By 2028, HONOR hopes to be the number one smartphone brand in South Africa. Just three years after launching in South Africa, the Chinese smartphone brand is making a bold play for local market share – by innovating, lowering prices and understanding customer needs and expectations. As part of these growth plans, HONOR is also looking to build strategic relationships with key industry stakeholders.
Speaking to ITWeb at the Africa Tech Festival, which was hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town this week, HONOR South Africa’s CMO, Mark Lei, shared that the handset manufacturer is lucky to have access to a pool of the industry’s top minds and engineers who make it possible for HONOR to bring very good hardware to the market, at a competitive price.
“With our entry-level products, we do a lot of R&D and testing to make sure that these devices are feature-rich,” he said. “In doing market research, we noticed that there is a huge demand in the entry-level market,” he said, adding that the vast majority of South African consumers who want a smartphone don’t want to spend more than R4 000 to get one.
HONOR’s smartphone strategy comes as smartphone shipments (20.2 million units) surpassed feature phones (18.8 million units) in Africa for the first time. In the first quarter of 2025, 20.2 million smartphones were shipped, compared to just 18.8 million feature phones. Additionally, smartphone shipments grew by 17.9%, while feature phone shipments declined by 15.9%.
Describing HONOR as a ‘human-centric' business, Lei explained that this additional research revealed key pain points and showcased what local customers want and need. “We can’t solve all the problems; some of the key priorities are durability, battery life, storage and new technologies and innovative features.”
During a Fireside Chat at the event, HONOR CEO Fred Zhou said the brand’s ambition is to move away from being a mere handset manufacturer to become a leading AI device business. As part of this transition, the business is investing $10 billion in the next five years into AI-related industries. And part of this investment is earmarked to help the business deliver intelligent AI on HONOR handsets, even entry-level models.
According to Lei, HONOR can do so because its main goal is volume, not profit. “To be honest, we don't want to earn a lot of profit for our entry-level products.” HONOR separated from Huawei just five years ago, which is why the focus is on getting noticed, earning customer trust, and differentiating the brand from the competition, not on making money. And they are making headway; the company is currently one of the fastest-growing brands in the country. This strategy drives everything the business does, which includes offering what Lei described as the “most aggressive after-sales service in South Africa”. In 2025, HONOR offered customers who bought a handset one free screen repair if their device’s display broke within six months of purchase.
Describing smartphones as a gateway, Lei noted that as more people gain access to these tools and the market grows, this will also drive sales of other digital technologies, such as laptops, tablets and wearables. “We want to support people on their digital journey by offering a digital ecosystem that allows customers to seamlessly connect their devices and share information, no matter what brand they are,” he concluded. “In this way, we are again trying to make sure that what we do really works for the human, not the business.”
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