Africa’s mobile phone industry has in recent times been dominated[1] by Transsion, a Shenzhen-based company that is little known outside the African continent and is gearing up for an initial public offering in China[2]. Now, its Chinese peer Vivo is following its shadow to this burgeoning part of the world with low-cost offerings.
Vivo, [3] the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker[4], announced[5] this week that it’s bringing its budget-friendly Y series[6] smartphones into Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt; the line of products is already available in Morocco.
It’s obvious that Vivo wants in on an expanding market as its home country China experiences softening smartphone sales[7]. Despite a global slowdown, Africa posted annual growth in smartphone shipments last year for the first time since 2015[8] thanks in part to the abundance of entry-level products, according to market research firm IDC.
Affordability is the key driver for any smartphone brands that want to grab a slice of the African market. That’s what vaulted Transsion into a top dog on the continent where it sells feature phones for less than $20. Vivo’s Y series smartphones, which are priced as little as $170, are vying for a place with Transsion, Samsung and Huawei that have respective unit shares of 34.3%, 22.6% and 9.9% in Africa last year.
The Middle East is also part of Vivo’s latest expansion plan despite the region’s recent slump in smartphone volumes[9]. The Y series, which comes in several models sporting features like the 89% screen-to-body ratio or the artificial intelligence-powered triple camera, is currently for sale in the United Arab Emirates and will launch...