We have big plans for the South African smartphone market – Huawei
Huawei recently announced a refreshed version of its P Smart for 2019, following the success of the previous model in South Africa.
Speaking at a media event in Johannesburg, Huawei South Africa CTO Akhram Mohamed said the P Smart aims to fill a gap in the market which has opened up due to the increasing price of smartphones.
“With the equity of our flagship P series increasing and the price of mobile phones increasing across the board, we found a gap in the market,” Mohamed said.
“We wanted to address the gap in the market, especially in the R249-R299 monthly pricing range.”
“Within that segment, there are not many products which could claim to have flagship experiences, and that’s where the P Smart comes in.”
The Huawei P Smart has performed extremely well in South Africa, with the 2018 version quickly becoming the top-selling device in its price segment.
The smartphone was the best-selling device in its pricing bracket for eight months in 2018, and owned a 52% market share in this segment for six months.
Mohamed said the company hopes to continue this performance with its 2019 model, which offers improved features while retaining its attractive price point.
Market dominance
Huawei has quickly become a major player in South Africa and has launched smartphones across a multitude of pricing ranges, from the budget-oriented Y series to its premium Mate series.
The company has rapidly caught up with Apple and Samsung, overtaking the former in terms of overall market share last year and setting its sights on the top position across all pricing segments in the local market.
Mohamed said the strong performance of Huawei’s smartphones across the board could result in the company reaching this goal by the end of 2019 or 2020.
“In 2018, Huawei was either number one or number two in every pricing segment,” Mohamed told MyBroadband.
“And where we are number two, the gap is so small that we think we could break through very quickly.”
He acknowledged that the only space where Huawei needs to work on its market share in South Africa is the $800-and-above pricing bracket – which is still led by Apple due to its higher average selling prices.
Judging by its strong growth in the local market in recent years, this goal is one which is certainly achievable, said Huawei.
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