TRANSSION Holdings, a Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer, topped the African smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2021 with a combined unit share of 47.9%, according to the latest study by a global research firm released Wednesday.

The International Data Corp. (IDC) said Transsion, which manufactures Tecno, Infinix, and Itel brands, outpaced Samsung and Xiaomi (including Poco) with respective shares of 19.6% and 7.1%.

The report shows that Transsion brands also dominated the feature phone market, with a combined unit share of 78%, followed by Nokia (8.6%) and Alcatel (2%).

Transsion has kept its dominance in the African mobile phone market for year, even amid major economic disruption brought on by the pandemic, according to IDC. Transsion’s suite of brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) had a commanding 48.2% share of the African smartphone market in 2020.

The report, however, reveals that Africa’s overall mobile phone market suffered a year-on-year decline of 11.3% to a total of 48.6 million units.

The feature phone market was down 14.3% to 27.1 million units, while smartphone shipments declined 7.1% to 21.5 million units.

IDC expects the African smartphone market to grow 3.8% year on year in unit terms for 2022 as a whole.

Transsion Holdings went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in September 2019. (SD-Xinhua)