The smartphone market in Africa shows that Apple is not Samsung’s only formidable opponent. The Transsion group (Tecno) has reason to worry in strategic markets.
Samsung is number 1 in smartphones in the world, but not necessarily number 1 in every region of the globe. A nuance which is important and which is manifested in particular through recent data shared by Canalys.
The analysis firm draws up a Top 5 smartphone brands in various strategic markets. The opportunity to discover that Lenovo/Motorola and TCL are doing well in Europe, but also to take an interest in the African continent.
The top 5 smartphone brands in Africa
Here are the five biggest players in the smartphone market in Africa in the third quarter of 2023.
- Transition – 48%
- Samsung – 26%
- Xiaomi – 11%
- Oppo – 4%
- Realme – 3%
There are various interesting things to note. Some will notice the absence of Apple in this ranking. Unsurprisingly, in many developing African countries, users are not rushing to expensive iPhones.
The giant Transsion
We also see that Africa is one of these famous markets where Samsung is not the leader. The South Korean brand certainly takes the number 1 position in some of the countries concerned, but on a continent-wide scale, the Transsion group is ahead of it… and by a large margin.
But who is Transsion? An unknown company? Not far from here. If you follow the smartphone market at all, you have undoubtedly already come across this name. Transsion Holdings is the parent company of the Tecno, Itel and Infinix brands, and the firm can proudly pride itself on being a giant in its own right in the sector.
The Tecno brand, in particular, is betting a lot on Africa where it is very present. And even if it mainly focuses its efforts on the entry-level, that does not prevent it from designing ambitious smartphones. Tecno even presented a folding smartphone at IFA 2023 in Berlin, proof that the manufacturer does not intend to confine itself to supporting roles, far from it.
Thus, according to Canalys, Transsion (and especially Tecno) remains in first place in the smartphone sector in Africa and even records an increase in its number of deliveries compared to the third quarter of last year (+9%). In this regard, Samsung is the only one in the Top 5 to suffer a decline.
For Transsion and Tecno, it’s a smart bet on the future. Africa is the continent with the highest population growth. The number of potential buyers is increasing and it is therefore strategic to position yourself now.
A competitor to be taken seriously everywhere
With our Western eyes, we often see Apple as Samsung’s main rival in the smartphone market in all places around the world. Certainly, this is true in various situations, in Europe, for example, but also in Japan (62% of deliveries for Apple) and in the United States (55%).
Apple largely dominates the smartphone market in Japan // Source: Canalys via ITHome
Apple takes over half of the smartphone market in the United States // Source: Canalys via ITHome
However, the case of Transsion shows us that we should certainly not stick to this narrow vision and that there are many other formidable adversaries depending on the regions and their particularities.
You should also know that Transsion also has important views on South America. The group occupies fourth place there with strong momentum in terms of deliveries (+ 159%) according to Canalys data, but it is undoubtedly starting from quite low.
A strategy that has paid off so far since Transsion has once again risen to fifth place among smartphone manufacturers worldwide. So there remains an unanswered question: will we one day see a Transsion brand in Europe?
Finally, let us point out that the Canalys firm is interested in deliveries sent from manufacturers’ sites and not directly in sales to end users. It is therefore a good indicator of the state of the market (dynamics, balance between supply and demand, etc.), but which remains incomplete.