The rise of affordable entry-level devices from brands continues to remain a key driver for smartphone adoption, according to a new report from Jumia Kenya.
The report dubbed Jumia Mobile Report 2019 shows that for years, smartphone affordability has been a major challenge to smartphone ownership and mobile penetration but competition has reportedly led to a continuous decrease in average price of smartphone over the last three years.
“The average amount spent to purchase a smartphone on the platform in 2014 stood at 186 USD, which reduced to 97 USD in 2016 and 86 USD in 2018 respectively. The rise of affordable entry-level devices from brands continues to remain a key driver of smartphone adoption ,” stated the report.
The report also adds that the 2018 Kenyan smartphone industry was dominated by Chinese brands including Infinix, which dominated sales for the past three years with Xiaomi and Huawei seen as strong new entrants, gaining 5% and 9% market share on Jumia respectively.
Despite the price of smartphones falling, smartphone users ,continue to focus on specifications along with brand perception and quality. This has resulted in brands offering higher specifications at lower pricing by investing in higher storage, larger screen size, better camera resolution and 4G network connectivity on their devices. Thus, creating value for Kenyan consumers.
