The smartphone market is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. The first commercially available handheld mobile phone was introduced 1983 in Japan. In the first few years of its entrance, only a few countries could have access to its use. In no time, the use of mobile phones spread across the world and today, mobile phones can be described as man’s most used asset.
In August 2001, mobile phones were introduced into the Nigerian smartphone market and its entrance ended the monopoly of wired telephony brought by NITEL. Year in, year out for 17 years, several mobile phone brands have found their way into Nigeria markets and as expected, only few of them which have been consistent have gone on to become key players in the industry.
Up until 2019 when vivo was first introduced into the Nigerian smartphone market, smartphone users were grouped into three categories; the premium phone users, the midrange phone users and the low–end phone users.
The arrival of vivo smartphone brand brought a breath of fresh air into the phone market by incorporating the unique selling propositions of products in the different classes into one. As a brand recognized for its premium-ness and innovative mindset, vivo has been able to deliver products top class products that are both premium and quite affordable when placed side-by-side with similar products from its competitors.
In August 2019, vivo introduced its first set of smartphones in Nigeria – the Y series comprising of four different generations, the Y15, Y17, Y11 and Y12 respectively. Vivo Y Series are known for their great battery life and unbeatable memory capacity. For instance, the latest in the series, Y19, spots a 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM which is archetypical for several personal computers’ capacities today. The device also came with a 5000mAh battery, which many believe is possible only onlow–end mobile phones.
Few months down the line, vivo launched its flagship, the V17Pro in Nigeria. This device again showcased the innovative DNA of the brand as it donned the first ever Dual Pop Up Selfie Camera on a smartphone. Most smartphone users are photography enthusiasts and the V17Pro is currently one of the smartphones in the Nigerian market that offer the best photography experience and surprisingly, it is still considered one of the most affordable devices in its segment.
With presence of leading smartphone brands like vivo, the Nigerian phone market will continue to get more competitive for brands that fancy innovation and design while other lackluster copycat brands will be relegated to the bottom of the latter and subsequently forced to exit the market.