Egypt’s smartphone market grows 10.6% y-o-y in 2020: IDC
Egypt’s smartphone market recorded a healthy year-on-year growth during 2020, according to the latest figures announced on Thursday by financial data firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
IDC’s newly released Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showed that Egypt’s smartphone market grew 10.6 percent year-on-year in 2020 to total 11.9 million units.
“The (Egyptian) market witnessed multiple developments on both the supply and demand sides throughout 2020,” said Taher Abdel Hameed, a senior research analyst at IDC.
“On the demand side, consumers had tighter budgets, but there was strong demand for smartphones to meet the new remote working and education requirements brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This demand spurred the majority of vendors to offer new affordable but feature-rich models.
“On the supply side, supply shortages in Q1 and the introduction of new import taxes on mobile phones in July were both negatives for the market. However, these were largely offset by vendors accelerating their shipments in Q2 before the application of new taxes and after supplies returned to normal.”
Samsung was Egypt’s smartphone market leader in 2020 with 25.2 percent unit share, followed by Oppo in second place, and Xiaomi in third.
In terms of price bands, shipments of low-end devices priced below $200 rose 17.7 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, in terms of screen size, the 6.5–7.0″ band saw its share of shipments grew significantly from 14.5 percent in 2019 to 47.9 percent in 2020.
Looking ahead, IDC expects Egypt’s smartphone market to grow 2.5 percent year-on-year in 2021.
“The rate of growth has softened in H1 2021 due to a global shortage of components,” said Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC.
“This has lowered what would otherwise have been a strong growth forecast for the year as a whole. However, Egypt remains on a growth trajectory, with demand still healthy in the country. Any positive developments relating to the supply shortages will fuel further growth in 2021.” Yavuz added.
