Tecno can dominate Nigerian smartphone market, and this is how

When Tecno initially came into Nigeria, it was responsible for the production of cheap mobile phones you’d call substandard at best (they’re popularly called China phones). In a good move though, Tecno has since restrategized and has become an android vendor which has given a cheap alternative to the expensive high end smartphones.

Tecno has produced phones like P3 and N3 which sells for about 13,000 naira and the Tecno Phantom A1 which sells for about 35,000 naira. These phones are cheap when you compare them to smartphones from big makers like Samsung, LG, or HTC.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (left) and Tecno Phantom A2

Like I said earlier, they are cheap alternatives and that is probably where their comparison with the costly smartphones ends. One issue about Tecno phones is the stigma associated with it. When people see it, they think cheap. Even with its functions, the cheap tag is there and people won’t forget that fast.

Tecno smartphones are cheap but when you consider their specifications, they’re behind their more expensive smartphone counterparts. Comparing the recently released Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Tecno Phantom A2 which were both released recently. I’m comparing the two because they have the same screen size.

The Samsung galaxy Note 3 has a 5.7-inch super AMOLED multitouch screen, 1080 × 1920 pixels, 386 ppi pixel density, 16 million colours, 3200mAh battery, 2.3 GHz quad-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB built-in memory, storage extendable to 64GB, 2G/3G/4G network. The price of the device is 113,995 naira (on Jumia).

Tecno Phantom A2 has a 5.7-inch CPT capacitive touchscreen, 720 × 1280 pixels, 257 ppi pixel density, 16 million colours, 2630mAh battery, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB built in memory, storage extendable to 32GB. The price is 45,995 naira.

I’ll also compare two 4.0-inch display smartphones from the two vendors which are the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Tecno D5.

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has a 4.0-inch super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 2G/3G network, 16 million colours, 233 ppi pixel density, 8/16GB internal memory, card slot with memory extendable to 32GB, 1500mAh battery, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM. The price is 54,200 naira (on Konga).

In comparison, Tecno D5 has a 4.0-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen, 2G network, 256,000 colours, 233 ppi pixel density, 512MB internal memory, card slot extendable to 32GB, 1800mAh battery, 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM. The cost of this device is 15,995 naira ($100).

These specs show that Samsung beats Tecno in specs when gadgets with similar screen sizes are considered (although Tecno D5 is very close to galaxy S3 Mini). But nevertheless, these Tecno phones are still great value for money when you consider their price.

I’m not in any way advocating for Tecno to sell very good smartphones for cheap prices because that would see them go out of business faster than they can imagine.

One thing Tecno can do is to produce smartphones with specs that will compete with the likes of Samsung galaxy S3/S4, Sony Xperia Z, and HTC One. Literally, it will be close to those models (not necessarily better, though it’s not a bad thing) enough to be a very good cheap alternative for Nigerians (and other African countries).

These smartphones will be sold for high price but it will still be cheaper compared to the big smartphones (for instance, a price of $450 (about 70,000 naira)). This will show that Tecno is ready to compete with the giants even at affordable prices.

A step like this will change many people’s sentiments about Tecno. Of course, it will still continue to produce the cheap smartphones because that’s where the chunk of the business is especially in a place like Africa but consumers will now have more options to choose from.

This is one of the ways Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi was able to gain ground in the big and competitive Chinese smartphone market. This helped the company post more sales than Apple in China in the second quarter of 2013.

This is not a suggestion that Tecno smartphones are losing market in the biggest smartphone market in Africa but they could nail more customers with a strategy like this and also make more profit. Tecno can expect a company like Gionee to pose a challenge in everything Tecno offers in a smartphone.

One of the most important stat to note is that only 5% of mobile phone users in Nigeria (about 5 million users) use smartphones.

This means that in the grand scheme of things, no smartphone maker can claim it dominates Nigerian smartphone market because it’s still very far from saturation unlike the markets in developing countries.

Do you use a Tecno smartphone? What would you like to see improve in your smartphone?

N.B: The prices of the devices were correct at the time of writing the post.

Posted in Smartphones, Specials