IDC: Smartphone shipments to double in Africa in 4 years

The African smartphone market is set to double in volume over the next four years and account for close to one third of all handset shipments to the continent by 2017, according to a new report from research firm IDC. Nonetheless, feature phones remain at the heart of the African mobile phone market, and IDC believes that as the number of mobile users increases across the continent, feature-phone volumes will remain strong despite the growth in smartphone shipments.

Smartphone shipments to Africa were up 21.5 per cent year-over-year during the second quarter of 2013, and now account for 18 per cent of the overall African mobile phone market's volume. Samsung Electronics currently dominates the African smartphone market, recording 52.1 per cent unit share for the second quarter. Nokia meanwhile continues to dominate the feature-phone market, accounting for 58.5 per cent of the feature-phone market's volume in the second quarter of 2013. Release