Telecom
Smartphones: A Decade of Growth and Success
A decade ago, a smartphone was little more than a novelty item, a gadget, something that many people would’ve liked to have in their pockets but few of them actually needed. In the decade that has passed ever since, thanks in a great part to Google’s accessible and open-source Android platform, smartphones have become not only widespread but a necessity for many.
And we’re not talking about just the need to be entertained while away from home – although many people use smartphones for this alone – but also about smartphones being a helpful assistant in everyday life, handling everything from appointments to payments, shopping, and keeping in touch with our loved ones. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers the smartphone market has produced in the last decade.
When the iPhone was released in 2007, it was the only device in its category. It was followed almost a year later by the first Android handset with similar capabilities. While other handsets with large touchscreens did exist before, they relied on styluses rather than fingers for interaction and were aimed at business users rather than the general population.
In a decade, the smartphone market has grown to accommodate an insane number of phones and manufacturers. GSMArena, one of the most widely used mobile phone databases, lists more than 100 smartphone manufacturers and almost 10,000 individual models (and counting).
Today, downloading and installing apps is normal for the vast majority of smartphone users, no matter if it’s a better music player, a news reader or the Betway mobile App. Back in the early days of smartphones, in turn, apps were in short supply.
Apple’s famous App Store launched in July 2008 with a staggering 552 apps in it, with 135 of them free. Today, the App Store has around 2 million apps, and Google’s Play Store has around 2.1 million of them. Steve Jobs’ famous statement “there’s an app for that” is very true today, with “that” being pretty much whatever you can imagine.
A decade ago, when there were just a couple of smartphones available, the smartphone market was tiny – only around 139 million smartphones were sold globally, most of them running Nokia’s Symbian OS and RIM’s BlackBerry OS. Nokia was the market leader with a share of more than 40%, followed by RIM (BlackBerry) with almost 20%. Apple’s market share stayed well below 5% back then, and so did Samsung’s.
Today, the tables have turned, though. In the last decade, Nokia has “died” at the hands of Microsoft and has only recently managed to re-emerge, after a Finnish company called HMD Global brought the brand back to its home country.
HTC all but disappeared from the market, and so did RIM. The smartphone market is dominated by Android with a market share of around 85%, followed by iOS with a bit under 15%, and other operating systems sharing around 0.1% of the market.
And when it comes to phone manufacturers, a lot has changed during the decade that has passed. Samsung lost more than 10% of its market share in the last 12 months, but it’s still the largest smartphone maker in the world, shipping more than 72 million phones in the third quarter of this year.
Apple lost its second place to Huawei, China’s largest smartphone maker that sold 52 million phones in Q3/2018, enough for 14.6% of the market. Apple is third with 46.9 million phones sold, Xiaomi is fourth, closing in on the 10% mark thanks to its aggressive pricing policy (and the quality of its handsets), and OPPO, another Chinese manufacturer, is fifth, pushing more money into marketing and flashy launch events than ever before.
The value of the global smartphone market has grown exponentially in the last decade, reaching a value close to $500 billion a year. All this thanks to Apple’s innovative approach to the mobile phone that resulted in the release of the iPhone in 2007.
As Africa and MENA’s startup ecosystems transition from post-correction resilience into a new phase of disciplined growth, the Africa Startup & VC Landscape Preview (ASVLP 2026) will convene leading founders, investors, policymakers, and ecosystem builders on January 29, 2026, for its second annual, agenda-setting virtual forum.
Following a challenging global venture cycle, 2025 marked a notable rebound across the African ecosystem, with startups raising an estimated $3.2–$3.3 billion over the full year.
The recovery was accompanied by significant structural shifts: Kenya emerged as the leading destination among Africa’s “Big Four” markets for the first time, while Nigeria recorded a year-on-year funding decline, reflecting changing investor preferences, macroeconomic pressures, and a broader recalibration toward capital efficiency and sustainability.
Sectorally, fintech remained the most funded vertical, while climate & energy, AI-enabled solutions, healthtech, and infrastructure-adjacent businesses gained increasing attention. Across Africa and MENA, development finance institutions (DFIs) and family offices played a more pronounced role in anchoring funds, deploying catalytic capital, and supporting blended-finance structures, reshaping how early-stage and growth capital is mobilized.
ASVLP 2026 is designed to translate these data points into forward-looking strategy.
The forum will bring together venture capitalists, angel investors, LPs, DFIs, family offices, founders, corporate leaders, and regulators from Africa, MENA, Europe, and North America to assess 2025 outcomes and chart priorities for 2026.
The program will feature keynotes, fireside chats, panels, and deep-dive roundtables, including discussions on:
· The 2026 Africa & MENA FinTech Landscape, focusing on security, profitability, regulation, and growth frontiers
· Emerging Fund Managers, capital formation, and LP alignment
· Talent, operator depth, and institutional capacity as constraints to scale
· Regulatory evolution and cross-border market integration
A major highlight of ASVLP 2026 will be the Final DealRoom Pitch Session, where a curated group of high-potential startups will present to an experienced panel of investors.
• Founders can apply to pitch via: bit.ly/ASVLP-DR-Founders
• Investors seeking DealRoom access can request entry via: bit.ly/ASVLP-DR-Investors
Confirmed speakers for ASVLP 2026 include Khaled Ismail (HIMangel), Idris Ayodeji Bello (LoftyInc Capital), Zachariah George (Launch Africa), Tosin Faniro-Dada (Breega), Selma Ribica (FirstCircle Capital), Maha Mandour (COREangels MEA), Joe Kinvi (Borderless), Remi Prunier (Orange Ventures MEA), Karima El Hakim (Plug and Play Tech Center), Souheil Guessoum (President, The Confederation of Citizen Employers – Algeria (CAPC)), Remi Prunier (Partner, Orange Ventures, MEA), Maha Mandour (COREAngels MEA), Ali Hussein (President, Kenyan FinTech Association), Patrick Okebu (CIO, Interswitch Group) among other leading voices shaping capital, policy, and innovation across the region.
“The conversation has shifted,” said Uche Aniche, Convener of ASVLP. “It’s no longer about whether capital will return to Africa and MENA, but what kind of capital, deployed with what discipline, and in service of which long-term outcomes. ASVLP exists to help the ecosystem make sense of that transition.”
Participation in ASVLP 2026 is free but strictly by invitation.
Interested participants are encouraged to repost the official announcement on LinkedIn and comment #ASVLP2026 to receive a private registration link. They could also email [email protected] and request invite.
Major social media giants Meta Platforms, TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube will face a landmark jury trial this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court over allegations that their addictive designs have fuelled a youth mental health crisis, marking the first such case to reach this stage.
Social Media
The pivotal personal injury lawsuit centres on a 19-year-old Californian woman identified as K.G.M., who claims her childhood immersion in Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok—engineered with endless scrolls, autoplay videos, notifications and algorithms—sparked severe anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Dozens of similar suits have surged since 2022 from families, schools and states, accusing the firms of burying internal research on teen harms while prioritising ad revenue through youth-targeted engagement hooks, despite Section 230 protections for user content.
Plaintiffs seek damages and design overhauls, arguing platforms bypassed parents and preyed on vulnerable kids; defendants counter there’s no clinical “social media addiction” diagnosis, no proven causation—kids with issues often use less—and they’ve added safeguards like parental controls and time limits.
Echoing Australia’s under-16 bans, the trial will scrutinise thousands of internal documents, expert testimonies and K.G.M.’s story, potentially expanding tech liability amid debates where studies show complex links, not direct causation, between screen time and disorders like eating issues or self-harm.
A win could mandate warning labels, age gates or algorithm tweaks, reshaping global platforms as U.S. Surgeon General advisories and global scrutiny intensify pressure on Big Tech to prioritise child safety over profits.
Meta is gearing up to trial paid subscription services on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, aiming to diversify revenue streams beyond advertising while maintaining free core access for all users.
Meta
The subscriptions will offer enhanced tools tailored for everyday users, creators, and businesses, including advanced content creation, sharing, and workflow features distinct from the existing Meta Verified verification program. Unlike a uniform rollout, Meta plans varied testing formats per app to match diverse audiences, experimenting with feature bundles based on user feedback to refine the model.
A key element involves integrating Manus, the autonomous agent firm Meta acquired for $2 billion in December, into these apps alongside its enterprise sales. Manus enables complex task automation with minimal input, with early signs like Instagram shortcuts already spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi.
Video tools feature prominently: Meta’s Vibes short-form video generator in the Meta AI app shifts to freemium, where paid tiers unlock higher monthly creation limits beyond the free baseline. On Instagram, subscriptions could enable unlimited audience lists, non-follower tracking, and anonymous Story views, though specifics for Facebook and WhatsApp remain under wraps.
Drawing from Meta Verified’s 2023 launch—which provides badges, support, and protection mainly for creators—these broader plans target wider appeal amid industry shifts. Ad growth slows against TikTok competition, while Snapchat+ boasts 16 million subscribers at $3.99 monthly, proving demand for value-driven paid perks despite subscription fatigue risks from streaming and storage fees.
Meta will phase tests gradually, prioritizing feedback to shape long-term viability without alienating free users.
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