Chinese smartphone brand Honor has met its target of capturing 10% of South Africa’s smartphone market, reaching the top three spot in the first quarter of 2025, it says.
Despite SA’s highly-competitive smartphone market, the Huawei spin-off says it started the year on a strong note, with 2025 being an encouraging year in terms of local smartphone sales.
The smartphone maker, which introduced its devices locally in 2021, previously told ITWeb that it is gunning for the top three position in the local smartphone industry − eyeing at least 10% of the market share.
To reach this target, the company says it has been aggressively executing its strategy to bring its flagship smartphones to Africa, as it continues to diversify its product portfolio beyond mobile phones.
During an interview with ITWeb TV, Fred Zhou, CEO of Honor South Africa, shed light on Honor's device offerings, the company’s Project Alpha artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and its internet of things (IOT) business.
“Over the last two years, Honor has experienced tremendous growth in the South African smartphone industry. We are proud to say that in the first quarter of this year, we achieved 10% of the market share – prepaid and postpaid segments combined. We also became the top three smartphone brand in South Africa in terms of unit sales,” said Zhou.
“Honor is still a challenger brand in the South African market, so for the next three years, we envision bringing more advanced technology products into the market. We are not satisfied with being in that position; therefore, we will continue with our commitment to bring more advanced tech products.”
In the postpaid market alone, Honor has reached 17% of the market share, he added.
Arnold Ponela, senior research analyst at IDC, tells ITWeb that based on IDC’s shipment data for the first quarter of 2025, the top five smartphone vendors in South Africa are Samsung, Mobicel, Honor, Hisense and Stylo.
“Notably, Honor has emerged as the fastest-growing brand in the country. According to our data, it has now surpassed the 10% market share threshold − a milestone that underscores its rapid growth and increasing consumer traction,” says Ponela.
Morphing into an AI firm
Honor separated from Huawei in November 2020, amid the sanctions faced by the latter in the US. Huawei decided to sell Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, in an effort to save the brand.
At the time, the Chinese technology giant said the sale would help Honor's channel sellers and suppliers make it through the difficult period.
At MWC 2025 in March, Honor unveiled its Project Alpha strategy, which focuses on transitioning the company into an AI device ecosystem firm.
Through the Alpha Plan, Honor has committed to invest $10 billion over the next five years, and build a common framework of AI collaboration, Zhou pointed out.
“Alpha Plan aims to provide the company with a strategic direction, with the focus on elevating our device ecosystem and capability through agentic AI. It is premised on three pillars: reinvent the smartphone experience through different AI capabilities, build an industry-wide collaboration framework to drive AI partnerships, and empower consumers with an intelligent device ecosystem.”
Zhou also shed light on how the saturated smartphone market is leading to phone makers intensifying their IOT strategies in SA, to diversify their product offerings and open up new revenue streams.
Honor last year started rolling out a portfolio of IOT device management business solutions in SA, which includes full-scenario IOT services beyond phone devices, such as headsets, smart screens, routers and wearable products.
“Our IOT business forms part of our strategy to transition into an AI business in South Africa and the globe. Since introduction, our IOT products have not been doing badly in South Africa. Our tablet devices, for instance, have been doing well. At the moment, our target market for the segment is consumers, but we are looking at providing business-to-business offerings in future,” he stated.
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