Smartphones are gaining popularity across the continent and are still a novelty. At the end of 2012, sub-Saharan smartphone penetration was 4 percent, compared with a global average of 17 percent, according to industry body GSMA. However Samsung is fairly certain that this year will see it have control of half the market.

Thabiet Allie, head of content and services for Samsung Electronics Africa, told a telecoms conference in Cape Town that out of the 100 million or so mobile phones sold in Africa this year, 20 million are smartphones and slightly more than half of those are models made by Samsung.

He said that the aim is to doubling this number and the year after probably doing a substantial increase. At least Samsung will not have to worry about Apple. The cargo cult can't afford to make a phone cheap enough and Samsung’s next biggest rival is Blackberry.