ZTE Corporation has announced plans to introduce some of its handsets in Kenya, in a bid to tap into the growing smartphone market in the country.
The firm, which has largely been an infrastructure company, says it aims to grow its revenue in Kenya and the region as a whole where smartphones have been projected to grow by 40 per cent on average each year until 2017.
Andy Chow, ZTE technical manager Kenya, said it would take an approach that positioned its brands closer to the customers, using a model that focuses on the needs of the buyer.
“We have a customer-centered approach to our products. ZTE’s success has been built on offering phones that lend themselves well to customisation and give users mainly essential functions,” Chow said, reports Standard Media.
“We will not focus on what the competition has done or is doing but rather the needs of the customer.”
The firm says despite the dominance of the other big brands in the handset market, it plans to replicate the moves used in other countries, noting that internet access through mobile offers huge opportunities.
HumanIPO reported in September shipments of smartphones in Africa went up 21.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2013, with smartphones now accounting for 18 per cent of the overall mobile phone market.
This was according to a survey by International Data Corp (IDC). Another survey showed the smartphone market worldwide is expected to grow by 40 per cent in 2013 and to 1.7 billion annually by 2017.
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