In the last seven semesters, smartphone shipments in Africa have recorded a continuous decline. In the first quarter of 2023, 17 million devices had been sent to the continent.
Phone sellers shipped 19.6 million smartphones in Africa in the second quarter of 2023, according to the latest “Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker” report from the American firm International Data Corporation (IDC). This figure represents an increase of 7.6% compared to the second quarter of 2022 when 18.1 million smartphones were shipped to the continent.
South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were the main destinations for smartphones in the second quarter of 2023. In terms of brands, the Chinese Transsion (Tecno, Itel and Infinix) maintains its leading position and climbs into the top 5 of the world’s first-time sellers. The podium is completed by the South Korean Samsung and the Chinese Xiaomi.
The increase in smartphone shipments in Africa in the second quarter of 2023 brings seven quarters of continuous decline. A decline which was attributed in particular to the impact of Covid-19, rising inflation, economic instability, the depreciation of local currencies compared to the US dollar, weak consumer demand, etc.
Ramazan Yavuz, senior research director at IDC, believes that the African smartphone market is expected to recover further in 2024, although shipments will not exceed the level of strong performance seen in 2021 in the short term.
“ The difficulties and challenges posed by the global economic outlook continue to affect the region, preventing a faster recovery. In the long term, the influx of affordable models across brands and accelerating shift from feature phones to smartphones will drive market growth ,” he added.
Source: Agence Ecofin
