ORBIT reveals quarter four smartphone, application penetration study

The Orange Business Intelligence Technology team ORBIT, which is the research and tech unit for Orange Group Nigeria recently released its smartphone and application penetration study Quarter 4, 2022. Spanning across social media to entertainment, to banking and much more, the report is an eye-opener into the diverse trends and interactions on smartphones and apps across Nigeria.

The Business Analyst at Orange Groups Limited, Adetola Adesanoye, explained that the comprehensive study was carried out using natural fallout and on-sight verification of phone types and downloaded apps. “The research was conducted as a follow-up to our previous study on smartphone and app usage in Lagos, with a focus on determining the current level of smartphone adoption and readiness for new technological innovations among Nigerians.

“The insights gained from this research are useful for FMCGs, Fintech, investors, business owners, tech enthusiasts, and the general public who are curious about mobile app adoption and smartphone penetration in Nigeria.”

According to the report, the five cities with the highest smartphone penetration are Benin city with 79 per cent penetration, closely followed by Lagos and Kaduna with 78 per cent smartphone penetration each, the cities of Ilorin and Onitsha follow with 77 per cent and 74 per cent respectively.The report reveals that Transsion Holdings leads smartphone device penetration in Nigeria with its brands Tecno and Infinix leading the pack with 29 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

The iPhone follows in 3rd place with 14 per cent penetration while Samsung takes 4th place at 10 per cent. Itel settles comfortably at number 5 with 7 per cent smartphone penetration placing Transsion’s chokehold on the Nigerian smartphone market at a solid 62 per cent. United States owned Meta’s messaging apps dominate Nigeria’s messaging with the freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service WhatsApp holding a staggering 96 per cent lead, closely followed by Meta’s Messenger with a 32 per cent penetration.

Telegram pops up in the top 3 at 12 per cent, similar to Meta’s WhatsApp, the freemium, cross-platform, encrypted, cloud-based and centralized instant messaging (IM) service also provides optional end-to-end encrypted chats as well as voice-over-IP (VoIP) service.Developed by Transsnet Group, the joint venture between NetEase Group and Transsion Holdings Group, Boomplay, the freemium media streaming app leads the streaming category with 33 per cent share.

This is followed by Google’s YouTube at 29 per cent and the US owned on-demand music streaming  platform, Audiomack at 5 per cent. Audio identification app Shazam places 4th at 4 per dent followed by MTN’s all in one messaging and streaming app; Ayoba and video on demand (VOD) service apps Iroko TV and Netflix with 2 per cent each.The Orbit report indicates that Access Bank leads the category of top banking apps with an 11 per cent lead followed by UBA at 10 per cent and GTBank following at 9 per cent.

For the fiercely competitive fintech apps, OPay which offers POS and payment services, has the highest salience with a 14 per cent lead, followed by Palmpay at 7 per cent and Kuda 3 points behind at 4 per cent. The proliferation of cryptocurrency in Nigeria is uncertain with Binance at 3 per cent while Chipper cash and Luno come in at 2nd and 3rd place both maintaining 1 per cent of user base.

Adesanoye said: “The team’s unwavering commitment to professionalism and unbiased research is truly commendable. Their meticulous approach to data collection, including the extra step of double checking participants’ responses, has resulted in a highly accurate and reliable dataset.”

The extensive report which reviews global and regional smartphone and app usage in Nigeria includes insight on several categories including e-commerce, social media, ride hailing apps, betting and more is available at orbitng.com/research. Of the total number of respondents, 64 per cent were smartphone users, while 36 per cent did not use a smartphone.

The Orange Business Intelligence Technology (ORBIT) team is the research and tech unit of Orange Group Nigeria. Following an initial 2019 survey, which was carried out solely in Lagos, the Smartphone & Application Penetration Study in Q4 2022 compiled data across major cities in Nigeria. The ORBIT team of 55 interviewers and 8 supervisors polled 13,340 respondents from 12 cities.