Smartphones4.07.2025

From R11,000 for a mobile phone to R99 for a computer in your pocket

The South African mobile telecommunications industry has come a long way since the first networks were launched in 1994 and smartphones started appearing on the market.

Since then, the country has seen several significant developments, including the introduction of smartphones and 5G networks.

In 1994, MTN and Vodacom launched South Africa’s first cellular services using the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, which replaced analogue first-generation (1G) networks.

This saw the launch of several cellphones on the South African market, including the Alcatel HB100, Ericsson GH198, Motorola 8200, Nokia 2110, and Siemens S3.

The most affordable of these was the Alcatel HB100, which retailed for R2,000 at the time, equivalent to R11,287 after accounting for inflation.

On the other hand, the most expensive of the first batch of cellphones to hit the market was the Motorola 8200, priced at R3,360. This would equate to R18,953 in 2025.

However, Motorola’s MicroTAC, one of the smallest and lightest phones of the time, proved the most popular that year.

MTN said cellphones immediately became a hit when the MicroTAC launched, with “young businessmen in neat suits” being top customers. Even toy shops reported a surge in sales of replica phones.

Both Vodacom and MTN reported rapid uptake of mobile services. Vodacom soon had 50,000 subscribers on its network, while MTN, which was second to market, grew rapidly to 20,000 customers.

For the next few years, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola competed to produce the lightest and most compact device, which proved popular in South Africa at the time.

Most devices weighed between 135 grams and 200 grams, and their battery life was between three and five hours of talk time.

Nokia then began to take over the cellphone market in the early 2000s, with devices like the 3210, which had downloadable ringtones, and the 3310, one of the most successful mobile devices ever.

Devices also started featuring VGA cameras, Bluetooth, and media players, like the Nokia 6600. By 2005, cellphones like the Samsung E250 also had e-mail, SMS, and MMS functionality.

Until this point, cellphones used alpha-numeric keypads with letters mapped to numeric keys. However, cellphones with QWERTY keypads, such as the LG KS-360, soon arrived in South Africa.

The past 15 years

While the game-changing iPhone debuted in 2007, it was primarily tech enthusiasts who were interested in touchscreen smartphones in their early years.

However, the 2010s saw smartphones displacing feature phones entirely, with the iPhone 4 becoming the most popular device in South Africa in 2010.

It launched in 2009 at R5,199, equivalent to roughly R11,100 today. It offered 32GB of storage, a 5MP camera and High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) connectivity.

While touch screens may have started gaining traction, the next few years would belong to Blackberry, with devices like the Curve 8520 and Bold 9700.

In 2011, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys noted that the mobile network operator (MNO) had around one million BlackBerry devices on its network, compared to 150,000 iPhones.

Around this time, the Blackberry Curve 8520, released in 2009, could be purchased for R1,599, or just over R3,100 by today’s standards.

Although most of the world was moving on from physical keyboards to touchscreens, BlackBerry’s offer of uncapped mobile data for R60 per month in South Africa was a major selling point.

However, BlackBerry’s reign soon ended when it launched its BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system that used regular data bundles.

Without an uncapped mobile data package to anchor its value proposition, South Africans abandoned BlackBerry in droves.

This saw the rise of Samsung, which already saw some popularity with its slide-out bar phones and flip-phones during the first decade of the 21st century, including 2005’s E250 and 2009’s E1100.

However, the flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series ultimately won the South Korean giant’s local dominance.

Launched in 2014 at a recommended retail price of R10,200, equivalent to R17,156 in 2025, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was the most popular device of the year.

The smartphone had a 5.1-inch AMOLED display, a 16MP primary camera, and a fingerprint sensor.

By 2015, traditional cellphones — now called “feature phones” — had significantly dropped in value, like the Alcatel 1011, which retailed for R99, equivalent to R159 today.

The following decade would see Apple slowly rising in popularity, Huawei come and go, and several Chinese brands, like Vivo and Honor, enter the market.

However, Samsung continued to dominate the market with devices like the Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S20, and a reinvented flip phone.

Fast forward to 2025, and the increased competition in the global smartphone market has significantly lowered the barrier to entry.

One noteworthy development was MTN recently announcing that it would sell Itel AC51 smartphones, capable of 4G connectivity, priced at R99.

However, it is worth noting that these devices are only available to select customers and are subsidised by the network to encourage a migration to 4G. Their suggested retail price is R749.

The AC51 has a 5-inch 854 x 480-pixel display, packs 32GB of internal storage, and offers dual SIM support.

It also comes with 2GB of RAM, but 2GB of its internal storage can be used as virtual RAM for better performance, and packs a 2,050mAh battery.











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