The smartphone shipments in Africa declined 7.1 percent to 21.5 million units in Q4 2021, IDC report said.
Overall mobile phone market in Africa fell 11.3 percent in Q4 2021 to 48.6 million units. The feature phone market in Africa dropped 14.3 percent to 27.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Africa’s major smartphone markets all experienced slowdown in Q4 2021. The smartphone market in South Africa achieved slight growth. Supply shortages were the main reason for the decline in Africa phone business. Mobile phone market in Egypt faced drop due to the introduction of 10 percent tariffs on mobile phone imports.
Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) are leading the Africa’s smartphone space in Q4 2021, with a combined unit share of 47.9 percent.
Korea’s Samsung has smartphone share of 19.6 percent in Africa. China’s Xiaomi has 7.1 percent share in Africa’s smartphone market.
Transsion brands also dominated the feature phone market, with a combined unit share of 78.0 percent, followed by Nokia (8.6 percent) and Alcatel (2 percent).
The low-end price bands (less than $200) dominated Africa’s smartphone market in Q4 2021 with 81.1 percent share of shipments, though this was down from 86.8 percent in Q4 2020. The share of midrange price band ($200 to $400) increased from 10.1 percent to 14 percent.
“Supply shortages, inflationary pressures, and improved specs and capabilities are driving the average price of smartphones upwards in Africa,” says Taher Abdel-Hameed, senior research analyst at IDC. “Growth in the midrange price band can be attributed to the launch of new feature-rich models by key vendors like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Transsion.”
