47% of phones sold in Q1 2015 in Africa were smartphones

"Regional smartphone shipments will total 155m units in 2015 after increasing by 66% year on year during the first quarter, according to the technology research and consulting firm’s Q1 2015 Mobile Phone Tracker report. During the quarter, 47% of cellphones sold during the first quarter in Africa were smartphones. Feature-phone sales on the continent slumped by 20% year on year, according to IDC.
“The growth in smartphones in the Middle East and Africa region is being spurred on by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, with the two platforms accounting for over 95% of the smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2015,” the company said. “Shipments of devices featuring these operating systems increased by a combined 67% year on year.”
In Africa, Android has 89% market share in smartphones, with Apple a distant second at 7%. Android is particularly dominant in the low- to mid-priced bands, while Apple is found in the US$450-plus category.
“The strong growth in the region’s smartphone market is largely being driven by the emergence of low-priced devices that are primarily powered by Android,” IDC said. “Indeed, almost half of all the smartphones shipped across Africa (45,1%) in the first quarter of 2015 were priced below $100, while almost 75% fell under $200.”
Nigeria accounted for 14% of all smartphone shipments across Africa during the first quarter, while South Africa was responsible for 12%.
Samsung, Tecno and Apple were the leading smartphone vendors in Africa during the quarter, with Huawei being ousted from the top three. The three leading vendors accounted for a combined 55% share of Africa’s smartphone shipments in the first quarter."
Source:  Data from IDC, reported by TechCentral, 12th July 2015