Chinese smartphone makers offer Kenyans wider options

A customer looks at Lenovo smartphones at the company's flagship store in Beijing. [Photo/Agencies]

NAIROBI - The entrance of various Chinese phone-makers in the Kenyan market has offered citizens wider options in the selection of both low and high cost smartphones.

At least two phone manufacturers from the Asian nation have entered the Kenyan market this year, adding to several others that were already operating in the East African nation.

The Chinese phone-makers in Kenya include Huawei, Tecno, Lenovo, Oppo and Infinix. All the technology giants are making smartphones that are pocket friendly, particularly for the Kenyan market where feature phones are still in wider use.

Kenyan residents can now acquire quality, multi-functional smartphones from as low as $30. However, the phone makers are not manufacturing only low cost phones, those in need of the high-end gadgets that go from as much as $490 also have pool to choose from.

"My brand is Huawei," Harrison Ombima, a banker in Nairobi, said Wednesday. "I have never touched any other phone ever since I fell in love with Huawei two years ago."

Huawei phones go for between $60 and $681. The phones, as many other Chinese brands, are normally conspicuous in different shops because of their widescreen (six inches), cameras and other features.

With $220, you can buy a Huawei Honor T1 or Huawei Ascend G628, good multifunctional gadgets that offer Kenyans more for less.

The Huawei phones have been a hit with Kenyan residents ever since they were introduced into the country sometime in 2010. During that time, Huawei sold over 100,000 gadgets in a few months. But that was before Tecno entered the market, another Chinese phone-maker whose gadgets are doing amazingly well with Kenyans.

Tecno captured the lower-end consumers. With its smartphones going from as low as $30, the phone-maker has become a household name in the East African nation.

Zhang Feng, the Tecno marketing manager in Nairobi, said recently that their gadgets offer Kenyans of different economic powers wide options.

In the footsteps of Tecno are Infinix and Lenovo, the newest entrants in the Kenyan market.

Infinix came into the Kenyan market about two years ago and is slowing carving a niche for itself in both the low and high-end markets. Lenovo, better known in Kenya as a laptop giant, is the latest Chinese phone-maker to enter Kenyan market. The manufacturer in October launched a $50 Lenovo A2010, becoming the lowest 4G smartphone in the market.

"I am currently using a Lenovo phone because I bought their laptop sometime back, and it is a super gadget, the reason I went for the phone. So far, so good," said Calvin Ngugi, a university student.

OPPO is another Chinese smartphone maker that has rattled the Kenyan market. The manufacturer hit the Kenyan market in April and has a range of sleek low and high-cost phones that go from $98.

Bernard Mwaso of Edell IT Solution in Nairobi noted that the Chinese phone-makers have totally altered the landscape of the Kenyan smartphone market.

"With the Chinese phone, counterfeits are no longer an option for Kenyans. Again, even the low income earners have smartphones that they are proud of. That is the good thing with competition," said Mwaso, adding that he is optimistic that more Chinese phone-makers would enter the Kenyan market in the future as the potential is still huge with Kenyans' rising income levels.