An increasing number of phone manufacturers are now embracing the new foldable design for the premium devices a shift from the flat.
Foldable phones are still far from being mainstream, but that hasn't stopped smartphone companies from continuing to innovate and push the industry.
A spot check across various device manufacturers in the recently concluded World Mobile Congress has shows a changing trend.
Samsung was the first to venture into the foldable with its Z series now in its fourth generation.
Samsung has for the past four years been running its flagship smartphone brands with both designs.
Samsung’s director of mobile experience in East Africa, Charles Kimari, says that the new challenge is how to design products, services and systems for humans as opposed to designing human behaviors for machine optimization.
“In order to achieve this, designers must first understand the people they are designing for by figuring out what their needs are, identifying design solutions for them and truly understanding how people interact with other people, products and more,” said Kimari.
However, this year Oppo, Honor, and Tecno have followed suit with OPPO Find N2 and N2 Flip, Honor Magic and the Phantom V Fold that will be unveiled in Kenya this month.
The new entrants are come at a time that newly released data from International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that the overall market for mobile phones in Africa suffered a year-on-year decline of 19.9 percent in Q3 2022.
“The declines seen across the continent were caused by an overall slow economy, high inflation rates, higher dollar exchange rates, and the increasing cost of living. All of these factors contributed to a slowdown in demand,” explained Taher Abdel-Hameed, a senior research analyst at IDC.
The report further shows that despite increased interest to bring high end smartphones in the region a majority continue to spend less than $100 (Sh12,810) on new smartphone purchases, with this price range accounting for 42percent of all shipments.
Phones ranging for between $100 to $200 (Sh12, 810- 26,000) price bracket came in a close second, accounting for 41.6 percent of the shipments.
The midrange bracket of between $200 to $400, (Sh26, 000- 50,000) comes in third with 11.6 percent of the market share as the high-end market of phones going for above Sh50, 000 recording lowest market share at 4.8 percent.