In Kenya, $ 80 Android smartphones fly like hot cakes

It seems that yesterday only the most advanced and wealthy citizens could afford to buy a smartphone. Today, these devices are popular even in the poorest countries. A few months ago, Huawei began selling IDEOS smartphones through Safaricom, an East African mobile phone operator. And to date, more than 350,000 Kenyans have bought an Android device ! This is in a country where 40% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.

The success of IDEOS shows how important the price-performance ratio is for the widespread adoption of modern technology. Of course, this would not have been possible without the open Android operating system.

You can compare the cost and characteristics of an Android smartphone with its "competitors" from Apple, Motorola and Blackberry, as well as with one of the world's first smartphones - IBM Simon (1994).



As you can see, with a slight deterioration in technical specifications, Huawei IDEOS wins by an order of magnitude in price.

However, not everything is so joyful and cloudless. Kenyan forums are full of complaints about the short battery life. In remote areas of the country, this can turn into a problem, because it is difficult to find a socket for recharging there. The operator Safaricom even published special instructions for reducing the power consumption of the device.

Despite these shortcomings, the advantages of Android still outweigh: these are worthy technical specifications, this is the Android Market with 300 thousand applications and the most important thing is the price, because a smartphone costs only $ 80.

Residents of poor African countries are willing to spend a monthly salary on a smartphone for a reason. For example, a recent entrepreneurial conference in Nairobi showed off some of the innovative Android apps aimed at the local market. One of the programs is called M-Farmand allows farmers to broadcast prices for agricultural products in real time via SMS. Another application, created by specialists from a local university, is designed to diagnose and track the spread of cereal diseases through crowdsourcing. Or a program contest winner - Medkenya Medical Guide . This is only the beginning, and in the future, hundreds of different medical applications for Android are likely to appear. And not only medical, but also others that can help residents of the country take full advantage of the information age.

As the Kenyan Information Minister said at the Huawei IDEOS presentation, having a smartphone is no longer a luxury for the elite, but a necessary accessory for every person, because it affects all aspects of our lives.

Of course, the Huawei product is not the crown of evolution. But the day will come when high-tech devices will cost a mere penny, so that absolutely all the inhabitants of the Earth can afford them. In this sense, the $ 80 Android smartphone is a sign that we are moving in the right direction.