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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
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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 $140. She needed a new phone before we moved to Europe and it's been great. The screen is not too big, the camera is pretty crappy and it doesn't have the horsepower of a phone like my Galaxy S, but it does really well with calls and has better connectivity than my phone. We are on the same carrier and half the time when I can't get data, she can.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
1. Do you require a Google account in order to use/initialize your Android phone?
If so, that would seem to present some difficulties for Kenya, or is that not required for certain countries?
2. Is the Google account locked into the phone, so that only that one user can (reasonably) use it? I mean, you can't have a scenario where different people can "log" into an Android phone, can you?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Are they popular in Kenya? I wouldn't have thought so...
Max.
Thanks for that aid package China, you created 350,000 new tweeters and facebook profiles. You didn't want to send some food or water instead?
Never mind the phone cost; the cost of data, if billed at U.S. rates, would be something only a fairly small percentage of the Kenyan population could afford. Do they have much lower data rates?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
They beg for food and yet they have enough money to buy smart phones.
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.
#DeleteChrome
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).
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.
Why can't Africans design and build THEIR OWN technology?
Anybody?
Did I hear a whisper about 'IQ'?
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."
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.
I was unaware not only that hotcakes sell in Kenya, but that they sell well there.
Thanks for the important information.
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.
"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?
>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.
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.
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
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.
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.