Data from global analytics company StatCounter shows that Samsung has continued to be the most popular phone brand in Zimbabwe in 2022.
Samsung mobile phones had 33% market share in the country.
Huawei is a distant second with 21% market share. The third most popular device brand in Zimbabwe is iPhone, the Apple smartphone, which has 13% market share.
The third and Fourth most popular mobile phone brands are Itel and Tecno which have 11% and 6% market share respectively. Other notable but relatively less popular brands include Nokia, Xiaomi, and Infinix.
StatCounter is a web analytics service that claims to calculate stats on the basis of more than 5 billion page views per month, by people from all over the world onto some 1.5 million member sites. it’s one of the few companies globally that collates this data and makes it available to the public.
Given that the method of data collection considers phones that can connect to the internet, this leaves out basic and feature phones which are not designed for internet connectivity. There is some evidence that features phones are quite popular in Zimbabwe. Including them would likely change the ranking.
The picture of the data generally agrees with data from websites in Zimbabwe (specifically, Pindula and Techzim).
Popular Samsung Phones
According to that local data, the most popular Samsung phone in Zimbabwe in 2022 was the Samsung A12. This was followed by Samsung A21s, then Samsung A32, then A2 Core, the Samsung 10s, and Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus.
Samsung phones are generally imported into the country as grey imports. These can be brand new as well as refurbished ones. Zimbabweans have generally shied away from buying from official Samsung channels due to high prices.
Popular Huawei Phones
As for Huawei, the local data shows that the most popular model in 2022 was the P30 Lite. This is followed by the Y series devices Y9 Prime, Y5 Prime, Y5 Lite and Y7. There is also P20 Lite, P30 Pro, Honour 4x and Y9 but these are relatively less popular.
Popular Itel Phones
According to data the most popular Itel phones in Zimbabwe in 2020 include Vision 1 Plus, A16 Plus, A56 Lite (and Pro), P15, and Itel A36. These are itel phones released between 2019 and 2021.
Popular Tecno Phones
As for Tecno mobile phones, the most popular are just Spark 7 and Spark 6 Go. Just as with Itel, these are phones from several years ago, showing slow uptake of new releases by both Tecno and Itel.
Popular Gtel Phones
Even though Gtel does not show prominently as a popular phone brand in the country as per global stats, some of its models have been popular enough locally to rival the major brand models. Local data suggests that the Gtel Infinity is the most popular Gtel phone in the country. This model is followed by the Infinity 8s.