Nigeria has been named as one of the leading African markets that recorded the highest number of smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019.

About 2.9 million smartphones were imported into the country in Q4 2019, growing by 5.3 per cent year on year, a latest report by the International Data Corporation has shown.

Analysts at the IDC said this was the seasonal growth as the Black Friday sales and Christmas season pushed up the demand for the devices.

It said the Tecno, Infinix, Itel phone models owned by Transsion Group as well as Samsung brands dominated the market in the quarter under review.

“Nigeria’s smartphone market expanded 5.3 per cent YoY to total 2.9 million units. Tecno, Infinix, Itel and Samsung continued to dominate the Nigerian market, launching various models and promotions with network operators to attract customers,” the report stated.

The IDC analysts said South Africa recorded the highest number of smartphone shipments, with 6.5 million units, growing by 2.2 per cent YoY.

A research analyst at the IDC, Arnold Ponela, said, “This increase can be attributed to seasonal factors, with Q4 traditionally being the strongest quarter of the year when demand is stirred by Black Friday and the Christmas season.

“Leading smartphone brands such as Samsung, Huawei and Mobicel have introduced feature-rich entry-level models, while network operators are offering discounted bundles and tariff plans to consumers. Both of these factors are spurring demand in the market.”

Overall, the IDC said African mobile phone market grew 3.8 per cent year-on-year in Q4 2019.

According to the research company, this growth was spurred by various end-of-year sales promotions, which were augmented by earlier Black Friday and Cyber Monday discount offerings.

It said sustained demand for entry-level phones launched throughout 2019 also supported shipment growth.

However, the analysts added that the growth was unlikely to be repeated over the following two quarters as the impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak might derail smartphone shipments to African market.

The IDC’s latest Worldwide Mobile Tracker showed that smartphone shipments to Africa rose 5.4 per cent YoY in Q4 2019 to total 24.4 million units.

This, according to the research company, represents quarter-on-quarter growth of 8.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the report stated that the feature phone market was down 2.6 per cent YoY and 3.9 per cent QoQ to 34.4 million units.

However, with 58.4 per cent share, it added that feature phones continued to account for the majority of the African mobile phone market due to their relative affordability and durability.

The IDC said smartphone demand was driven by the launch of various new affordable and feature-rich models.

It added that Transsion brands (Tecno, Itel and Infinix) continued to dominate Africa’s smartphone space in Q4 2019, with 40.6 per cent unit share.

Samsung and Huawei followed in second and third place, with respective unit shares of 18.6 per cent and 9.8 per cent.

The Transsion brands, Tecno and Itel, also dominated the feature phone landscape with a combined share of 69.5 per cent while the HMD brand – Nokia – placed third with 10.2 per cent share.

“Transsion’s huge success can be attributed to the fact that its devices are competitively priced and largely purpose-built for African consumers. The vendor’s continued marketing efforts also enabled it to gain market share from more established brands,” Ponela added.