In Emerging Markets, Samsung Is King--While Nokia And BlackBerry Are Not Dead Yet

Among the nearly 130 million people in the U.S. who own smartphones, Apple hasn’t lost any ground, even gaining market share through January 2013. But in the developing world, Samsung is the phone of choice, according to a new report from mobile marketing firm Upstream. Removing price from consideration, more consumers across four developing markets—Brazil, India, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia—said they would be most likely to buy a Samsung as their next handset with 32% of those surveyed, leading Nokia at 22%, Apple at 21%, then BlackBerry at 10%. Upstream’s online survey sampled over 1,000 adults across the four countries to find that Samsung was the most desired phone across the three markets in which it has a presence; in the fourth, Nigeria, Nokia was most popular with 37% of preferences. Apple fared much better in comparison to a control of the United States and United Kingdom, where Upstream says 32% of prospective shoppers would select an iPhone compared to 22% for Samsung. Apple’s strongest of the four nations was also the richest—Saudi Arabia—and users in that nation were the only in the survey to have a majority say they’d spend over $450 on a new phone. ”There’s a correlation between income and brand affinity,” says Marco Veremis, Upstream’s founder and CEO. “In the developing world, the mobile phone is an item of absolute day to day necessity, so brand choice is less important.” Calling from Ethiopia, where he was attending a mobile operators conference, Veremis said that what he sees in Africa and in other developing market is a leapfrog past the desktop phase that powered American companies like Dell and Gateway in the 1990s. “Companies in the West assume that whatever happened there will play out in emerging markets, and we think this will not be the case,” Veremis says. Upstream’s numbers on device preference would appear to bear that out as most users in each of the four surveyed markets reported they used mobile phones as their primary device. In Nigeria, a full two-thirds of responders rely on a phone (India was the most laptop-friendly with one-third preferred). That seems to have benefited Nokia and BlackBerry, both of which received the most preference in the African nation. Veremis points to easy access to social networks and the Web as drivers for that preference; Nokia’s investment in long battery life could also be appreciated in a market with recurring power supply issues. As a company serving the cell operators, Upstream has an interest in the major operators recognizing the variance in the developing market: the company asserts that because no Apple-Android duopoly exists in emerging markets, operators can play a greater role in how they develop—which would mean more investment and thus more business for Upstream. Still, Upstream tapped outside firms YouGov and Vanson Bourne to conduct the survey independently, and phone reseller Gazelle at least partially confirmed Upstream’s findings. While Asia and Latin America remain the greatest areas of used phone demand for Gazelle, the company said its biggest business in Africa is for BlackBerrys. Samsung, meanwhile, has seen increased demand worldwide due to the popularity of the Galaxy S III and demand for the new Galaxy S IV, Gazelle Chief Gadget Officer Anthony Scarsella said in a statement. Apple remains publicly bullish about the east Asian markets and specifically China, but lack of leading appeal in developing markets may be one factor in the company reportedly working on a smaller, cheaper iPhone that would suit those markets. That move could shake up perceptions—and sales—in countries where Apple’s highly-curated iOS provides lower priority features than more utilitarian options. The phone giant hot on Apple’s heels, Samsung, will take heart at its popularity even in affluent nations like Saudi Arabia. And perhaps in the biggest surprise, the troubled Nokia and all-in BlackBerry can take heart that in some parts of the world, they remain fully relevant players in the smartphone race. Forbes