Huawei Technologies has embarked on building retail partnerships to expand its smartphone foothold in the country. It has partnered with Telkom Kenya to reach out to more customers in Kenya.
Currently, Huawei commands a 10 percent smartphone market share but it is targeting to hit the 25 percent mark by June next year. The new partnership will see Telkom Kenya retail the Huawei Y5C device, with plans to retail the Y3C entry-level smart phones. Huawei Kenya sells 30% percent of its devices through network operators like Safaricom, Airtel and now Telkom Kenya and 70% through open market retail partners.
Announcing the deal, Huawei Devices, Kenya Country Director, Mark Hemaobin, said: “As a company, we are keen on strengthening both business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) strategies. This new push will enable us to capture a bigger pie of the local smartphone market which continues to record massive growth due to increased internet penetration.”
Huawei is also looking at setting up additional Huawei experience retail shops countrywide to add on to the Garden City store opened last month. This is the first time that Telkom Kenya is selling Huawei phones despite the two companies having been in partnership for the last five years. The initial partnership saw the telco sell Huawei IT and Mobile Broadband in volumes of over 80,000 units.
“We are confident that our partnership with Huawei is a strategic step in the right direction, most especially as we continue with our network expansion agenda across the country,” said Telkom Kenya CEO, Vincent Lobry.
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