Huawei Technologies has aggressively embarked on striking retail partnerships as it seeks to expand its smartphone foothold in the country. The latest move has seen the company partner with Telkom Kenya, in a move that is aimed at reaching out to more customers in the local market. Currently, Huawei commands a 10 percent smartphone market share but it is targeting to hit the 25 percent mark by June next year.
The new partnership will see Telkom Kenya retail the Huawei Y5C device, with plans to retail the Y3C entry-level smart phones in the Telco’s shops countrywide within this quarter. Currently, Huawei Kenya sells 30% percent of its devices through network operators like Safaricom, Airtel and now Telkom Kenya and 70% through open market retail partners.
Announcing the deal, Huawei Devices, Kenya Country Director, Mark Hemaobin, says the company is partnering with retailers across the country in an effort to ensure that all Huawei devices are readily available for both existing and potential customers.
“As a company, we are keen on strengthening both business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) strategies. We believe this new push will enable us to capture a bigger pie of the local smartphone market which continues to record massive growth due to increased Internet penetration.”
Huawei in partnership with individual retailers, is also looking at setting up additional Huawei experience retail shops countrywide to add on to the Garden City store opened last month. Hemaobin noted that the company’s approach to vendor partnerships is based on trust, mutual understanding and respect; vendors get financial benefit and a good partnership.
This is the first time that Telkom Kenya is selling Huawei phones despite the two companies having been in partnership for the last five years. The initial partnership saw the Telco sell Huawei IT and Mobile Broadband in volumes of over 80,000 units.
“We are venturing into smart phone business with Telkom Kenya to reach out to more customers both existing and potential thus increase in volume and market share in the smart phone market.” Concluded Hemaobin.
“We are confident that our partnership with Huawei is a strategic step in the right direction, most especially as we continue with our network expansion agenda across the country,” says, Telkom Kenya CEO, Vincent Lobry.
