and we have seen the rise of great smartphones at a budget and Africa is one huge market for such devices.
IDC (International Data Corporation) recently released a report on mobile phone shipments in Africa for Q3 2018 and it has some interesting tidbits.
In Kenya, they found a 7.9% growth in
Q3 of 2018, which is comparable to what they found in South Africa during the same period (8.5%).
“In South Africa, the market’s growth was spurred by the penetration of low end devices from brands such as Mobicel, Mint and Nokia, while the launch of entry level smartphones helped drive growth in Kenya despite increases n taxes and fuel prices placing a significant burden on disposable income in the country,” George Mbuthia, research analyst at IDC was quoted as saying.
Africa as a whole, IDC was able to track overall shipments for the quarter totaling 52.6 million units, where feature phone shipments fell 2.7% quarter on quarter and smartphone shipments falling by 1.3% over the same period. Nigeria was reported to have suffered a heavy 11.6% decline quarter on quarter regarding mobile shipments and it is due to slow down in government spending, warfare and market uncertainty.
When it comes to the smartphone brands in the continent, Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix and Itel) led the feature phone in Q3 2018 with a combined share of 58.2%. Nokia was next with 11.7%. Feature phones are still popular in Africa, especially in rural areas but consumers are increasingly being attracted by smartphone offerings from Chinese rands like Xiaomi, Huawei and Oppo.
However when it comes to the smartphone space in the continent, Transsion market share was 34.9%, Samsung was 21.7% and Huawei was 10.2% respectively.
IDC estimates that in Q4 2018, there will be 58 million units being shipped in the continent which will be spurred by the festive season and other events like Black Friday.
