Battle thickens in Nigeria’s smartphone market

Battle on who controls Nigeria’s smartphone prosperous market is intensifying as the country becomes the hotspot for manufacturers of smartphone devices. Nigeria is said be the fastest growing market globally for smartphones.

Research by GfK early this year shows that sales of smartphones in Nigeria doubled in 2012, as it was calculated that Nigerians spent an average of N92 billion buying 1.82 million smartphones last year, yet the market is thirsty of affordable smartphones.

According to reports, Tecno is now ranking number two in terms of mobile market share in Nigeria and number one in dual SIM category in entire Africa. The Chinese phone maker is thriving hard to get its market share in the smartphone segment, provide sound quality hardwares and user-oriented software with beneficial packages like mobile internet bundle, app pre-load and download from the biggest operator. But the brand is on the hot chase by competition.

Recently, some Nigerians in the Diaspora who saw the gap in smartphone market returned home with a huge investment in smartphone manufacturing, Solo Phone, as they deployed content and price as unique selling points to compete against the giants.

The dual SIM phone with Android-based technology and which comes in two models of 3.5 inch and 4.5 inch screen respectively is targeting over 100 million Nigerian youth population and the rising middle class in Africa as it leverages music, movies and games as unique content offer to its target market. It is deploying content and price as USP as the managers is offering the phone at about N30,000 to consumers.

Mindful of the competition in the Nigerian smartphone market, managers of Solo Phone are confident of their brand with clear objective to offer Nigerians and other emerging markets affordable smartphones with best consumer experience and entertainment.

“Solo is a revolutionary new device and end-to-end digital content company committed to offering emerging market consumers (starting in Nigeria) both affordable, elegant smartphones and the best local and international content. As well as offering users all the great features they have come to expect from an Android smartphone. Each Solo device offers users free unlimited access to over 20 million local and international songs straight out of the box, via the built-in Solo Music platform,” Tayo Ogundipe, CEO of Solo Phone, who spent several years working abroad, told journalists at the unveiling of the phones.

Also recently, Samsung Electronics launched the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and the Gear in Lagos. The gear is the phone’s component wristwatch that also performs the functions of the mobile phone.

The sleek Note 3 is the newest addition to Samsung Galaxy Note family to hook Nigerians to the brand.

Brovo Kim, managing director of Samsung Electronics West Africa, said the Galaxy Note 3 was positioned to meet the demands of consumers desirous of larger screens and more user-friendly display.

Last week, mobile phone company, Tecno Mobileis interested in Nigeria’s market and determined to deepen smartphone penetration and expand its market share in Nigeria, launched Phantom Group AIII which is latest addition to its smartphone family.

Vice President, TECNO GROUP, Arif Chowdhury stated that the device was designed with a passion to give everybody access to innovation and affordability for everybody, saying “it is part of TECNO’s unwavering effort in expanding its offering which can be seen in this superior, innovative phone.”

Panasonic Electronics management said in Lagos that the company was concentrating its phone market in India and other economies. Masao Moloki, managing director of Panasonic marketing for Middle East and Africa, said the company, which is into home appliances, was not ready to chase the frequent changes of phone devices almost every three months in markets like Nigeria, noting “it is a tough business and we are not ready to engage in that business.”

In Nigeria, the demand for smart devices such as Android, windows phone, Blackberry, iPhones has been growing from strength to strength. “With an affordable smartphone with a quality screen, software and user experience, we believe that the smartphone will be the window to the world for many Nigerians,” Alpesh Patel, CEO, Mi-Fone, a pan-African phone maker, said in a BusinessDay report recently.

Speaking in the same vein, Kenneth Doghudje, managing director, Gfk RT Nigeria Limited, said, “Smartphones are a highly innovative segment embraced by the Nigerian consumer who constantly desires to acquire the latest technologies in the market.”

The average cost of a smartphone is put at $300 to $360 (N48, 000 to N58, 000), but with the coming of Solo Phones with lower price competition will be intensified.