The fastest-growing smartphone brand in the world's biggest phone market arrives in South Africa this month. Ironically, the brand is completely unknown here. According to Counterpoint Media research, Xiaomi has a 15.8% share of the Chinese smartphone market, marginally ahead of Huawei in second place. In China, it's well ahead of Samsung and Apple, which remain the top two brands globally, followed by Huawei and Xiaomi. Most of the sales of this new brand X, however, are made in China and India. This suggests either that it faces an uphill battle in other markets, or that it has massive potential.A veteran of Apple sales in South Africa, RJ van Spaandonk, is betting on the latter. The former executive director of the Core Group, the authorised Apple distributor for South Africa, has formed a new company, the MIA Group, to distribute Xiaomi in Africa's three major markets.story_article_left1Xiaomi has appointed the company as a "full-service distributor" in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, meaning it will provide importation, logistics, marketing and support services for these countries."We see a massive opportunity in South Africa for this brand because of what it stands for," says Van Spaandonk."It's about providing people with the best possible technology, given a certain price point. This isn't about cheap technology - it's really good technology - but driving down the cost to consumers so that amazing technology comes in reach of more people."As such, Xiaomi has a fascinating positioning strategy: it is aiming not at an entry-level market that wants the cheapest devices, but at an aspirational market that wants high-end devices at a reasonable price.MIA will initially bring two Xiaomi models to South Africa, with the Redmi2 and Mi4 being launched later this month. The former is a 4.7-inch device, the latter is a 5-inch flagship phone with full high-definition display.Both aim at an aspirational market that salivates for iPhones - but is happy with equivalent features at a fraction of the price.Xiaomi enters this market at a time when another unknown brand is emerging on the radar as a local smartphone giant.AG Mobile, a South African brand named for its founder, Anthony Goodman, has been creating a strong foothold in the feature-phone market since emerging as a presumptuous little upstart in 2007. Edcon allowed Goodman to get his foot in the door and, by 2012, he was selling 60000 cheap phones a year.story_article_right2The year after, demand exploded and AG moved half a million handsets. By 2014, with the Pep group on board, sales had quadrupled to twomillion.Then came the smartphone revolution. Last year, 95% of AG sales were sub-R400 feature phones. In the final quarter of this year, smartphones will make up half of sales, largely thanks to a low-cost handset called the Chaser and a high-specification, mid-priced device, the Ghost.On top of that, Goodman has sold 100000 AG-branded 7-inch tablets this year. Next year, the range will expand further.AG works closely with Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, which has appointed Dominique Friedl, former head of business development for sub-Saharan Africa at rival Qualcomm, to head corporate sales in Africa."They assist us with marketing, as well as technical assistance - Dominique personally helps us," says Goodman. This, he believes, is not only a vote of confidence in the brand, but will underpin its emergence into mass market awareness."The brand has landed," says Goodman.Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee..