Prior to Tecno’s arrival into Africa, Samsung and Apple both dominated the mobile phone market. At the time, the mobile phone market in Africa was at its tipping point and these global players both controlled a large percentage of mobile phone shipments to the continent.

The African continent receives a lot of imports but the products are not always modelled to fit demand here. Phones from big global players were also expensive and excluded those at the lower end of the market.

That was when Techno Mobile stepped in. The company started in 2006 in Hong Kong with the first research and development centre in Shanghai, China.

For two years, our business focused on the South Asia market. After studying the markets in South East Asia, Africa and Latin America, the company found out that Africa would be the most opportune market for us.

And so in 2008, the company began operations before eventually stopping the business in Asia to exclusively focus on Africa.

Today, Tecno does business in Africa only. Top executives of the company have vowed to be “the mobile king of Africa”.

Their go-to market strategy was simple – target emerging markets and the vast majority who couldn’t afford to buy the seemingly expensive phones in the market.

By executing this clear cut strategy, they made it possible for everyone to be able to afford a phone and partake in the mobile telephony development that was sweeping through the continent at the time.

As a dynamic mobile phone company, in November 2007 they released Africa’s first dual SIM phone the T780 to address the then ongoing social problem of people carrying around several mobile phones due to poor Telecoms network infrastructures in the continent.

This phone and the others after it controlled the feature-phone market thereby winning over new customers and even gaining converts from other brand’s loyalists.

Just after this success stint, they began to release very competitive high-end devices targeted at the middle and upper-class customers who had more disposable income to purchase smartphones thereby eating farther into the market share of the global brands for these classes of customers.

Now, after several product releases for people of every class, Tecno has comfortably positioned itself as a force to reckon with when it comes to driving mobile phone brand penetration and market dominance in Africa.

They have successfully used their pragmatic innovation and market knowledge to release great products that are tailored to African market needs year on year.