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$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes In Kenya
kkleiner writes "Earlier this year, the Chinese firm Huawei unveiled IDEOS through Kenya's telecom titan, Safaricom. So far, this $80 smartphone has found its way into the hands of 350,000+ Kenyans, an impressive sales number in a country where 40% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. The smartphone is the exemplar of a truly liberating device, and thanks to Android and Huawei, it has the potential to reach virtually untapped markets."
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
Ugali phone!
Ring Dong Ring Dong Ring Dong Ding
Not ba-ad phone!
It comes in one's es
from skipping lunches
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
We've been using them in Nairobi for a mobile learning project. The students get one of the Ideos phone with a micro SD card loaded with the videos, reading material and tests for the class.
I liked them enough that I bought one for my wife. Newegg sells them in the US for $140. She needed a new phone before we moved to Europe and it's been great. The screen is not too big, the camera is pretty crappy and it doesn't have the horsepower of a phone like my Galaxy S, but it does really well with calls and has better connectivity than my phone. We are on the same carrier and half the time when I can't get data, she can.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
1. Do you require a Google account in order to use/initialize your Android phone?
If so, that would seem to present some difficulties for Kenya, or is that not required for certain countries?
2. Is the Google account locked into the phone, so that only that one user can (reasonably) use it? I mean, you can't have a scenario where different people can "log" into an Android phone, can you?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Are they popular in Kenya? I wouldn't have thought so...
Max.
Never mind the phone cost; the cost of data, if billed at U.S. rates, would be something only a fairly small percentage of the Kenyan population could afford. Do they have much lower data rates?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Read FTW. Seriously.
The world is changing, and we are not keeping up.
Hans
It isn't too bad at all. It's the Huawei Sonic, the GSM version of the CDMA Huawei Ascend II available in the US. A steal at $180 considering its capabilities (it's about on-par with an iPhone 3GS).
It's been shown that putting cell phones in the hands of people in developing countries is a way to really improve their well being. I'd say that this is much better than sending over water or food.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I think you're missing the entire point. iPhone isn't relevant at all because it's not $80. Neither is the BB for partially the same reason (but also because RIM phones suck ass, especially for development).
I'm on my way out the door - but google something along the lines of "developing world mobile coverage". Cell phones have been a huge boon to the developing world and are making a huge difference in improving people's lives. It's really an exciting thing to watch. I think it's also a big driver in why we'll see mobile access of the web eclipse pc usage.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Americans beg for welfare and yet they have enough "money" (read: credit) to buy SUVs, Macs, iPhones, $2000 TVs, beer, crack, and fast food.
As the other posters on the Wordpress site mentioned, the comparison is irrelevant.
The saturation of cheap Chinese reverse-engineered clones is bad for normal working standards, quality control, safety in the workplace, human decency, and the environment. It's a tale of Chinese peddlers scamming poor naive Africans out of education and drinking water, in favor of crap that won't last, and is of no practical use AT ALL in any developing country - especially Kenya..
Or you could say it sold like anything that staves off death from famine.
Those on $2 does not use android phones. But a lot the 60% with more than $2 does.
Maybe you should try to ask them or people who work with them what they do with their smartphones. If they have even 2G internet connectivity, it's not like they'd be able to, oh, I don't know, find markets for their goods, or send messages to family members and colleagues that, say, they have a customer for something that's back at home or such. What do you do with your basic electronic communications?
BTW, if 40% of Kenyans earn less than $2 a day, 60% are making more. And while I'm suspicious of trickle-down, I think that the ability of that 60% to be more effective and productive will probably help the other 40%, too.
Also, how much do you think cell service costs to deliver?
The stupid, it burns.
The article lists a number of applications that would be very beneficial to the people who receive them, from medical apps to those which improve agricultural productivity (precision agriculture.)
(Seriously, does the author really believe an app to help farmers sell their stuff couldn't have been developed on iOS or Windows or Blackberry? Come on!)
It could be done but i suspect it would have more difficult.
Apple would not have liked it it it would hurt the iPhone image and banned it wanting 30 percent commission on sales. Who can feel exclusive owning a phone that poor people in Kenya can afford.
They probably didn't do it in C++ but native development could overcome the poor specs on the phone.
If the government and china subsided the phone towers, limit coverage and they are still on standard 3g and allowing it to be operate a marginal loss then you can start to charge less. 350k is only 1 percent of the population.
>>I'd have been interested in learning how these people making less than $2/day are paying for cell service, for one thing.
They're not. Probably. Though it hasn't stopped some idiots on here claiming Google is evil for taking away these poor peoples' water and food.
There's 10 million people with cell phones in Kenya. While this sort of takes away from the breathless "Android is the new Gods Must Be Crazy" theme of the article, there's actually a large telecommunications industry in Kenya.
You're an ignorant cunt, but at least you're a slashdot faithful who didn't bother to RTFA. Of course they could develop apps for iOS in Africa, and in fact they do, but an iPhone costs a fuck of a lot more than a cheap Chinese Android device does. Developing for Android is also free.
As for how they pay for their phones, do a bit of reading. Google it.
Aside from the much lower price of the phone compared to Apple and RIM products, there is the issue of the plan. If people in the developing world could afford the all-you-can-eat plans like we can in the US and Europe, then price would not be an issue because they would just get phones 'on contract'
The majority of phones sold in these situations are on pay-per-use plans. They get a good deal per megabyte and they use way less. Given the low cost of the plan, the upfront cost of the phone can be a major deterrent.
I'm sorry if mr '93 escort wagon' doesn't like articles with a positive outlook on android, but what the author of this article covers is indisputably a result of an open ecosystem like Android. Notice I said open ecosystem, not open-source ecosystem; what really matters is that manufacturers have easy access to the OS at a low price. This is what Android is great at.
I have one of these, but it was sold to me as a mobile router, not a phone. I have never made or received a phone call on it, except for testing that it actually can make calls. (I have an iPhone...) It works pretty well as a router for the internet company I bought it from (eMobile), but the battery life is pretty crappy. I did find that you can buy extended batteries for them online, which I will probably do one of these days...
An example of horrific Kenyan police abuse is captured on video and quickly spreads through a young population with internet enabled phones.
Youth violently riot -- demanding better opportunities for themselves.
Army moves in -- thousands die. President is toppled.
Likely scenario?
Kenyans...when the UK went decimal currency with much moaning and groaning, a retired District Inspector explained how Kenya went metric. The DIs went down the market early with new sets of weights and measures, conversion charts and handouts. They sat down with the market traders and explained the new system, that it was simpler than the old one, and how it worked. The traders converted their prices. By lunchtime the market was running on metric.
An education system that prioritises arithmetic and language skills, and a country where education is seen as opening avenues, can have a lot going for it.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
We do you fucktard, just not in telecommunications because we have more important things to worry about.
1. Do you require a Google account in order to use/initialize your Android phone?
Do you? I don't. Never have. Using a Google account gave you access to various optional extras such as syncing your calendar and your contact list, accessing gmail, and downloading items from the Google Marketplace. Beyond that having a Google account is completely optional for the full function of your phone, even doing Google searches and using Maps / Navigation.
As for initializing the phone, what's that? Is that something that prevents you using a phone without doing something first like hooking it to a computer or signing up to some company? If so I've never seen it, not on my past HTC phones, nor my current Samsung. What a strange concept.
So this is just well off Kenians buying the latest trendy phone. Nothing to see here. In fact, chances are that the 350k phones already sold are a substantial fraction of the total market capacity for smartphones in the country. The other half is probably iPhones.
I was unaware not only that hotcakes sell in Kenya, but that they sell well there.
Thanks for the important information.
Well, they tried when people were peddling import substitution. Then they realized that it was costing a whole lot of money, that what was being made was of poorer quality and more expensive than what was available abroad. And the whole world eventually learned good economics and saw that it was not a good idea to try to manufacture everything at home. So, now, people in Africa are quite happy to buy what the Chinese sell them and actually put their resources to good use. Which means that they typically don't try to create their own technology.
Neither do the Chinese by the way. Most of the heavy lifting in still done in other countries (primarily USA and Europe). The Chinese still by and large take existing designs and build them to order, assemble things that were manufactured elsewhere, and make shoddy copies that are touted as great innovations for nationalistic purposes (the Loongson CPU for instance).
To be fair they're trying to move up the value chain. They've been spending a lot on R&D, but we'll have to see how that translates into results that can be profitably put on the market. But they're still very far from the technological frontier. They're having a good run with catch-up growth and it's smart to prepare for the future but, for now, China's comparative advantage will still be manufacturing for the foreseeable future. I'm skeptical that China's current political environment can sustain the kind of dynamics that are very useful to get innovation. Somehow it doesn't seem very conducive to innovation to have to worry about what the Thought Police thinks you're up to, to have to deal with bureaucrats and a very top-down style of economic policy, not to be able to freely communicate with others (including foreigners) or move about your own country, etc.
I am Kenyan and am actually updating this using a Netbook tethered to an IDEOS.
Most of the people commenting here are apparently very ignorant.
1) Most people are not as poor as Western media always make us to be. They only show poor people in sad situation but obviously as a growing country there is a growing Middle income who are the target of cheaper affordable smartphone.
2) $2 is quite a sum(actually = Ksh 200). The living cost are not as high as in US or Europe so stop making comparisons using your worldview as a yardstick.
3) IDEOS is brilliant idea.
BTW the iphone cost Ksh 100,000 ($1000), Galaxy S ksh 36000 ($370)
These phone are only available to the rich.
...you don't even have to RTFA to realize that it's not a news item but a press release.
The smartphone is the exemplar of a truly liberating device, and thanks to Android and Huawei, it has the potential to reach virtually untapped markets.
At least disguise the PR language to make it look like real journalism guys!
Gitonga is a self-employed Kenyan farmer. He takes out a loan and invests in an $80 phone. He can now reach a larger market and increases his annual gross income by $300.
Richard is an American business owner. He takes out a loan and invests $80k in his truck fleet. He can now reach a larger market and increases his annual gross income by $300k.
Apparently, one of these two men inherently dumber than the other by merit of being black.
That is a good reason to buy Android!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
"truly liberating" my a...., does it come with a built-in 419 app? ...)
(someone had to say it
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
While OLPC is a superb concept, it has its faults. A well-configured IDEOS might well prove to be a worthy competitor - which would probably ultimately be a good thing for OLPC.
Has anyone tried selling hotcakes to people in Kenya? It seems as if they would sell as well as $80 Android handsets.
Insert witty comment here.
Do they have high cost 2 year data + voice lock ins? where to get out of them you have to pay like $200-$400 for the phone.
I wish the media would stop (badly) Photoshopping images. The headline image of the girl holding an IDEOS originally had her holding a snowpea pod: http://img.wylio.com/flickr/130022/380/5367321226
If a device makes calls over a cellular network, and the end user can install homemade applications on the device, it's a programmable phone, and I use the term "smartphone" for these. Phones running Java ME were once called smartphones, and BlackBerry is the natural extension of these. So if a cell phone it runs Android, and adb install isn't blocked somehow, it's a smartphone. How do you define a smartphone if not as a programmable phone?
At least for my home country (Brazil) the economy was growing at better rates and unemployment was lower when people were still peddling import substitution. This is mostly true for a lot of countries (at least in South America) that had import substitution as an industrialization strategy. After the globalization non sense we have fancier gadgets but at the cost of growth rates and unemployment. If that was bad economics and this is good I'm all for bad economics then.
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
>As for initializing the phone, what's that?
Well, Apple makes you have a iTunes account before you can start using your iPhone, right?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
There's a HELL of a reason for a phone in Kenya (et al). You can phone ahead and find out what price you'll get at market for your produce. If too many farmers are selling, the prices are depressed and someplace else is starved and the price (and need) higher.
Over here, you need a phone to find out when your mates will be at the pub.
Rather less important.
Why can't Africans design and build THEIR OWN technology?
Anybody?
Did I hear a whisper about 'IQ'?
Yeah! I mean, it's not like those of us in the US rely on some other country to build our phones for us. Oh... wait.... never mind.
In Zimbabwe it's only 3 million dollars!
On a side note, huawei has several inexpensive android phones. My kids each have a huawei ascend that I paid $99USD for, and MetroPCS sells a huawei M835 for $79usd. Both are "no contract" prices.
Sure, the ascend are slower than my droid2 global since they only run at 600Mhz; but they're definitely usable. I'd call them a bargain at those prices.
I can't imagine people in Kenya buying a lot of pancakes.
Now if you'd said "Android phones selling like schnitzengruben in Rock Ridge" I'd be impressed.
Why single out the $80 Android phone for its Chinese origin? It is not as if the fruit company has its phones made somewhere else after all. This reasonable priced Anrdoid phone is made by Huawei (the largest Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer ATW) while Cupertino sends its manufacturing orders to Foxconn. I have not heard much about bad things happening at Huawei's manufacturing plants, but that does not mean much of course. Foxconn, as you may remember, has been in the news rather frequently because of several lethal accidents in conjunction with their contracts with the fruit company. The Bill of Materials (BOM) for the most recent flat, rectangualar screened, rounded cornered fruit phone seems to have been around $180 at its time of introduction in 2010. It is sold for 4.5 times as much. How much do you guess the BOM for the Huawei is?
--frank[at]unternet.org
>Developing for Android is also free.
Well, don't you have to pay $25?
Or, maybe, that's only if you want to be listed on the Android Market?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Come on mods, did you even RTFA? Parent is correct.
Nice catch, scdeimos. Did you use the Google similar image search or what?
I8-D
Lot's of ignorance in your post, so lets tackle it one at a time. "I'd also like to know what apps they're actually using, rather than "here's what may happen, thanks to the awesome power of open source that couldn't possibly happen with any other platform because they're all evil evil evil!" (Seriously, does the author really believe an app to help farmers sell their stuff couldn't have been developed on iOS or Windows or Blackberry? Come on!)" If you're a software developer in Kenya (it's a booming industry), chances are that you're developing for mobile. There are a ton of programs out there, from the forementioned M-PESA (mobile banking app, first of its kind in the world), to apps like Ushahidietc. Just Google it, look at Kenyan tech blogs (there a ton out there, starting with White African's), I mean, knowledge is but a mouse click away, and it stops your from opining on stuff you have no idea about. "I suspect those people who own these cheap phones are using them like everyone else in the world - texting their friends incessantly, taking pictures of their sandwiches, being annoying on buses, and so on. But that's not a particularly compelling narrative." Just like in the West, some are, and some are using their phones for business. Even in the rural areas, farmers are using web enabled phones (and computers) to look up pricing and to figure out how to maximize their profit (who is buying what, when and at what price).
On the other hand, China has the benefits of long term planning, large population, school systems that produces large quantities of scientists and engineers. Additionally, they now also have all the factories in their back-yard, lots and lots of money and a government very actively seeking to increase R&D.
In the US, we have talent wasting away in manipulating money in wall street producing no value, small term profit agendas that cannot seem to develop industries that could happen 10-20 years down the line like alternative energy technologies and a school system that is failing to produce students interested in science and technology and a culture that doesn't really laud scientific and technological innovation, a population that understands every nuance of the prime directive from Star Trek but nothing about the prime number theorem.
I guess I support the opposite view that China will succeed in innovation. USSR had similar problems you listed above but was able to innovate and advance scientific knowledge. Like the large number of medals in the Olympics, I think China will catch up and lead innovation in many fields but they will very carefully pick at what they want instead of letting it happen from individual scientists and engineers.
I don't know if your above statement is a sort of restatement of American exceptionalism, but I don't think that China being an innovation leader in a field makes US less of an innovator. I would love to see China and US both innovating and competing and I think it would be better as a world and a better US. I find that people in the US are irrationally scared from a little competition from China.
Rushton, is that you?
A very similar variant to this phone is sold here in the US for $99 and it's called the T-Mobile Comet. It's also a piece of junk. The best "low end" Android phone currently on the market is the Optimus One, known under several different names depending on the carrier. It has a larger 3.2" 320x480 display, vs 2.8" 320x240 on the IDEOS, a faster processor and is generally better in every way. It's currently sold as the LG Thrive (AT&T), Optimus S (Sprint), LG Vortex (Verizon), Optimus M (MetroPCS), Optimus C (Cricket), Optimus T (T-Mobile) and Optimus V (Virgin Mobile). Most variants are easily rooted, inexpensive ($99 - $150 without any contract) and with the addition of a good size MicroSD card, can even be used without service as an Android-based competitor to the iPod Touch.
This article just seems to be a bunch of chest pounding by Huawei, since LG is handing them their ass here in the states.
Sideloading the Amazon app store couldn't get easier
But for people who have checking accounts at certain banks, it's a lot harder to find the application for scanning checks for deposit. Chase, for example, makes its Chase Mobile App officially* available on Apple's App Store and Android Market and apparently nowhere else. So you'll need a Gmail account, or you can't deposit a check.
* There exist unofficial ways to obtain Chase Mobile App as an APK, but I'm unaware of any way to verify that these APKs are identical to the version that Chase makes available.
Makes a lot of sense considering that the first, real, widely adopted digital wallets have existed in Africa for years in the form of transferable cell phone minutes.
are worth about as much as annual reports from, say, lehman brothers.
>Developing for Android is also free.
Well, don't you have to pay $25?
Or, maybe, that's only if you want to be listed on the Android Market?
Pretty much. I found an open source Android app on the Android market that I wanted to add a feature to, so got the source to fork, added the feature (learning a little bit about android development at the same time), and compiled it so I could put it on my phone. After I done all that I thought it might be nice to put it on Google's Market, so paid the $25 and uploaded it there (ensuring I had a link to the source changes, of course).
I could have done all of that without paying the price at the end, and it would still be avaliable (to people who allow their phone to instal apps from non market sources) as I had uploaded the compiled app file alongside the code changes, and put it on a secondary Android Market (SlideMe I think it was, not the official Google one).
No in Kenya contracts are a new thing being introduced now by Orange otherwise people prefer prepaid services buying airtime, data bundle and texting plans before use.