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

by Eric Olander
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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