South Africa sees 12.4% growth in smartphones sales in Q1 2018

South Africans might be pinching their pockets in other sectors of their financial lives (not to mention the upcoming petrol price hike), but they’re not shy to splurge in others. One particular sector of interest is smartphones.

According to research firm GfK South Africa, the country’s smartphone sales grew by 12.4% over the previous year’s first quarter, with 3.2-million devices sold within the first three months of 2018.

Telecoms retail saw a 22.4% spike in revenue over Q1 2017, while the value of the smartphone market in South Africa grew by 22.8% over last year’s first quarter too. GfK suggests that this is due to South Africans migrating from lower end mobile phones to smartphones. Speaking of feature phones, sales for low-end devices dropped by 1.6% in Q1 2018 compared to Q1 2017.

Other IT indicators showed mixed results.

IT retail shrinked by 4.8% in Q1 2018 compared to Q1 2017, “largely because of decreasing monitor prices and a 38.9% decline in tablet revenues”, GfK explains. Desktops however are seeing a mini-boom, with a 39% spike in revenue over Q1 2017.

And for those bosses who just have to have ultra high-definition monitors in their office, shipments of UHD screens ballooned by 76% this quarter, while sales prices of these panels fell by 24%.

Feature image: Xavier Wendling via Unsplash