Algeria's mobile phone market recovered from an extremely turbulent 2017 and had strong growth in the first three months of 2018, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The research and consulting firm's Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that device shipments in the country increased 18.3 percent quarter on quarter (QoQ) in Q1 2018.
The market suffered three consecutive quarterly declines in 2017, after the government's new quota system constrained the ability of vendors to import devices. Total shipments fell to 8.2 million units in 2017, down 14.6 percent from the 9.6 million units shipped in 2016.
Condor was the first large local company to enter the mobile phone sector, and it has since been followed by IRIS and Stream System. More recently, a new wave of local vendors have started to penetrate the market, including ENIE, Kiowa, Starlight, and Benzo. IDC's research shows that in Q1 2018, local brands accounted for 91.1 percent of the feature phone market and 83.6 percent of the smartphone market, up from 58.9 percent and 45.6 percent respectively in Q1 2017.
The vendor landscape continues to be dominated by Condor, which garnered 58.2 percent of the overall Algerian mobile phone market in Q1 2018 in terms of units sold. IRIS ranked second overall with 13.1 percent, displacing Samsung after the Korean vendor was hit by import restrictions.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/algerian-mobile-phone-market-begins-recovery-in-q1--1245417
