Transsion expects 50% increase in global phone sales

Dubai

Transsion Holdings expects 50 per cent year-on-year increase in mobile phone sales this year globally as it entered the Gulf markets.

The Chinese firm owns three mobile phone brands — iTel (basic phones), Tecno and Infinix smartphones.

After launching its Camon CM smartphone in Dubai on Monday, Philex Meng, Chief Marketing Officer at Tecno Mobile, told Gulf News that the company aims to sell 180 million units this year compared to 120 million units last year.

The 5.7-inch bezel-less device is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM, coupled with 13MP cameras on front and rear of the device. It is priced at Dh699.

“We aim to sell 60 million smartphones this year compared to 33 million last year. We have named Jumbo Electronics as the distributor for Gulf markets, excluding Saudi Arabia,” Meng said.

The brand was launched in the UAE last year and Meng said that spreading wings into other Gulf markets will be in a phased manner.

Meng claims that iTel is the number one in both volume and value in basic (feature) phones globally, followed by Nokia.

“Our volume is three times more than Nokia and Nokia’s price is three times [more] than ours. We sold around 87 million basic phones and are present in 52 countries,” he said.

According to industry reports, HMD (makers of Nokia phones) sold 59.2 million features phones and 8.45 million smartphones last year.

Fahim Godil, business development director for new markets at Transsion Holdings, said that Tecno brand entered the UAE last year with one model and this year it plans to launch around seven smartphones.

He said the company has been present in Africa for more than 10 years and holds the number one ranking in smartphone sales, and has just entered India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South East Asian countries.

“In Africa, we have more than 30 per cent market share, more than Samsung. Out of the 120 million devices sold globally, at least 75 per cent came from the Middle East and Africa. In 2016, we sold 80 million devices globally. Now, we have come with a proper plan to expand our market share,” he said.

“We focus on the mid- to low-end models and we know how to build a market from scratch. Our mature market is Nigeria and we always start the global launch from there,” he added.