Lenovo stretches competition in Nigeria’s smartphone market

By now the growing Nigerian smartphone market will be analysing the entry of Lenovo smartphones into the market as this is likely to alter price regime and existing consumer loyalty to brands.

The company has come into Nigeria, its first landing in Africa, with stylish, top notch cameras and elegant designed phones that meet the needs of smartphone consumers. It promises to constantly come up with innovations on its smartphones going forward.

Although Lenovo may not presently be popular in Nigeria, but the Chinese multinational technology firm based in Beijing is perhaps relying on its weight as the world’s second-biggest maker of personal computers to venture into manufacturing of smartphones and distribution. If it applies the same strategy that made it dominant in $200 billion PC market globally, then other brands of smartphones in Nigeria need to sit up. The company says Lenovo sells four devices every second with 13.2 percent market share in Nigeria, while in South Africa it has 18.2 percent.

The size of the Nigeria market with 167 million people was not the only factor that attracted Lenovo to the economy but the freedom for direct market sales of its brand. This gives it an edge for direct sales to consumers, unlike in other African markets where marketers need to work with local telecommunication companies to sell handsets.

Graham Braum, general manager, Lenovo Africa, told journalists last week at the launch of the smartphones that Lenovo was confident of the Nigerian economy as it was using the market as a hub to other African markets.

The company is also developing more customer service centres as this will deepen its penetration and customer loyalty. With 60 percent of the world population under 35 years, Braum recognises that the future is PC plus. The company did not state the prices of the phones but sources say the products may sell at about N60,000 per unit.

Late last year, BusinessDay reported the battle in Nigeria’s smartphone market as the country becomes the hotspot for manufacturers of smartphone devices.

Research by GfK early last 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 smart phones last year, yet the market is thirsty of affordable smartphones.Recently, some Nigerians in Diaspora who saw opportunity in the 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.

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.

Late last year, 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.

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 innovations on phone

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.

By: Daniel Obi