Samsung is the most popular smartphone model in Kenya, a country with 33.6 million smartphones. The Korean brand’s 21.44% share of the market at the end of March represents a rise from 19.41% at the end of 2023. Tecno holds a 15.28% market share, a drop from the 16.58% it held last December. Surprisingly, Nokia comes in third with 7.96% while Infinix is fourth with a 7.41% market share.
Based on the latest data, Oppo’s market share has taken a huge hit. The Chinese phone maker had a 17.07% in December 2023. Today, its market share in Kenya has dropped to 5.62%. Apple, the world’s most popular phone brand (28.46%), only has a 2.55% share of the Kenyan market.
Take note, this data is not the sales volume data of smartphones in Kenya. Based on a tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally,Statcounter, a web analytics service, can collect this data from users. This is done by recording billions of page views on these sites. When a site is visited, the web browser sends along a special code called a “user agent string”. This string acts like a name tag, revealing information about the user’s browser, the operating system used (like iOS or android), and even whether the visit is from a mobile device. This is how they collect their data.
Xiaomi which has affordable budget phones in Kenya and some mid-range models too only has 3.35% of the Kenyan smartphone market. Other Chinese brands that also sell affordable Midrange phones in Kenya and entry-level phones like Vivo did not feature individually. Such brands may have been captured under others with a market share of just under 6%. Beleaguered Chinese brand Huawei currently has 2.5% down from 4.3% at the same time last year.
This data captures the first quarter of the year 2024. As phone brands launch new smartphone models into the Kenyan market, there are bound to be shifts in Q2.
Unknown Smartphones Category
Notably, Statcounter does have a category for unknown. This category at 25.4%, captures an even bigger market share than Samsung. In addition, it has had a huge leap from 11.66% in January 2024 to become the most popular smartphone in Kenya. However, Statscounter has not issued a definition of the category. Given its tracking code is dependent on web browser visits, there is a possibility that some Kenyan smartphone users have put in place measures to block tracking codes, hence, the device used in a site visit may remain unknown.
