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2016 Remarkable Year Smartphone Market, 1.47Bn Units Shipped

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The holiday quarter of 2016 capped off another positive year of smartphone growth despite concerns about the overall market slowing. According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone vendors shipped a total of 428.5 million units during the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16), resulting in 6.9% growth when compared to the 400.7 million units shipped in the final quarter of 2015.

For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market saw a total of 1.47 billion units shipped, marking the highest year of shipments on record, yet up only 2.3% from the 1.44 billion units shipped in 2015.

Large markets like China, the United States, and Brazil all ended the year on a strong note helping to keep worldwide volumes in positive territory.

“There’s no question that 2016 marked a memorable year for the smartphone industry in many ways,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. “This was a year that brought us the first down year for iPhone, yet Apple closed out the holiday quarter by surpassing Samsung for the top spot in the smartphone industry. We also witnessed year-over-year declines in some emerging regions like the Middle East and Latin America where high growth was expected. To round it all off, we now have a three horse race at the top of the market as Huawei cracked the double-digit share mark for the first time ever.”

Despite the changes that 2016 brought upon the market, including annual growth dropping from 10.4% in 2015 to just 2.3% in 2016, IDC expects a few turnarounds in 2017.

First, IDC is forecasting a rebound in iPhone shipments with the yet to be announced tenth anniversary iPhone. Second, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America regions are expected to return to growth in 2017. And, as a result of the aforementioned as well as several other driving factors, growth in 2017 should improve slightly from 2016’s results.

“As the two leading players continue to battle for the top spot, several Chinese vendors have solidified their position as valid contenders,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “The top three Chinese vendors (Huawei, OPPO, and vivo) are persistently applying pressure on Samsung within China thanks to a vast portfolio of affordable, well-built devices. Not only is this pressure coming at the low-end, but high-end devices like the P9, Mate 8, R9s, and XPlay6 haven proven viable options for consumers looking to upgrade or save money without sacrificing quality. However, it is worth noting that despite the success of these brands within China, they will need to find growth beyond their home turf to eventually knock off either Samsung or Apple at the top.”

Smartphone Vendor Highlights:
Apple reclaimed the top spot thanks largely to the success of the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Despite a strong fourth quarter, 2016 marked the first full year of declining shipments for the iPhone with a 7% year-over-year drop.

Apple shipped a record 78.3 million units in the fourth quarter, up 4.7% from the same quarter one year ago.

Although the iPhone 7 did not feature a drastically different industrial design from its predecessor, it did bring yet another significantly improved processor, more robust camera, water resistance, and new color/finish options. Much like Samsung, all eyes will be on Apple’s next flagship, and all signs point to something very special for the tenth anniversary of this iconic product.

Samsung dropped to second in the worldwide smartphone market with shipments declining 5.2% compared to last year.

The Korean giant shipped 77.5 million units in 4Q16, down from the 81.7 million units shipped last holiday quarter. On the year, Samsung shipped 311.4 million smartphones worldwide, which was down 3% from the 320.9 million shipments in 2015.

Despite the Note 7 debacle and growing pressure from Chinese vendors, Samsung still managed to find success with its S7 and popular J-series of devices in numerous markets.

The challenging holiday quarter, however, did bring its worldwide market share below 20% for the first time in over four years, leaving no better time for the pending arrival of its next flagship product, the Galaxy S8.

Huawei retained the number three position while gaining worldwide market share in 4Q16. The quarter marked the first time the Chinese giant captured double-digit share with 10.6% of the total shipment volume.

Huawei shipped 45.4 million units in the quarter, up 38.6% from the 32.7 million shipped in the fourth quarter of 2015.

For the year, Huawei shipped 139.3 million units, up 30.2% from the 107 million units shipped in 2015. The P series and Honor sub-brand drove essential volume in China as well as other countries in Asia and beyond.

With proven success in China and many European countries, Huawei now has its sights set on the U.S. Whether or not the U.S. market becomes a serious playing field for Huawei is yet to be determined, but the recent release of the Mate 9 in the U.S. has surely caught the attention of both Apple and Samsung at the high end, while Honor brand devices will continue to drive the mid-tier.

OPPO continued its push to reach the top of the market with its fourth straight quarter of greater than 100% year-over-year growth. OPPO shipped 31.2 million smartphones in the holiday quarter, which was up 117% from the 14.4 million smartphones shipped in 4Q15.

The focus for OPPO over the past year has been international expansion outside of China and so far it has been successful at this. Beyond China, Southeast Asia and India have been the focal points for OPPO’s growth in 2016 supported by intense marketing campaigns and new product launches.

The company also began ramping up its presence in the Middle East and if momentum can pick up, a strong 2017 could be ahead.

Vivo remained the number five vendor with 24.7 million smartphones shipped in the holiday quarter, which was up from the 12.1 million shipped last holiday season. Over the year, vivo shipped a total of 77.3 million smartphones, up 103% from the 38 million last year. The majority of the shipments continue to be in China, however, and much like OPPO, vivo has been extremely aggressive with its marketing in a number of countries in Asia as it looks to extend its global reach.

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Truecaller, the leading global communications platform, today announced the expansion of its Business Chat platform, making it accessible to global channel partners and enterprise solution providers. By “opening up” market access to its platform, Truecaller is empowering partners to transition their enterprise clients from legacy, low-trust SMS to a verified, smart, media-rich, and conversational communication experience.

Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Through this partner-led expansion, Truecaller empowers businesses to reclaim customer attention and establish immediate trust and credibility.

“The definition of success for modern enterprises has fundamentally evolved. It’s no longer just about delivery – it’s about earning attention, establishing credibility, and driving meaningful conversion,” said Priyam Bose, Global Head, GTM at Truecaller.

“By opening up market access to our global partners, we’ve created a powerful gateway for brands to engage with over 500 million active users where they already interact daily through communication that is contextual, trusted, free from clutter, and designed to initiate actions. For existing customers, the outreach opportunity extends to an additional high-impact channel, strengthening the overall customer experience journey.”

Truecaller Business Chat enables a clutter-free, high-trust conversational experience between businesses and consumers. The Business Chat platform equips partners with actionable insights, including real-time data and rich engagement metrics. This facilitates a more sophisticated, data-driven communication strategy that adapts at every stage of the customer journey.

Partners, including Gupshup and OneXtel, are already live in India along with Globe Teleservices, Cloudcom, and Sling Africa in other global markets, rapidly scaling the product in their respective regions. Global partners can now leverage Truecaller’s massive footprint to offer their clients a trustworthy engagement channel in an increasingly crowded digital world.


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Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) unveiled Muse Spark Tuesday, its first large language model in a new Muse series, designed from scratch to deliver “personal superintelligence”—an AI assistant tailored to users’ real-world needs like complex reasoning in science, math and health.

Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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A New Model: Muse Spark

Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up, moving faster than any development cycle we have run before. Muse Spark is the first model in our new Muse series — a deliberate and scientific approach to model scaling where each generation validates and builds on the last before we go bigger. This initial model is small and fast by design, yet capable enough to reason through complex questions in science, math, and health. It is a powerful foundation, and the next generation is already in development. Muse Spark now powers the Meta AI assistant in the Meta AI app and meta.ai, built to support complex reasoning and multimodal tasks.

What’s Changed with Meta AI

The Meta AI app and meta.ai are getting an upgrade today, along with a new look. Whether you need a quick answer or help with complex problems that need strong reasoning, Meta AI now handles both. You can switch between modes depending on the task, and Meta AI can launch multiple subagents in parallel to tackle your question. Like planning a family trip to Florida where one agent drafts the itinerary, another compares Orlando vs. the Keys, and a third finds kid-friendly activities — all at the same time, giving you a better answer, faster.

Ask Meta AI: It Understands

The real world moves fast, and most of it does not fit into a text box. That is why we built strong multimodal perception into Muse Spark, so Meta AI can see and understand what you are looking at, not just read what you type. Snap a photo of an airport snack shelf and Meta AI can identify and rank the snacks with the most protein — no label-squinting required. Scan a product and ask how it compares to alternatives. It is the difference between an AI that waits for you to explain the world and one that can simply look at the world with you. And when Meta AI powered by Muse Spark comes to our AI glasses, the assistant will be able to better see and understand the world around you.

Multimodal perception is especially valuable for health. With Muse Spark, Meta AI is now able to help you navigate health questions with more detailed responses, including some questions involving images and charts. Health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, so we worked with a team of physicians to develop the model’s ability to provide helpful information on common health questions and concerns.

Muse Spark excels at visual coding, letting you create custom websites and mini-games straight from a prompt. Ask Meta AI to build a dashboard for planning a big surprise party, spin up a retro arcade game to chase a high score, or launch a whimsical flight simulator — and share any of them with friends.

Ask Meta AI: It’s Plugged Into What You Care About

Meta AI can now help you discover what to wear, how to style a room, or what to buy for someone you know. Shopping mode draws from the styling inspiration and brand storytelling already happening across our apps, surfacing ideas from the creators and communities people already follow.

And when you are looking up a place to go or a topic that is trending, Meta AI surfaces rich and relevant context right alongside the conversation. Tap into a location and see public posts from locals who know the area. Ask what people are buzzing about and get the full picture, pulled from content and community posts. It is context from your people, right where you need it.

Looking Ahead

The Meta AI app and meta.ai will have the upgraded experience with Instant and Thinking modes everywhere they are available today. The new Meta AI features are starting to roll out in the US on both. In the coming weeks, we will bring these new modes and capabilities to more countries and to the places where people use Meta AI, including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and our AI glasses — where these perception capabilities become even more powerful. We are also opening access to the underlying technology. It will be available in private preview via API to select partners, and we hope to open-source future versions of the model.

This is only the start. As we expand these features, expect richer, more visual results, with Reels, photos, and posts woven directly into your answers, with credit back to the content creators. And as our models improve, we’ll continue to build safeguards for things like safety and privacy, starting with the strengthened risk framework and other protections we’re sharing today.

The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the center of your life. We are building toward personal superintelligence — an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it.


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From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria’s Tech Manufacturing Journey

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The recent escalation in the US-Israel conflict with Iran has delivered a sharp reminder of Nigeria’s economic vulnerability. As oil prices surged past $100 per barrel and fuel costs climbed by 35% at Nigerian pumps, a troubling paradox emerged: Nigeria, a major crude oil producer with Africa’s largest privately-owned refinery now operational, still found itself buffeted by global energy shocks originating thousands of miles away.

From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria's Tech Manufacturing Journey

Zinox

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and resulting disruptions to global energy markets exposed the deeper structural challenge facing Nigeria’s economy. Despite domestic crude production and the operational Dangote Refinery, Nigeria has struggled with rising inflation, which reached approximately 27% in 2025. The crisis illuminated an uncomfortable truth: decades of import dependency have left Nigeria’s economy precariously exposed to external shocks, even in sectors where the country possesses natural advantages.

This vulnerability extends beyond energy. Nigeria’s technology sector offers a particularly instructive case study in the costs of import reliance, and the transformative potential of local capacity as the pathway to economic stability and technological sovereignty.

Against this backdrop, Zinox Technologies stands as a compelling counternarrative. Founded in 2001 by technology entrepreneur Leo Stan Ekeh, Zinox operates West Africa’s only computerized digital assembly plant. As Nigeria’s first indigenous computer manufacturer, Zinox demonstrates what becomes possible when vision, investment, and commitment to local capacity converge.

The company’s reach extends beyond traditional computing. Zinox’s innovation spans renewable energy through iPower and home electronics with iTEC, addressing Nigeria’s chronic power challenges with locally-assembled solar solutions and backup systems designed for Nigerian conditions. This diversification reflects sophisticated understanding: true technological sovereignty requires integrated capabilities.

Zinox’s journey offers a clear case study in how indigenous companies can drive transformation. By focusing on local assembly and manufacturing of computer hardware and digital devices, the company has contributed to building a domestic technology ecosystem that supports government institutions, educational systems, and private enterprises. This approach not only reduces reliance on foreign imports but also creates jobs, transfers knowledge, and strengthens national capacity.

The implications are significant. Every locally assembled device represents a step away from foreign exchange exposure. It also signals a shift in mindset — from consumption to production. In a country where demand for technology continues to rise, especially with the acceleration of digital adoption, the importance of local manufacturing cannot be overstated.

Beyond economics, there is also a strategic dimension. Technology is no longer just a commercial tool; it is a defense tool and a national asset. Countries that control their technology supply chains are better positioned to innovate, secure their data, and compete globally. In this context, companies like Zinox are not merely businesses; they are enablers of national development.

Furthermore, local capacity development has a multiplier effect. It stimulates ancillary industries such as logistics, retail, maintenance, and technical services. It also fosters entrepreneurship, as more Nigerians gain access to affordable and reliable technology tools needed to participate in the digital economy.

Yet, while progress has been made, there is still work to be done. Scaling local manufacturing requires sustained policy support, infrastructure investment, and a deliberate focus on skills development. It also calls for stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors to create an environment where indigenous innovation can thrive.

Encouragingly, the momentum is building. There is a growing recognition that Nigeria must move beyond being a consumer market to becoming a production hub. This shift is not only necessary, it is urgent. Global uncertainties will continue to test economies, and only those with strong internal capabilities will remain resilient.

The current global crisis offers clarity. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened or supply chains to imports are fractured, only countries with strong domestic manufacturing capacity will weather the storm. Those dependent on imports suffer disproportionately.

The story of Zinox Technologies underscores what is possible. It shows that with the right mix of vision and execution, Nigeria can chart a new course, one defined by self-reliance, innovation, and sustainable growth. As the country navigates an increasingly complex global landscape, the message is clear: the future belongs to economies that build, not just buy.


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