Smartphone penetration in Africa

Currently there are over 100 million mobile users in Africa; 35 million of these are in South Africa! Wow, these are big numbers (not that the potential of the mobile market in Africa was ever in question). With the growing use of smartphones worldwide, I am particularly interested in the uptake in Africa (before mobi and app development go crazy) we need realistically to think of the penetration rates. At 5.1% Africa has one of the lowest Smartphone penetration levels in the world. Given that we are in a developing country, the vision of the average rural African walking around with the latest iphone 4 is still difficult to imagine. However after doing some research, I can’t deny that this is possibly going to be the very definite future.

These days everyone from businessmen, students to parents and even pensioners are all carrying their contacts, emails and social networks around with them, right in their back pockets. Cheaper handsets, ever-decreasing data charges, the improvements in phone web browsers, increased 3G coverage have fundamentally changed the way we use our phones, resulting in smartphones increasingly becoming the norm.  

There are some interesting trends showing up – traditional phone features (calls, SMS and MMS) are starting to lose popularity (though still the reason why people buy cell phones). Yet as internet-browsing, IM and email continue to gather momentum; we might see the latest mobile features becoming the reason why we purchase a phone instead. This can be seen with the new TVC’s in S.A that are aimed at promoting instant messaging apps such as whatsapp as opposed to pushing an actual phone brand.  The current paths of mobile technology and social networking are inextricably linked, according to eMarketer’s by March 2010; 650m people globally were using their mobile for emails and social networking.

According to new research by Informa Telecoms & Media - smartphone users are making up only 13% of the world’s mobile users, which generates two-thirds of the world’s mobile traffic. This data traffic is also expected to increase by 700% on average per user over the next 5 years.³Informa expects the number of smartphone users to reach 1.4 billion by the end of 2015, which will represent about 30% of total mobile subscribers worldwide.

Mi-Fone’s cheap full functioning smartphone at ($30) entering in the market, soon to be released in South Africa and offering many new subscribers their only link to the Internet. One can see how the above new trends will be spiking within the next few years. After all, which market wouldn’t respond to a cheap and useful product? I’m pretty this will result us seeing an increase in penetration rates all over the continent. Moreover, with bandwidth getting cheaper we can expect a drastic increase in mobile usage in SA. With these kinds of statistics, it’s safe to assume that soon, social media will become the cheapest, if not only means of reaching and marketing to rural Africa.

It is predicted that by the year 2014, the mobile environment will be dominated by smartphones. This is one of the many bold predictions by technology analyst Nick Jones, who spoke at the Gartner Symposium on Innovation held at the CTICC. Jones also predicts that smartphone penetration in South Africa is likely to reach 80% by 2014.

Integrating platforms and apps, along with personal email and mobile data create the opportunity for the marketer to develop new ways of communicating with the customer, giving them a truly joined-up mobile experience.

For the mobile marketer, the challenge lies with keeping up to date with the advances in technology and making sure mobile content is always relevant, engaging and innovative, without overloading the customers’. 

The temptation to ‘go mobile’ simply because everyone else is may be strong but don’t try and catch trend before you’re fully prepared, or understand what your customers need. Having said that, there are huge opportunities coming our way, if you in the digital/mobile space. So keep your eyes and hears peeled!

References:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7690-what-does-the-explosion-of-social-media-mean-for-mobile?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

http://www.gsmarena.com/mobile_phone_usage_survey-review-592.php

http://www.biztechafrica.com/section/mobile/article/smartphones-drive-data-traffic-africa-lags/300/

http://memeburn.com/2010/09/smartphones-to-rule-by-2014-predicts-gartner/

http://www.gsmarena.com/mobile_phone_usage_survey-review-592.php