Samsung's smartphone business took a hit worldwide during the first and second quarters of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related business closures. There was some pick up in sales during the second quarter, though. Now, a new report claims that Samsung turned out to be the biggest smartphone brand in Egypt in Q2 2020.
According to a new market analysis report from IDC (International Data Corporation), Samsung captured a 23.8% share of Egypt's smartphone market by shipping 0.68 million units. The South Korean tech giant beat Chinese rivals OPPO and Xiaomi to capture the number one ranking in terms of smartphone volume. The country's smartphone market expanded by 2.2% quarter-on-quarter to 2.88 million units.
In the second quarter of 2020, the portion of ultra-affordable smartphones (priced below $100) sold in Egypt jumped from 17.5% (in Q2 2019) to 30.5%. Moreover, devices with screen sizes between 6.5 inches to 7 inches accounted for 45.4% of all the smartphones sold during the period, up from 12.4% in Q1 2020.
Taher Abdel Hameed, a senior research analyst at IDC, said, “The price band and screen size trends indicate that consumers were opting for more affordable phones due to tighter budgets, while vendors supplied affordable models with higher specs to cope with challenging sales conditions during the pandemic.” Smartphone brands are hoping for the sales to rise in Q4 2020 and reach earlier levels in Q1 2021.
