New Data Confirms China’s Transsion Holdings’ Near-Total Dominance of the African Phone Market

Nigerian Afrobeats superstar, Davido posing for ad campaign for Transsion's Tecno line of popular phones. Photo via Tecno.

International Data Corporation released third-quarter African mobile phone market data that revealed near-total dominance by Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings in both the smartphone and feature phone markets. Overall, African mobile phone growth remained solid with smartphone shipments up 4% in the last quarter and the total overall market-topping 55 million units.

Transsion: The One Company That Rules Them All

  • FEATURE PHONES: Transsion’s family of brands including Tecno, Infinix, and Itel command an impressive 64% of the total African feature phone market. This is an important metric because feature phones currently make-up just under 60% of the total market.
  • SMARTPHONES:  Transsion also leads the market in smartphones that are becoming increasingly popular among consumers. Together the Transsion brands lead with 36.2%, Samsung is second with 23% and China’s Huawei is third in the market with 11.4%.

Smartphone growth is driven by demand in Africa’s three largest markets in Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt.

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by Eric Olander

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