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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?
People in Kenya aren't just getting started with mobile telephony. Getting smart phones may be a little newer for many but many, many people have been using cell phones for a while. A password is not a big issue. In fact they are already used to being more secure with their phones as many people have been using services like M-PESA to pay bills and store funds. In a number of ways the typical Kenyan is more mobile phone savvy than the average American.
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?
Hey, I can point it on the map just fine! It's where Obama was born, right?
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