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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
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?
>>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
You don't know very much about Kenya, do you? You think "Africa" and get images of starving Ethiopians, don't cha? Kenya is the most developed country in eastern Africa.
A friend of mine at Verizon worked in Kenya back in the mid-2000s setting up wireless relays. It's not the backwater you're imagining in your head. Kenya has been expanding its telecommunications sector pretty rapidly, and (quick Google search) there's 10 million cell phone users and 7.5 million internet users in this country of 40 million people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_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.
Hey, I can point it on the map just fine! It's where Obama was born, right?
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.
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.
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.
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