Samsung’s Galaxy A series budget and mid-range smartphones lead device sales at two major mobile networks in South Africa and a prominent general goods shop.
MyBroadband spoke with the country’s four largest mobile networks, as well as many major online and physical smartphone retailers, about their best-selling smartphone brands and models in the first two months of 2023.
By the time this article was published, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, and Game had all responded to our inquiries.
According to their input, one brand reigns supreme — Samsung — with eight models identified as best-sellers among the four suppliers.
The Samsung Galaxy A23, a low-cost smartphone that costs roughly R3,999, was named as a top seller across all four devices.
The Galaxy A23 features a 6.6-inch 90Hz display, a quad back camera with a 50MP sensor, 64GB of internal storage, and a 5,000mAh battery.
It is also one of the most affordable smartphones in the country with 5G connection.
Six additional Samsung Galaxy A series smartphones were also among the best-selling models from at least two of the carriers.
The Galaxy A03 Core, Galaxy A04, Galaxy A04e, Galaxy A13, Galaxy A33, and Galaxy A53 were among them.
Apart from Samsung, the top two selling brands across all four carriers were Huawei and Apple.
This is consistent with StatCounter GlobalStats statistics on the most popular smartphone brands in South Africa.
Only Huawei had two of the same models in various carriers’ best sellers — the Nova Y90 and Nova 9SE.
Overall, it had six gadgets out of the top four carriers’ best sales.
Oppo, another Chinese smartphone behemoth, is among the top five best-selling smartphone brands from Cell C and Telkom.
Oppo is performing well and progressively increasing their market share in the smartphone business,” Cell C CEO Andre Ittmann remarked.
The table below displays the best-selling smartphone models in South Africa for the first two months of 2023 across three of the country’s main mobile networks and Carriers.
We preserved the device model and brand orders as they were supplied, albeit it should be noted that they are not necessarily presented in order of sales volume. Top sellers from at least two sources were highlighted in bold.
Given South Africa’s socioeconomic reality, it’s no wonder that the best-selling cellphones were mostly from the cheap and mid-range classes.
Most of the gadgets in the table above have prices ranging from R500 to R6,000.
As a result, the placement of the Apple iPhone 11 on Game’s list comes as a bit of a surprise.
With a R10,499 price tag from Game, it is by far the most costly option on these lists.
We also inquired about the top-selling smartphones in the flagship sector.
Samsung prevailed once more, with the Galaxy S series being the only range to rank among the top selling at all three suppliers.
The Apple 14 Pro series was the only one among at least two suppliers’ top sales.
The table below breaks down the best-selling smartphones at MTN, Telkom, and Game into budget, mid-range, and flagship categories.
Cell C did not publish a breakdown of its most popular models by category, but it did provide a list of its most popular brands per sector.
Budget and mid-range sales were dominated by Samsung, Huawei, and Oppo.
Only Samsung and Huawei handsets were top sales in the high-end smartphone market.
MyBroadband’s questions concerning smartphone sales were not answered by Vodacom, Incredible, or Takealot.
