Samsung continues to be South Africa’s favourite smartphone brand, and its dominance grew more between January 2023 and January 2024, according to
Samsung’s dominance in South Africa isn’t surprising. The brand sells devices suitable for most budgets in South Africa — high-end, mid-range, and budget smartphones — and offers an extensive after-sales support network. It should be noted that the market share of the “Unknown/Other” category grew by 3.35%. However, there is no way to tell what specific brands make up the category.
Apple’s move up is impressive, considering it only really caters to South Africa’s higher-end market — a smaller segment than in countries like the US and UK.Apple’s hold on the market fell from 17.77% in January 2023 to 16.54% in January 2024, while Huawei’s dropped from 19.12% to 14.31% over the same period.
Workarounds are available to install most apps commonly available on other devices, but users can’t access the Google Play Store to download and install apps.