Latest figures compiled by International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that Africa’s smartphone revolution is showing signs of a slowdown. According to IDC, Africa’s smartphone market totaled 95.37 million units in 2016. And while this is up 3.4% year-on-year, it represents a considerable deceleration from the double-digit growth rates seen in the previous two years, with demand being hampered by the currency fluctuations that are affecting the continent.
A total of 215.33 million mobile handsets were shipped in Africa during 2016, up 10.1% on the previous year. However, it was feature phones that were largely responsible for this growth, with shipments increasing 16.1% year on year in 2016 to total 119.97 million units. This growth saw feature phones increase their unit share of Africa’s overall handset market from 53% in 2015 to 56% in 2016.
“Africa has always been a tough market for mobile phone companies to crack, and in 2016 that challenge got even harder,” says Simon Baker, Program Director for mobile devices at IDC CEMA. “Many African economies struggled throughout 2016, and this had an inevitable knock-on effect on the smartphone market, which had previously experienced a very strong 2015. It was a particularly tough year in Nigeria, with the devaluation of the naira causing a drop in confidence in the distribution channel. And while North African markets saw an increase in overall handset shipments in 2016, the pace of growth slowed year on year due to exchange-rate fluctuations in Egypt and securityissues in Algeria.”
