The global KaiOS feature phone shipments grew both annually 125% YoY and sequentially 181% QoQ in Q3 2021. The growth is due to increase in JioPhone shipments in its last lap of the feature phone race. It accounts for around 58% of the overall KaiOS powered feature phone shipments for the quarter.

Other big players are Alcatel and HMD. Going forward, there will be sweet spot for KaiOS powered phones in Africa. This is driven by large installed base of feature phone users still active in the market and hence they can upgrade to KaiOS powered devices.

This report tracks KaiOS shipments by key vendors on a quarterly basis from Q1 2017 to Q3 2021. While KaiOS feature phone just made up a very small volume share of total feature phone market this quarter, the wholesale price of KaiOS 3G and 4G feature phones are much higher (e.g. five times higher) than 2G dumb feature phones which are usually below US$10.

We recommend industry stakeholders like OEMs, operators who still focus on feature phone segment to closely watch the development and evolution of KaiOS feature phones in the following years. This report is a must for app players who have been developing apps for KaiOS platforms to understand the present dynamics. Also, OEMs with most of their portfolio in entry level smartphones should run through this report as well so as to understand the potential market for the years to come.