Time to rate the company that owns Zim’s smartphone market..

Happy New Everyone! As we enter into the second part of our tech company report cards, we start tackling the bigger companies that have so many subdivisions(or in today’s case sub-companies), that vetting them means vetting multiple smaller parts all at once. In today’s case we dive into the company that’s basically dominated Zimbabwe’s smartphone market for the past 3 years now, as well as a huge part of the world considering they made it into the top 5 highest selling smartphone makers of the world this year. And that Company is Transsion Holdings, AKA the company that owns iTel, Tecno, Infinix and Oraimo.

Now for some, hopefully very few of you, this may be news. But yes, iTel Tecno and Oraimo are all essentially under one company. Think how Microsoft also owns Xbox or how Samsung electronics makes phones but Samsung Displays makes screens for Apple. This is basically the case here. Multiple smaller companies owned by one holding company and they all basically operate in the same space. Transsion has made its name over the past 5 years or so by offering very cheap phones for each price bracket that have garnered huge sales in the developing markets they’ve been aimed at: Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and even South Asia. For each of their brands Transsion aims for a very attractive price point just under the competition. iTel famously has phones going for less than $100, when the cheapest decent Samsung phones go for only as low as $120. Infinix plays the midrange game of $300-$550 while Tecno has become the most ambitious of the brand, mainly playing in the mid-range but in 2023 released 2 foldables going for $1000 and $600. Add in a very successful accessories business in Oraimo and you get exactly why the company has made it this far. But how well are they actually doing. Not financially but for the customers they serve? Well here’s our thoughts.

Let’s start with the devices, because while these companies have been known for making relatively cheaper devices than everyone else (garnering both the good and bad reputation that comes with that), this year seems like it was a year of improving that claim a bit. iTel and Tecno specifically went out of their way to try more ambitious devices this year in their own right. For Zimbos, that was specifically the iTel S23 and S23+ and the upcoming P55+. The first 2 devices definitely garnered some appreciation from local users. After all this was the first time for many seeing an 8GB RAM iTel. Let alone one with a 50MP camera and a unique gimmick in the color changing back on the white model. It’s Unisoc processor is even decent. Not mind blowing. But decent, especially at $150, which has since gone down to $100. The S23+ got a processor upgrade in the Unisoc T616 as well as higher storage models and an OLED screen with a hole punch. . It unfortunately lost the SD card support and headphone jack, making it less of a quick recommendation from use especially at $165. It’s not actually too expensive, but it’s competitors offered similar or more without any sacrifices. The P55+ seems to be the better midpoint between the 2 phones, offering the updated design of the S23+ but the practical features and price of the regular S23, with the same processor but faster 45W charging and 5G. I fact it’s even cheaper at $120, which makes it much harder to say no to compared to the competition. And while again, these phones may fall short against the competition in many ways (lower res screens, weaker processors, slower USB-C standards), they’ve started to creep closer and closer to what the competition has to offer, and that makes them much more viable as alternatives especially at their cheaper price.

Tecno has essentially decided to take the same approach, except on a much larger scale – specifically going after foldables with the Phantom V Fold and V Flip. The former has been the much more impressive of these 2, essentially giving the masses an experience like that of the Galaxy Fold at $1000! We’ve talked a lot about how the OnePlus Open can get to the same price through trade-ins and discounts but this phone starts at that price! And while it’s not as highly powered as the Galaxy Fold or OnePlus, it’s no slouch, being plenty powerful and capable in it’s own right. The Phantom V Flip is a little bit of a more mixed bag. It’s definitely impressive, being a $600 Flip Foldable, with a processor to match and an acceptable AMOLED screen. It even uses it’s much smaller outer display to invoke style with it’s circular cutout. It’s just that in a world where the Z Flip 3 can be bought for $500 and Motorola releasing a brand new basic RAZR that’s regularly at $600 on sale, the slightly less powerful, less impressive Tecno has failed to run away with a win here. Either way the fact that both these devices exist is a win, and shows Transsion is clearly ready to go from a capable budget brand to an innovator of sorts in their own right. However, there are issues.

For the Foldables, the issue of durability and warranty comes along. Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t saying these phones are less durable than the Galaxies or Pixels they compete with, rather both Samsung and Google offer clear , reliable repair and maintenance policies on their devices that especially in Samsung’s case have helped their foldables be massively adopted. To date, Tecno is still murky about this with their foldables. Sure they offer the typical warranty , but no special repairs for the foldable or a free screen replacement. All of which makes anyone who wants to consider buying a Phantom in say, south Africa where Samsung also offers it’s services, more likely to go the Samsung route since it’s just more trustworthy. It’s a cost-cutting measure Tecno is taking that isn’t looking too good for them. And hopefully they can get on top of it soon.

And on that subject of cost-cutting, the company could really earn some points for not overdoing it sometimes. And we get it, you don’t launch phones for less than $100 without making some sacrifices, whether that’s on memory chips, USB controllers, Bluetooth antennas etc, but it’s a little embarrassing when the iTel S23 I reviewed kept disconnecting from my Bluetooth earbuds every 30 minutes or so, when almost every other phone I tested them on didn’t do that. It’s little things like that which add to the reputation of an iTel being “an iTel”. In the case of Tecno and Infinix this is a little better, but there’s points to note out there. And again, this isn’t beating up on the little guy. Transsion needs to raise it’s quality standards if it wants to keep competing, especially when one considers that they aren’t even a small player anymore. This company is literally hanging with the “Big Boys” now, it has now penetrated the top 5 highest selling smartphone brands. Yes that means adding up all 3 smartphone brands but still. Transsion has money flowing in now, they need to invest it in making their devices hold up.

And that money is flowing in. Oraimo has been their accessories brand for a while now but iTel and Infinix’s accessories sub-brands have been growing as well. In fact, in iTel’s case , their sub-brands for home appliances like smart TVs, energy(inverters and batteries), and other electronics like hair dryers have needed to be spun-off into their own brands  Sundaze, Power Master, Sones and Keekid. All which is proof that this experiment is working. And bit by bit everyone coming across them can’t outright reject the existence of these brands.

My only other gripes are in 2 forms: local offices and brand identity and software optimization. For the first one, yes iTel, and Tecno specifically have a Zimbabwean presence, but to say it’s a little weird getting in touch with them can be an understatement. Don’t get us wrong, these companies aren’t hiding, but they’re not exactly making finding and talking to them as easy as it could be, at least not for everyone. Perhaps this is because the company HQ makes those decisions (after all you have to go to the main iTel Website rather than a Zimbabwean one to find them) , but investing in some localization can do the company some good. More iTel repair shops, better warranty, having the local execs appear more and address the public. These small things make the brand feel more human, more reachable. And that does wonders for branding. Only Oraimo has part of this solved but it’s still not enough.  Then there’s software optimization. I’ll go far enough to say iTel Phones do well enough on data saving features and easily recogninzing Zimbabwe in the setup process, but these phones could easily be a hub for local apps and services, so why aren’t they? Why can’t they have even basic apps for mobile network providers or the likes of ZOL at least recommended if not pre-installed? Or some numbers for the growing crop of AI WhatsApp bots. It’s cool having Aviana iTel but why not use the ready and willing developers who would love to have their creations on your devices? It even makes local providers push iTel, Tecno and Infinix as their brands of choice, which again boosts marketing. It’s a complaint we’ve said with G-Tel and will say to you again. Hopefully you listen.

Oh and on that note, can you please clean up this rise of fake Oraimo products? Your brands have worked hard for years to remove the stink of “fake” off them. To have it come back due to a bad actor who actually makes fakes is just embarrassing Transsion.

And that brings us to our grade. The Company has clearly made an impact. And we cannot in any way downplay that. But if they want to get as big their ambitions seem to be, they need to clean up a little. Better quality assurance, understanding what their users really want, and most importantly doubling down on building their brands in a local context. And not wasting that trust. Either way the new kid is doing well. They just need to manage their early success to really create something special.

Grade: B