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Cape Town – Struggling smartphone manufacturer HTC is bringing new devices to South Africa as part of its global pivot toward emerging markets.
The company announced that the HTC Desire 626 will be available from MTN stores in November as the company drives its agenda of building market share in Africa.
The Desire 626 is a mid-range smartphone featuring a 1.2GHz quad core processor and 12.7cm (5 inch) display protected by Gorilla Glass.
HTC has rated the main camera at 13 megapixels and the selfie shooter at 5 megapixel.
However, the company’s flagship One A9 is not yet ready for local release.
“HTC is currently in discussions with local mobile operators to make the HTC One A9 smartphone available to the South African market. Availability will be communicated to you in due course,” an HTC representative told Fin24.
Smartphone market
The latest One which was launched internationally on October 20 features a Qualcomm octa core processor and a Doze feature that turns off battery-sapping applications when the phone is idle.
HTC posted a $152m loss in the July to September quarter and re-organised its divisions to drive growth in emerging markets.
Nikitas Glykas will lead the Middle East and Africa division as part of the strategy to drive sales in a region dominated by South Korean giant Samsung.
According to data from International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped 355.2 million smartphones worldwide in the third quarter of 2015.
Samsung leads the sector with market share of 23.7%, followed by Apple (13.5%), Huawei (7.5%), Lenovo (5.3%) and Xiaomi (5.2%).
However, the IDC said that while flagship devices generated bragging rights, sales were dominated by lower cost devices.
“Despite the glitz and glamour at the high-end, we still expect the bulk of volume and growth to once again sprout from low to mid-range handsets, particularly in emerging markets," said Anthony Scarsella, IDC research manager for Mobile Phones.
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