adminSouth Africa is a market leader in the African smartphone market and easily one of the most developed and sophisticated. GeoPoll, a market researched company, shared insights into this dynamic market through the report of recent research they conducted.
Background
Despite high rates of smartphone adoption, South Africa is plagued by high data costs which have resulted in protests and fierce competition between the country’s leading mobile network operators including MTN and Vodacom. It has been found that data costs in South Africa are more expensive than those found in other sub-Saharan African nations including Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana.
In order to better understand how South Africans are using their phones, what features and applications they use most often, and how much they are paying for mobile services each month, GeoPoll conducted a study in February 2020 with 400 South Africans.
Methodology
With a 50-50 male-female split, and 33-33-34 split between ages 18-24, 25-34, and 35+. Respondents were roughly nationally representative across the nine provinces in South Africa. The surveys were sent via mobile web, meaning respondents received an SMS message with a link that opened in a browser within their phone. Due to this methodology, all respondents had access to the internet when they took the survey, and 398 out of 400 respondents reported that they own a smartphone, as opposed to a more basic phone with internet access.
We summarise some of the research findings below:
Phone Usage in South Africa
60 percent own more than one phone. The main reasons they do include:
business/personal use
different services used
and to have a backup
Smartphones running on the Android platform dominate the SA market:
Samsung (49 percent) and Huawei (27 percent) are the most used phone brands.
iPhones have a stronger showing as “dream phones”:
The dream phone for most is an iPhone (46 percent), followed by a Samsung phone (27 percent), with the most wanted Samsung phone being a Samsung S10.
In answering the most important factors in a phone, storage space came first.
Storage space (29 percent)
a long-lasting battery (21 percent)
a good camera (14 percent)
a large enough ROM (14 percent)
Phone and data costs
Monthly spend on
phone services
The majority of respondents, 70 percent, spend between 100–500 ZAR on phone services per month, with 48 percent spending between 100–250 ZAR. Male respondents spent more than their female counterparts on phone services.
Less than 100 ZAR – 16 percent
100 to 250 ZAR – 48 percent
251 to 500 ZAR – 22 percent
501 to 1,000 ZAR – 8 percent
1,001 to 2,000 ZAR – 3 percent
Over 2,000 ZAR – 3 percent
Phone plans
Prepaid – 76 percent
Postpaid – 13 percent
Both – 11 percent
App Usage
The survey found out that males are more likely to use WhatsApp while females like Facebook Messenger more.
Other findings are summarised below:
Top Social Media Apps
Facebook – 33 percent
YouTube – 20 percent
Twitter – 13 percent
Instagram – 11 percent
Top Messaging Apps
WhatsApp – 58 percent
Facebook Messenger – 30 percent
Skype – 5 percent
Telegram – 5 percent
Top Streaming Apps
YouTube – 41 percent
Google Play – 25 percent
DStv Now – 14 percent
Showmax – 8 percent
Top Taxi-hailing Apps
Uber – 50 percent
Bolt – 28 percent
inDriver – 8 percent — Tech Africa (Online).
Online Reporter