Established in China in 2003 as a consumer electronics company specialising in music players, Meizu formally entered the smartphone market in 2007 with the launch of the Meizu M8, and has since become one of the biggest smartphone brands in China.
The brand's flagship Meizu Pro 6 model (R7,999) and the more budget-friendly M3 Note (R3,299) has been made locally available online through 2C Telecoms, the official distributor of Meizu branded phones in South Africa. weFix, meanwhile, has been declared the official repair partner.
Ferdi van Niekerk Jr, national sales director for Meizu Mobile South Africa, told Gearburn that the success of other Chinese smartphone brands in the SA market signalled that it was a good time for Meizu to follow suit.
“We definitely view Xiaomi and Huawei as our direct competitors. Both brands have seemed to gain quite a local following, especially Huawei with their aggressive marketing.”
“We see this as proof that the South African consumer is starting to trust in the Chinese brands and we believe its a perfect time to enter the market with the Meizu offerings. And we have used Xiaomi and Huawei as sort of ‘guinea pigs’ in our planning and strategy ahead to bring high quality, high-spec handsets at affordable pricing to the South African consumer.”
We're currently testing out both the Pro 6 and M3 Note, so a product review will be coming soon.
