$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."

Comments

Bad article

[93 Escort Wagon]

That was one of the most fawning, drooling-fanboi articles I've seen in a long time. I think the subject could've been much more interesting if the writer could let up on beating the Android fan-drum.

I'd have been interested in learning how these people making less than $2/day are paying for cell service, for one thing. 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!)

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.

Re:food vs phones

[Anonymous Coward]

Americans beg for welfare and yet they have enough "money" (read: credit) to buy SUVs, Macs, iPhones, $2000 TVs, beer, crack, and fast food.