Chinese electronics giant Huawei is gunning to become the top smartphone brand in SA, taking on the likes of Apple and Samsung.
The smartphone maker is banking on its second flagship of the year - the Mate Series - which hits South African shores this month, with the Mate 10 PRO and Mate 10 Porsche Design available in store from 17 November.
According to the latest IDC statistics, Samsung remains the leader in the worldwide smartphone market, grabbing 23.3% share and showing 1.4% growth in the second quarter of 2017. It adds that Apple shipped 41 million iPhones in the second quarter, representing mild 1.5% year-over-year growth from the 40.4 million units shipped last year.
Meanwhile, Huawei captured third position thanks to strong sales in greater China as well as in many developed European markets. The Chinese giant witnessed 19.6% year-over-year growth and improved its market share by two full percentage points compared to the second quarter of last year, says IDC.
Huawei unveiled the Mate 10 in Germany last month. In an interview with CNBC following the launch, Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC, said Huawei was already the biggest challenger to Apple and Samsung.
"They will probably overtake Apple in the smartphone business, either this year or next year," he reportedly said.
According to the latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index for mobile handsets, conducted by consultancy firm Consulta, South African mobile handset users are content with their Apple iPhone, despite the smartphone's high price.
Huawei ranks second with a 4.1 point jump to 81.3, followed by Samsung, which scored 80.4 (up 0.9 points since 2016).
"Huawei will continue to bring the latest products to South Africa like our new Mate10 PRO and Porsche Design," Likun Zhao, GM for Huawei's Consumer Business Group SA, told ITWeb in an e-mail.
He would not comment on the exact pricing due to confidentiality with the operators. "However, I can say the Mate 10 Porsche Design smartphone will be the most expensive phone on the market.
"Our brand has a high awareness, so we will focus on improving the consideration of consumers. We have enhanced our retail region organisation because we hope to attract new customers to experience our smartphone.
"If new consumers have a chance to use our smartphone, we believe the purchase decision-making probability of consumers will increase 50%. Our operator partners also welcome this transformation. Huawei and retail stores hope to achieve a win-win goal."
Zhao points out Huawei has several findings for the South African market. The first finding is more and more consumers are looking for a new alternative brand and an opportunity to try something different, he notes.
The second is that consumers upgrading is increasing mid-level smartphone sales, he says, adding the third finding is SA's smartphone market will have big growth because of the migration of 2G/3G to 4G from 2017 to 2019.
"These changes are all our opportunities. Huawei will transfer more high-end users from other brands based on our innovation and high quality. We hope to catch the middle level consumers because we will introduce more features and technologies from flagship to middle level. Huawei will cooperate with operators to speed up the migration of 2G/3G to 4G."
Globally, the smartphone market is going through a tough time. However, Zhao says Huawei has performed well and grew shipments to over 100 million for the first three quarters of this year.
In SA, he says, Huawei's investment will focus on three fields. "Firstly, we will increase the infrastructure of local cloud because Huawei will bring more cloud service to South Africa.
"We believe Huawei cloud service will bring more rich and colourful experience for our consumer. Secondly, we will play more roles for society responsibility by contributing to education and local innovation. Thirdly, we will consider investing more on sponsorships for premium associations."
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