Shift to homegrown

Lei Lei, a 31-year-old native of Beijing, has observed the changes in smartphone trends from his electronics stall in the Zhongguancun area of the city, a place dubbed "China's Silicon Valley."

"One thing you have to understand is that Chinese culture is one that is built on the notion of 'face.' Image is everything, so someone that earns 2,000 yuan ($317) a month will happily spent three months of his or her salary on a brand new iPhone 4S, only because they want people to know that they can financially afford it, when that isn't the case," Lei told ChinAfrica.

"Chinese brands are far better than what they used to be. I have seen more people pass through my store looking for Chinese smartphones, Chinese and foreigners alike. They are just as good, and much cheaper [than foreign brands]," said Lei.  

This change in taste has already become the driving force of two of China's biggest phone companies, the aforementioned Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. Analysts have stated that their aim has been to shift away from making basic feature phones to steadily develop their smartphones, as this sector has grown strong and profit margins have become bigger. The companies' handsets now run on Google's Android operating system, making them a threat to the well-known foreign brands.

The two companies have sold a combined 35 million smartphones in 2011, which is around 7 percent of the global market. This number is said to continue to rise to 90 million in 2012, doubling their market share to 14 percent.

Africa calling

Chinese companies are now eyeing the potential of the African market, which has seen its mobile users number rise to over 500 million in 2011.

"The African market used to be home to Mediatek feature phones, but now the consumers are looking for a similar experience on the smartphone as those in Western, mature markets. ZTE, Huawei and Mediatek have a pretty good market opportunity in Africa because carriers need a cheap version for this market," said C.K. Lu, an analyst at the global research institute Gartner, in a recent interview with FT Tilt.

Jean-Luc Witele, a 34-year-old native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one businessman who has identified the need for Chinese smartphones in Africa. Having originally set up a clothing export business in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, in 2004, he expanded into electronics in 2009, and now has bases in Guangzhou, Beijing, Yiwu of Zhejiang Province, and his native Kinshasa.

"Importing smartphones from China has become one of my most successful ventures. People in Africa cannot readily find the global smartphone brands, so it is up to Africans like me, who depend on the trade between China and Africa, to give the people what they want.

"Phones such as Huawei's Titan and G7010 are selling like hotcakes back home, and it is a matter of time until people in Africa will look to Chinese smartphones first," Witele told ChinAfrica.