by MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG – HONOR has unveiled enormous ambitions to be the leading smart devices maker in the fiercely competitive South African market.
The rebranded Chinese-based company, back after an absence of some nine months, has unveiled a new lineup of its flagship Magic series to back its desire.
Honor has unveiled the Magic 3, Magic 3 Pro and Magic 3 Pro+.
It is the first flagship lineup to be released after Huawei sold Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology in November 2020.
Honor stated it had spent nine months “in the trenches grinding hard to be the brand our fans know and love.”
Its projections for South Africa are buoyed by its success in China where it reported its market share had rebounded from 3 percent to 14,6 percent in the past three months.
“This is our global comeback story,” it asserted.
At the South African launch of the Magic 3, officials disclosed it aimed for the number one spot- currently held by Korean maker Samsung- in the next three years.
“We have done it before in 2019 (under Huawei),” said Kelvin Cao, General Manager at Honour South Africa.
The Huawei P30 is credited with powering the smartphone maker to the top of the South African market.
“We have established a comprehensive structure and setup that will enable us to offer a comprehensive service and products. Our pursuit for excellence is relentless,” Cao said at an event in Johannesburg.
He added Honor planned to introduce other smart devices as well as tablets and laptops in South Africa “phase by phase.”
Several stores will be rolled out in the major cities of Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.
South Africa is one of three hubs of Honor in Africa and the Middle East.
The latest Magic3 devices, running Android 11, are a continuation from the Magic 1 and Magic 2 released in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
The Honor Magic3 series contains superconductive hexagonal graphene, said to be the world’s fastest multi-network convergence download speed.
Cameras range from 64MP telephoto, ultrawide and monochrome, 50MP wide as well as a 13 MP ultrawide selfie camera.
The recommended retail prices for the Magic3, Magic 3 Plus and Magic 3 Pro+ is €899 (R15 606), €1 099 and €1 499.
Meanwhile, according to Statista, in June 2021, Samsung was the market leader with 45,28 percent of the market share of mobile device vendors in South Africa.
Huawei ranked second, with almost 29 percent, followed by Apple with 16 percent of the share.
– CAJ News
