Africa is proving to be quite the stronghold for Samsung, as the company has announced that it has shipped more than 50 percent of all the smartphones sold in the continent this year. “Samsung this year will ship 50 percent of all the smartphones in Africa,” Thabiet Allie, head of content and services for Samsung Electronics Africa, told a telecoms conference in Cape Town late on Tuesday.
Smartphone penetration in Africa is still pretty low at 4 percent, but from the 20 million smartphones sold in the continent this year, more than half had Samsung's name on them. The Korean manufacturer isn't going to be content, however, as it aims at doubling its sales in Africa next year. “Next year we are looking at doubling this number and the year after probably doing a substantial increase,” Allie said at the annual AfricaCom conference. It's a goal that stands right in line with Samsung's plans to focus on low-end and mid-range devices next year, and judging by the marketing prowess Samsung possesses, it's a goal that might not be too hard to achieve.
