Mobile phone shipments nosedives - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Africa's mobile phone market declined 2.1 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) in Q3 2018 according to the latest figures according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), reports ITREALMS.

The global technology research and consulting firm newly released Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, made available to ITREALMS, showed overall shipments for the quarter totaled 52.6 million units, with feature phone shipments falling 2.7 per cent QoQ and smartphone shipments declining 1.3 per cent over the same period.

Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) led the feature phone space in Q3 2018, with a combined unit share of 58.2 per cent. Nokia was next in line with 11.7 per cent share. Transsion, Samsung, and Huawei dominated the smartphone space with respective unit shares of 34.9%, 21.7%, and 10.2%. However, in value terms, Samsung led the smartphone market with 37.2% share, followed by Transsion (21.0%) and Huawei (13.0%).

There were differing fortunes in the region's three major markets, with Nigeria suffering a heavy 11.6% QoQ decline in mobile phone shipments, while South Africa and Kenya saw respective QoQ growth of 8.5% and 7.9% in Q3 2018.

"The decline in Nigeria stemmed from a slowdown in government spending, ongoing warfare in the country's northern states, and market uncertainty in the lead up to elections," says George Mbuthia, a research analyst at IDC. "In South Africa, the market's growth was spurred by the penetration of low-end devices from brands such as Mobicel, Mint, and Nokia, while the launch of entry-level smartphones helped drive growth in Kenya despite increases in taxes and fuel prices placing a significant burden on disposable income in the country."

While feature phones remain steadfastly popular across Africa, particularly in more rural areas, consumers are increasingly being attracted by smartphone offerings from Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Huawei, which are actively targeting feature-oriented customers at more economical price points.

"There is a new wave of Chinese brands aggressively pursuing growth opportunities in the region, while the more-established Huawei is also accelerating its marketing efforts and expanding its distribution budget," says Ramazan Yavuz, a research manager at IDC. "These brands have quickly progressed along the learning curve and evolved their offerings to perfectly reflect the realities of the region by addressing the diverse pricing and feature needs of the consumer base."

Looking ahead, IDC expects Africa's overall mobile phone market to reach 58 million units in Q4 2018, spurred by the festive season and online consumer events such as Black Friday. The introduction of more affordable smartphones in the African market will help drive progress in this space over the coming quarters, while the share of feature phones will decline steadily as the transition to smartphones gathers momentum.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Nokia plans mobile tech return

ITRealms:

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) corporation, Nokia Technologies, has began hiring software experts and sales partners to test its new products, as it sets to return to the mobile phone and consumer tech arena, ITRealms learnt.

The company, ITRealms gathered, may have heralded the ‘rebirth of Nokia’ with the launch of an Android tablet N1, and also launched an Android app called Z Launcher, which organises content on smartphones.   

In the meantime, ITRealms reports that Nokia’s technologies division has advertised on LinkedIn for dozens of jobs in California, many in product development, including Android engineers specialising in the operating software its mobile devices will use.

Although, the Chief Executive Officer Nokia, Rajeev Suri, was not explicit on the preparations, however, disclosed that the corporation aimed to re-enter the mobile phone business.

He also stressed that it will not fall back on ‘traditional’ methods noting that, some staff at the 600-strong technologies division are working on designs for new consumer products, including phones, as well as in digital video and health.

One ace Nokia holds, ITRealms gathered, is ownership of one of the mobile industry's biggest troves of intellectual property, including patents it retained after selling its handset business. With this the telecom giant intends to claw its way back to relevance in the fast-changing, competitive mobile business where Apple has been scooping up nearly 90% of industry profits.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

 

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GTBank launches mobile phone third party transfer code

ITRealms:

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) plc has launched a third party transfer from a mobile phone using a short code ‘737’ reports ITRealms.

This channel, ITRealms reports, enables GTBank customers to conveniently perform third party transfers to both GTBank and other bank account holders in Nigeria, via their mobile phones, by simply dialing the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code *737 with details of the amount and account number (NUBAN) of the beneficiary.

Mr. Segun Agbaje, Managing Director/CEO of the Bank, said the *737* transfer service is another novel offering by GTBank in the Nigeria, that is safe, simple and convenient.

According to him, to initiate transfers to a GTBank account, simply dial *737*1*Amount*NUBAN Account No # e.g.*737*1*1000*1234567890# from the mobile number registered with the Bank.

For transfers to beneficiaries in other Bank’s, customers should simply dial *737*2*Amount*NUBAN AccountNo# e.g. *737*2*1000*1234567890#. Customers will then require the last four digits of their GTBank Naira MasterCard to authenticate each transaction.

The 737 transfer service has been introduced to build on the success of the Bank’s One Click Top –up service; which offers GTBank customers an efficient and easy way to buy airtime on their mobile phones directly from their GTBank account by simply dialing a short USSD code (*737*AMOUNT#).

“we will continue to leverage technology to make banking, especially payments and transfers, faster, safer and more convenient for all our customers. He further stated that, “this service addresses the electronic banking requirements of our customers, irrespective of their phone type” he said.

The *737* Transfer service is only available to GTBank customersvia their mobile phone numbers registered with the Bank and has minimum transfer limit of N1,000 and a daily transfer limit of N20,000.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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