When compared to other parts of the world, Canalys’ quarterly estimate of the smartphone industry in Africa appears to be optimistic. 17.9 million smartphones were shipped across the continent between July and September of 2023, a 12% increase over the same period the previous year.
Transsion, the corporation that owns the Tecno, Infinix, and iTel brands, maintained its unchallenged lead in the market with a 48% share, nearly double that of Samsung, which came in second.
Compared to other regions where policymakers are dealing with macroeconomic issues, the region showed great resilience in both supply and demand. For instance, South Africa saw 20% growth in spite of a sharp devaluation of its currency.
As stated by Canalys Senior Consultant Manish Pravinkumar, “Customers wanted mid-tier devices with big screens and batteries to keep them entertained during power outages.” Entry-level smartphone sales increased in Nigeria and Egypt as well, with Xiaomi giving priority to the Redmi Note 12 4G, Redmi 12, and Redmi 12C models.
For instance, after the war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of indirect investment, Egypt was having trouble paying for its imports of products, including smartphones, due to a lack of hard currency. Since the import restrictions have been lifted, the number of smartphones in the nation has increased by 19%.
Samsung took a different approach, while Transsion, Xiaomi, and Realme all focused on promoting their reasonably priced gadgets. The business chose to promote foldable devices in order to gain a favourable position in the premium market, which is not very popular in Africa, while maintaining sales of its Galaxy A series to sustain volume.
Huawei’s approach in the area, according to Canalys, was to collaborate with regional software providers. In this manner, it can address the absence of GMS on its Android smartphones and improve the use of Huawei Mobile Services.
According to Canalys, the increase in Africa is not an isolated event. But demand is anticipated to decelerate, with growth in 2024 likely to be in the single digits.
More and more nations on the continent are embracing cellphones. But there are still obstacles, such depreciating currencies, import duties, and government campaigns to support domestic producers, which drive up the cost and price of imported items like cellphones.
