Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have continued to dominate mobile phone sales in East Africa as Tecno Mobile came out on top during the last quarter of 2019 accounting for 47% of total smartphones shipped into the region.
According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), Samsung Mobile came in second with 13% of the region’s phone shipment. The South Korea company was followed closely by Infinix at 10%, Itel at 9% and Huawei at 6%.
As a result, Chinese brands dominated the total shipments getting into the region in 2019. They held more than three quarters, standing at 86% of the total shipments. China’s transition brands, which include Tecno, Itel and Infinix have been the most dominant in the East Africa region in the recent years. For 2019, they continued to hold the biggest share of the total phone shipments in the region standing at 70.8%.
According to IDC, despite Samsung’s A series models proving particularly popular in the East Africa market with their superior features, attractive designs, and affordable prices, Transsion’s Tecno brand was the clear market leader with successful launches of its best-selling models; the Tecno Spark 4 and Camon 12.
Kenya’s smartphone market saw shipments increase 20.3% year on year in Q4 of 2019, according to the latest report from IDC. The rest of East Africa, Tanzania and Uganda experienced annual growths of 8.7% and 8.6% respectively. Looking at 2019 as a whole, these three markets, combined, saw total smartphone shipments of 10.7 million units, up 13.3% or the 9.4 million units shipped in 2018.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, the IDC forecasts that the East Africa smartphone market will face a 1.6% decline as countries minimize the movement of both goods and people to combat its spread.
