Africa’s major smartphone markets has reportedly performed well in Q1 2021 with the exception of South Africa where the main vendors faced supply shortages and an economic environment that negatively impacted demands.

According to reports, Egypt had one of the highest growth rates in the region in Q1 2021 owing to strong local demands, easing of COVID-19 restrictions as well as major vendors like Samsung and Oppo who increased their shipments into the country.

The region’s smartphone market grew by 16.8 per cent over the same period to 23.4 million units while feature phone market was up by 11.9 per cent to 29.9 million units, just as Nigeria also enjoyed a strong year-on-year (YoY) growth rate due to the release of pent-up demand and increasing shipments of Transsion and Samsung devices into the market.

Newly released data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that Africa’s overall mobile phone market enjoyed YoY growth of 14.0% in Q1 2021 to total 53.3 million units while Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) continued to lead Africa’s smartphone space in Q1 2021 with a combined unit share of 44.3 per cent, followed by Samsung and Oppo with shares of 22.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

Transsion brands reportedly dominated the feature phone market with a combined unit share of 78.7 per cent, followed by Nokia and Stylo with shares of 8.1 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

In addition, the ultra-low-end price band (less than $100) accounted for 42.0 per cent of the market’s shipments in Q1 2021 down from 49.6 per cent in Q1 2020. Meanwhile, the low-end price band ($100 to $200) saw its share increase from 35.2 per cent to 43.3 per cent over the same period.