--- title: South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more... description: South African smartphone unit sales fell 7.9% in the first half of 2026 while average selling prices rose 9.8%, according to NielsenIQ's State of the Retail... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more for them | daily.dev og:description: South African smartphone unit sales fell 7.9% in the first half of 2026 while average selling prices rose 9.8%, according to NielsenIQ's State of the Retail... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6zgr5IUeX.png og:image:alt: South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more for them og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more for them **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary South African smartphone unit sales fell 7.9% in the first half of 2026 while average selling prices rose 9.8%, according to NielsenIQ's State of the Retail Nation analysis. Telecoms was the only major tech and durables category to grow in value (up 1.1%), with NIQ attributing the trend to consumers trading up despite affordability pressure. Other categories like computing/IT and panel TVs saw heavy discounting, with value declines far outpacing unit declines. NIQ's MD noted growing competition from Chinese brands is adding pricing pressure, and that consumers are postponing upgrades rather than abandoning technology purchases altogether. Grocery spending told a different story, with FMCG sales up 5.5% in value and 7.7% in units, and shoppers showing greater price sensitivity to both increases and promotions than a year earlier. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The smartphone market is in big trouble](https://daily.dev/posts/the-smartphone-market-is-in-big-trouble-1woimtqrp) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Online shopping boom in South Africa](https://daily.dev/posts/online-shopping-boom-in-south-africa-dxqreqkct) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Apple and Samsung lead smartphone market revival](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-and-samsung-lead-smartphone-market-revival-bsilnnos9) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Perfect storm for South African tech buyers](https://daily.dev/posts/perfect-storm-for-south-african-tech-buyers-1chdvzdjb) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more for them","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T09:46:29.072Z","dateModified":"2026-09-01T09:46:51.251Z","description":"South African smartphone unit sales fell 7.9% in the first half of 2026 while average selling prices rose 9.8%, according to NielsenIQ's State of the Retail...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b468a64a96c25b881c2845899426f36c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b468a64a96c25b881c2845899426f36c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-africans-are-buying-fewer-phones-and-paying-more-for-them-6zgr5iuex","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"tech-news","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"South Africans are buying fewer phones and paying more for them"}]} ```