
Nigeria posted a record 135% growth in smartphone shipments in 2014 as falling smartphone prices continue to shake feature phones markets across Africa and the Middle East, a new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has shown.
It was also a period that saw smartphone shipments to the Middle East and Africa recording unprecedented year-on-year growth of 83% in 2014, according to – Q4 2014 Handsets Tracker released by IDC.
According to the report, majority of the growth in the smartphone category was witnessed in countries that have larger populations but previously had low penetration rates.
For example, smartphone shipments to Nigeria and Kenya increased 135% and 112%, respectively, year on year in 2014, while Pakistan saw growth of 105% over the same period.
[blockquote right=”pull-right” cite=”Q4 2014 Handsets Tracker by International Data Corporation (IDC).”]“Majority of the growth in the smartphone category was witnessed in countries that have larger populations but previously had low penetration rates. For example, smartphone shipments to Nigeria and Kenya increased 135% and 112%, respectively, year on year in 2014, while Pakistan saw growth of 105% over the same period.”[/blockquote]

Spurred by the increased availability of cheaper models and dual-SIM devices, the global advisory and consulting services firm announced that smartphones accounted for 41.9% of all mobile handset shipments to the region in 2014, up from 27% in 2013, with the overall handset market expanding 19.6% in volume year on year.
Feature phones have been hit hard by the increased availability of more affordable smartphones, with shipments down 4.5% year on year in 2014. Indeed, smartphones priced under $100 captured 20% share of the MEA smartphone market in 2014, up from just 5% in 2013.
Additionally, market share of smartphones in the $100–200 price bracket increased eight percentage points in just one quarter, from 25% in Q3 2014 to 33% in Q4 2014. Meanwhile, smartphones priced in the higher-end $250–500 bracket have seen their share of the overall market fall from 23% in Q3 2013 to 18% in Q4 2014.
“Many new vendors have been eager to get into the region’s burgeoning smartphone space, with a number of them launching phones in this growing price band,” Nabila Popal, IDC’s research manager for handsets and display solutions in the Middle East and Africa says. “This strategy of targeting the mid and low end of the market has contributed significantly to the success of vendors like Huawei and Lenovo.”
The growing popularity of dual-SIM smartphones is also helping shape the market, with shipments of such devices increasing 34% year on year in Q4 2014. “Vendors such as Samsung and HTC launched variants of their flagship S5 and HTC One M8 models with dual-SIM capabilities,” Isaac T. Ngatia, a senior research analyst at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey adds. “Demand for such devices stems from the fact that a growing band of consumers want to enjoy cheap cross-network calls and offers from multiple telcos and therefore retain more than one SIM card for their personal use.”
“The increased appetite for smartphones in Pakistan is being driven by a combination of the deployment of 3G networks across the country and the wider availability of more affordable devices,” says Popal. Meanwhile, the more mature GCC smartphone market expanded 31.8% year on year in 2014, contributing to the region’s penetration rate reaching an impressive 72.6%.
[blockquote right=”pull-right” cite=”Q4 2014 Handsets Tracker by International Data Corporation (IDC).”]“The growing popularity of dual-SIM smartphones is also helping shape the market, with shipments of such devices increasing 34% year on year in Q4 2014. Vendors such as Samsung and HTC launched variants of their flagship S5 and HTC One M8 models with dual-SIM capabilities…Demand for such devices stems from the fact that a growing band of consumers want to enjoy cheap cross-network calls and offers from multiple telcos and therefore retain more than one SIM card for their personal use.” [/blockquote]

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