Africa has emerged as the fastest growing mobile market in the world! Find out how the mobile continent is moving forward here: http://www.amgoo.com/blog/smartphone-adoption-in-africa-the-rising-smartphone-market The mobile subscription growth rate in Africa is easily outstripping mature mobile markets elsewhere in the world - while the rates are slowing across the world it is set to remain at almost twice the global average. A more compelling trend shows that much of the rest of the world has firmly embraced the move to smartphones; around one in every four people worldwide is now a smartphone user. By contrast Africa has just 112 million smartphone connections in a 930 million total handset base, putting African smartphone penetration at just 12 percent—the lowest penetration rate of all the regions in the world.

1. Smartphone Adoption in Africa: the Rising
Smartphone Market
amgoo.com /blog/smartphone-adoption-in-africa-the-rising-smartphone-market
Apr 4, 2014 3:06:00 PM
Africa has emerged as the fastest
growing mobile market in the
world. The mobile subscription
growth rate in Africa is easily
outstripping mature mobile
markets elsewhere in the world -
while the rates are slowing across
the world it is set to remain at
almost twice the global average.
A more compelling trend shows
that much of the rest of the world
has firmly embraced the move to
smartphones; around one in every
four people worldwide is now a
smartphone user. By contrast
Africa has just 112 million
smartphone connections in a 930
million total handset base, putting
African smartphone penetration at
just 12 percent—the lowest
penetration rate of all the regions
in the world.
It's time for Africa...
According to IDC (International
Data Center), their quarterly
mobile phone tracker has
recorded a steady increase on the
smartphone shipments to Africa in
every quarter and the African
smartphone market is expected to double in volume over the next four years and account for close to a
third of all handset shipments to the continent by 2017.
Device manufacturers who dominated the region over the past decade such as Nokia are making big
bets on the continent’s smartphone future with its Lumia Windows phone line. Huawei has since 2011
bet that its sub $100 Android devices will herald a new era of smartphone penetration in some of
Africa's largest mobile phone markets like Nigeria and Kenya. But the South Korean mobile
manufacturer Samsung is still leading the smartphone market with a 52.1% percent share, trailed by
Blackberry with 17.8 percent. As a continent, Africa requires a very significant commitment in terms of
local offices and resources in order to build out a presence and logistical capabilities across so many
countries. Samsung, with its broad range of consumer electronic products and a wide set up of its
assembly plants throughout the African land has been able to achieve just that.

2. There are several reasons behind the smartphone market uptake. As Emmanuel Revmatas
of Samsung Electronics West Africa pointed out, the advent of new privately owned submarine cables
and their landing on the coast of many East and West African nations, including Nigeria, have
significantly reduced the cost of Internet access and increased the adoption of smartphones on the
continent. Besides, not only are the prices of smartphones, components and connectivity falling in
Africa, many markets are growing economically as well which will accelerate the rate of smartphone
adoption further. The new emerging African middle class, which is considered to take up 35% of the
total population and the fastest growing demographic in the world are typically the most tech savvy and
the most likely to use mobile apps solving key pain points in their day to day lives from mobile
commerce to transit ticketing. For an economically booming region like Africa, mobile is at the heart of
all that.
Leapfroggin' brings innovation
Despite having a modest smartphone user base, mobile usage habits in Africa are actually relatively
mature due to the fact that the market is excluded from the PC revolution by price and lack of fixed
connectivity, From Somalia to Kenya, people are able to pay for petrol, bills and groceries using their
smartphones, and educational apps like m-learning has been successfully used throughout the
continent. Increased smartphone penetration could lead to more African smartphone apps, such as
South African Zapacab, which lets users locate taxi drivers and order a cab at the touch of a button. It
is not hard to believe that in the near future, from education to retail Africa's smartphone wave will
redefine the continent's future in myriad sectors and at scale.
So in the context of African smartphone marketplace, launching the right product with cross-country
appeal and access to a wide range of applications would be key to success. More locally relevant
products need to be developed with affordable price points. It is vital to drive down the cost and price of
mobile components and working with local handset makers is an effective way to bring high quality and
low cost device to the market. Price is a big factor for African consumers and they want to get the most
value for what they can afford.
Despite the strong smartphone market growth, the greatest obstacle lies in the access to mobile data
services, especially limited network penetration in rural areas. Smartphones are only marginally more
useful than feature phones if they do not have access to reliable networks. The good news is, African
governments are particularly aware and have been driving efforts to expand the networks in order to
get the cost of connectivity down.
In general, a number of factors including a population with an appetite for new technologies, the
construction of 3G networks, the decline in smartphone costs and a growing economy combined
together could make Africa a vital competitive region for most handset manufacturers and suppliers
before long.
Want to see how Amgoo innovated their product lines to cater for consumers' growing demand?