Promising Market
South Korean smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are striving to find new growth opportunities in the Middle East and Africa with the global smartphone market in the state of saturation. The two regions have a combined population of 1.2 billion or so, comparable to that of the world’s largest Chinese market.
According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone sales volume is expected to grow 7% this year, the first single-digit growth rate since the competition in the market unfolded in earnest.
However, the Middle East and African markets are estimated to show the highest growth rate in the world until 2022. Last year, the two markets showed an annual growth rate of 37.9% while the global average was limited to 12%. During the same period, the North American market grew 6.7% while the sales volumes in the Western European and Asia-Pacific markets increased by 6.4% and 12.9%, respectively.
Samsung Electronics is already dominating the fast-growing Middle East and African markets in fact. Specifically, Samsung Electronics enjoyed a market share of as high as 49% in the region last year whereas those of Huawei and Apple were 10.3% and 7.9%, respectively. TCL-Alcatel (3.9%), Lenovo Motorola (3.4%) and LG Electronics (2.6%) followed them.