The Redmi Note 11 series.

This week Chinese multinational smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi released its Redmi Note 11 Series in South Africa, including the Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Note 11 Pro devices, to take on competition vying for greater market share in Africa’s third largest economy by GDP, according to statista.com. However, the company is clear that its interests are not exclusive to South Africa, and it has already focused on North Africa and will extend its focus to regions in the East and West of the continent.

According to Xiaomi it has intensified its focus on camera quality and output, as well as on its charging speed, display and SoC “to make flagship-level smartphone performance more accessible than before”.

Redmi Note 11 Pro features an advanced octa-core MediaTek Helio G96 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. Redmi Note 11 is equipped with a Snapdragon® 680 processor built using flagship-level 6nm process “to deliver superior performance while conserving power.”

Xiamoi said as of Q4 2021, MIUI monthly active users surpassed 500 million. “The latest generation operating system MIUI 13 offers an all-round upgrade with a focus on improving core experience - including faster storage, higher background process efficiency, smarter processing, and longer battery life - alongside useful features including sidebars.”

“Part of the smartphones including Redmi Note 11, and Redmi Note 11 Pro rolled out the MIUI 13 first wave in Q1 2022, with the release schedule for other devices to be gradually published on the MIUI website.”

Broader focus on the continent

However, Xiaomi said its focus and strategy is not centred exclusively on South Africa and has already focused on North Africa over the last two years. It added that it makes it a priority to really understand the local nuances of the market we are in and to adapt the local way of operating.

A statement from the company reads: “The company’s market share in terms of smartphone shipments ranked no. 3 globally in the fourth quarter of 2021. We’ve put a lot of focus in the last two years into North Africa and last year we invested more resources into South Africa.”

“Our aim is to grow across the whole continent – aiming to get our products into more markets by tackling African countries one by one. The East and West African markets also have very good growth potential and there is demand for our products, so we will be investing in these regions moving forward. Africa is a diverse and culturally rich continent. Xiaomi is excited to be part of it by continually innovating and bringing high quality products to each market that is so different and comes with its own opportunities.”

In early December 2021, ITWeb Africa reported that according to figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Africa's smartphone market saw shipments decline 2.3% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) during Q3 2021.

The IDC stated that while the region displayed signs of recovery in H1 2021, its newly released Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that component shortages began to negatively impact African markets in Q3 2021, causing a decline in smartphone shipments.

In contrast, Africa's feature phone market remains buoyant, growing 14.2% QoQ Q3 2021. With smartphone prices remaining relatively high and only expected to increase over the coming following quarters, the affordable prices of feature phones make these devices extremely attractive, the research company affirmed.

Market research showed that Africa's top three smartphone markets recorded mixed performances in Q3 2021. Egypt saw shipments decline 19.5% QoQ, while Nigeria was down 9.4% over the same period. Both of these markets are dominated by Chinese brands that had lower shipments due to component shortages.

Xiaomi said the two new Redmi Note 11 Series smartphones are now available for purchase from retail partners including MTN, Vodacom and Takealot.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro (6GB + 128GB) retails at a recommended price of R6,499, and the Redmi Note 11 (4GB+128GB) at R5,299.