CALLING Africa? There’s a good chance someone will answer on a mobile phone made in Shenzhen.

    Local companies such as Huawei, Tecno and TCL are among the top five most popular mobile phone brands in Africa, according to a report in yesterday’s Shenzhen Economic Daily, which cites statistics from the Internet Data Center (IDC).

    Huawei Technologies is the second-most popular mobile phone brand in terms of African sales number, following Samsung.

    “Among the top 10 Chinese brands of cellphones sold in the African market, six are from Shenzhen,” said Tang Ruijing, executive chairman of the Shenzhen Mobile Communication Association. Another three Shenzhen brands — ZTE, Gionee and Tecsync — are among the top 10 brands in Africa.

    Africa has become the largest Chinese smartphone market outside China. IDC statistics show the market share of Chinese mobile phones in Africa increased by 30 percent in 2014, double that of two years ago. The number of Huawei mobile phones sold in the Middle East and Africa tripled in 2014 over the previous year.

    Huawei and Tecno phones are generally sold at US$200 and other brands are sold at more than US$100 on average. In 2007, Chinese cell phones were sold in Africa for between US$15-80. With the growth of Shenzhen-based phone brands after 2013, more and more Shenzhen made phones have entered African markets. (Han Ximin)