10 ms·

$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next?

196 points by weston 15y ago

nicpottier 15y ago
I work in Rwanda (http://www.nyaruka.com/ http://www.nyaruka.com/) and we're currently doing a project for an NGO that is using the Ideos for a variety of different things, the pricepoint really is amazing. For one, we're using them to act as SMS gateways to generate activation codes. Essentially they receive confirmation messages for mobile payments to a particular number and we wrote an Android app that generates a unique activation code and sends it back to the payer. Better than a PC because it's cheap, has redundant power, redundant network and better connectivity with the GSM world. The other task we're using them for is to act as network attached barcode scanners for inventory control. Essentially using the camera to read QR codes and allowing people to move / receive / send inventory using a rich app interfacing to the cloud based backend we are building. They are amazing for that. I guess my point is that this isn't just a milestone for the consumer, it is a milestone to have an easily programmable, portable, GSM connected device with a camera and a touchscreen that only costs $80. Nothing else compares.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- _mattb 15y ago
  Are you seeing any adoption by consumers in Rwanda? A few months ago you wrote an interesting post about the lack of SIM Toolkit support -- http://blog.nyaruka.com/androids-achilles-heal-the-sim-toolkit http://blog.nyaruka.com/androids-achilles-heal-the-sim-toolk... Is that hindering uptake? Any updates?
  - nicpottier 15y ago
    Sorry for the late reply, was asleep. :) One of the carriers here just started picking them up, haven't seen them as much in Rwanda here as I have in Kenya, but they are still new. The Ideos comes with a SIM toolkit, it's just the official 'Nexus' phones (and some others) that seem to lack it. So that part is fine, which is a good thing, because I buy electricity for my house using it weekly.
- Cushman 15y ago
  Is it insane to imagine that in 50-100 years the tech infrastructure in what is now the developing world could leapfrog the West due to this sort of thing?
  - laglad 15y ago
    Very interesting point. I'm from Nigeria and I've witnessed how technology cycles tend to work here. In America and the West, the technology markets are efficient enough for incremental innovation to be viable enough for a new product. That's not the case in Africa (I can only speak for Africa, not the developing world). We don't innovate incrementally but we take massive leaps between commoditized technology. we need to build a stronger internet backbone that will give developers an active Internet market to cheaply test new products. it will be difficult for us to incrementally innovate otherwise.
  - ristretto 15y ago
    The west has a problem due to the oligopolies of the behemoths that control infrastructure. It is the reason for example why the US ranks low in broadband speeds.
    - weavejester 15y ago
      That's more a problem for the US than the west in general. EU nations are more likely to use regulation to force large telecom companies to allow smaller competitors access to their infrastructure.
- cageface 15y ago
  I do have one worry about this though. If this is the only "computer" a lot of people can afford, this is going to mean that the bulk of a generation is going to grow up without access to computers they can program themselves. Maybe I'm just being alarmist, but growing up all our family's computers were also programmable, so I went from basic to c to c++ all on the same machines dad used for Word Processing. Losing all that for the convenience of mobile seems like a questionable trade.
  - ristretto 15y ago
    You are assuming that people in the developing world can afford a computer just as easily. The importance of having an information device that connects to the internet cannot be overstated in places where education is not the primary concern. Early access to technology will inspire many more kids to learn programming when they can afford one.
    - cageface 15y ago
      I agree there are some strong upsides, but phones make it difficult to participate in a meaningful way at the higher levels of the information economy. They're consumption-oriented devices. Here in Vietnam I see a lot of people that have blown their entire computing budget on a high-end mobile phone and I worry that they may have stunted the growth of some of their talent as a developer, writer, artist etc. I realize that developers are rare but the money my grandfather invested in a C64 in 1983 has been repaid many, many times over. I'm not sure I would have the same incentive or opportunity to learn now.
  - sho_hn 15y ago
    You might have done more research than me on this, i.e. it's possible that this particular Android device doesn't actually allow it, but generally speaking you actually can do some amount of Android development on an Android device: You can install the Android scripting environment and Python for Android, and hack up Python Android apps right on the phone. I don't mean to necessarily dispell your argument, though. I fully agree with you that it's really important that the computers we put into people's hands continue to be sustainable, i.e. that they're not just consumption devices but also allow the creation of programs. I probably wouldn't be a software developer today if my computer growing up had been an iPad, say. Just that I think that of the current crop of smartphone platforms, Android probably comes closest to allowing and enabling hacking.
saturdaysaint 15y ago
Fantastic to hear about computing reaching the hands of the world's poorest. I wonder if poor battery life would be an issue in areas with limited access to electricity, but this could be powerful even if it reaches the more urban areas. I love that it has a camera. I believe that omnipresent cameraphones have been an underrated deterrent for crime and government brutality in the last 10 years (in more developed countries).
- nknight 15y ago
  More places are picking up electricity all the time. Oddly enough, the very solar panels and wind generators that are still seen as too expensive in e.g. the US can be a HUGE help in getting electricity to remote areas. A typical cell phone battery stores 5-7 watt hours. With good sunlight, one 30-watt solar panel might provide full charges for 15+ phones in a day. Maybe add $10-20 to the cost of each phone to get a solar charging station set up in a village? That wouldn't be so bad, all things considered.
  - danielharan 15y ago
    Better insolation and no need to run wires to a village make solar panels a no-brainer in a lot of places. Some entrepreneurs are already renting access to a charger. It'd be cool to get micro-loans for them to buy solar panels.
    - bergie 15y ago
      Good idea. Maybe I should pitch that to my contacts in Kenya
      - danielharan 15y ago
        Cool! Kiva has a few Kenyan MFIs, of which two look interesting: http://www.kiva.org/partners/133 http://www.kiva.org/partners/133 http://www.kiva.org/partners/142 http://www.kiva.org/partners/142 I'm guessing a lot of people would lend for this kind of initiative. Please contact me if you hear back from them: chebuctonian at gmail. Thanks! :)
deleted 15y ago
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6ren 15y ago
It isn't a smartphone, it's a computer. This is the real "one laptop per child". It is truly disruptive: in 1.5 years (Feb 2013), that $80 will buy twice the RAM, processing power, flash etc (or sooner, as they may well beat Moore's law via economies of scale). Wow, I got shivers up and down my spine at the Medkenya: as usual, disruptive platforms carry disruptive applications atop. This can really change the world. All the great things that computers can do, these "smartphones" can do - not just angry birds. Apple can't compete here, because they are only interested in cutting-edge technology that will not work unless it is put together with great ingenuity. It's essential that someone lights the way as Apple does; but it does mean that they have to keep inventing the next new thing to remain viable. EDIT oddly, they are priced $176-249 here in Australia (our AUD is currently worth 5% more than the USD). Guess it's priced by market. And of course, you still need to pay for connectivity (I wonder how much that costs in Kenya?). A review and specs: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/ideos_u8150/363402 http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/id...
- nknight 15y ago
  Agreed, this is potentially huge. Can you imagine the effect of getting one billion of these to people? It's possible. Even if every one were paid for by charity, it'd be just $80 billion. That's a small fraction of the charitable giving in the world every year. Even the stingy US foreign aid budget was over $45 billion in 2009.
  - cageface 15y ago
    Wouldn't it be better to get them a cheap laptop or something they can use to learn development and/or longform publishing of some kind?
    - nknight 15y ago
      Uh, even in the west, less than 1% of the population does any real development. Why bump the cost from $80 billion to $200+ billion to give everybody a big power-sucking device that can't be concealed and will do them only limited good over a smartphone? These are people living off the land in third-world areas. Many are nomads. A communication and educational tool that fits in a pocket can be invaluable. In comparison, a bulky laptop does very little good at this stage in their development.
myth_drannon 15y ago
When I was travelling in Scotland I bought ZTE smartphone android 2.2 for 50 pounds without a contract just to use Google maps instead of paying expensive 10 pounds per day rental GPS. The touchscreen is horrible but the phone itself is pretty responsive ,Skype worked fine. Basically throw away smartphone for two weeks of vacation.
- MikeW 15y ago
  I have that phone. I run an Android 2.3.4 mod for it. I now get several days worth of battery life, multitouch and a very smooth responsive UI. That phone has proven to be a very hackable device and there have been some GREAT roms released in the last few months for that aging hardware.
  - kenyan_komu 15y ago
    Hi I have th phone, could you direct me to web resources that will guide med on how to install a custom ROM, my email is komuw05@yahoo.com Thanks in advance
    - intended 15y ago
      You may want to hide your email address, or put it on your profile page.
    - robtoo 15y ago
      I (probably) have the same phone as the grand-parent. Best modding info is at: http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-blademodacocom/ http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-blademod...
      - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
        The Blade/Libra/San Francisco is a great phone, but it's not available for 50 quid, more like double that (though I bought mine for 70 a while ago, and got an AMOLED screen version too). Maybe he was talking about the ZTE Racer, a previous best buy in the world of Android. Modaco also have info on getting the best out of that device: http://android.modaco.com/forum/454-zte-racer-racermodacocom/ http://android.modaco.com/forum/454-zte-racer-racermodacocom...
deleted 15y ago
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martythemaniak 15y ago
I've said it before, but I'll repeat myself: Android will be the dominant OS of this decade (found in phones, tablets, netbooks and other devices) because it is the only OS that is both fully modern and flexible enough to be adapted to whatever needs people have. One thing I'd love to see from Google is more support for "platform developers" - docs, examples, tutorials and tools to help anyone get Android up and running on different devices.
- cageface 15y ago
  The low barrier to entry for development is going to be important too. The development tools are free and run on low-end hardware and you don't have to pay a fee to distribute apps outside the app store. Make no mistake, this is why Apple and Microsoft are afraid of Android and it makes their selfish bullying that much more reprehensible. Apple is never going to make an $80 phone.
  - sadlyNess 15y ago
    And Google advocating for more android developers here in kenya helps. In fact they have a dev conference next month in Nairobi and Android is one of the topic list(plus GAE,GWT, chrome).
r00fus 15y ago
$80 in Kenya, with probably market-rate voice and data (ie, reasonably cheap) will never see the light in the USA. First you have the IP battles (patents, trade-dress, etc), then you have a consolidated and generally anti-innovation telecom monopoly. What will happen is that the feature and dumb phone will be killed by cheap Androids... this will be mildly threatening to (currently) weak smartphone lines like WP7 and Blackberry, but will leave the iPhone unscathed for the near future. Any prognostication more than 2 years out is useless (what happens when the real FacePhone hits?)
- smackfu 15y ago
  USA customers tend to compare unsubsidized phones to subsidized ones, and seem surprised when the $150 product isn't as good as the $600 one.
  - anigbrowl 15y ago
    Not as surprised as they are when they realize how much they paid for the expensive phone, in my experience. Regardless of brand, it's baffling to me why people don't just wait a few months and buy a phone outright instead of getting the one with the very expensive contract. Have you seen that MetroPCS commercial where the dumb kid takes the glittering gold phone only to to find himself swinging from a rope while the presenter admonishes 'Silly Billy! The contract is how the trap is sprung!' They should get some sort of award for promoting financial literacy at the same time as marketing their service.
    - wmf 15y ago
      If you buy a phone outright you still have to pay the same high monthly rates.
      - anigbrowl 15y ago
        I pay $50/month for my line and another $35 for my wife. I don't spend a lot of time on the phone and I don't text at all, but I have unlimited data. More importantly, I barely bother to look at my bill because I know what it's going to be in advance. The lack of admin more than makes up for any minor economic inefficiencies - I don't grudge the phone company making a profit off my relative underuse of the voice service.
alex_c 15y ago
I couldn't find much about data plan pricing in Kenya, but if I'm reading this[1] page right, there are unlimited plans for the equivalent of about USD $10 per month. Really not that bad. [1] http://kalahari.xtgem.com/internet_tarrifs_in_kenya http://kalahari.xtgem.com/internet_tarrifs_in_kenya
- xyzzyz 15y ago
  Not that bad, but only with US salary. Take into account average family income in Kenya.
  - true_religion 15y ago
    What kind of average family is buying an $80 cellphone? The majority are still going to use cheap used phones shipped in from the EU, or discarded by the richer members of their society.
    - vondur 15y ago
      I'm assuming that most of the people in Kenya buying a smart phone are going to be on the upper end of the income distribution.
    - sadlyNess 15y ago
      The majority are using features phones(from edge-bluetooth-o.x-MP-camera to basic call-&text) manufactured by Nokia, samsung, lg,SE and Shenzhen. People rarely acquire phones discarded from the richer.
sssparkkk 15y ago
I thought the article was a little low on content; found this one somewhat better written and more informative: http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/37877/?a=f http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/37877/?a=f Will probably be visiting Kenya shortly, so I'm definitely going to have a look at how 'mobile' is being used over there!
- jlees 15y ago
  When you do, totally check out MPESA and how widespread it is. Mobile payment traction that a US startup would die for.
deleted 15y ago
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ZeroGravitas 15y ago
The computer for the rest of us?
ConstantineXVI 15y ago
FWIW, T-Mobile USA sells this same phone stateside as the Comet[1] for $125 outright. [1] http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-detail.aspx?cell-phone=T-Mobile-Comet http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-detail.aspx?c...
- jlees 15y ago
  $79 from MetroPCS. http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm835(phones) http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm...
kenyan_komu 15y ago
Hi, kenyan guy here. I bought the ideos 3 months ago. Love the android OS, I'm writing this using swype n what a breeze. the battery life off the phone is a but of an issue but if u disable things like GPS then you can get almost a full day worth of charge. About data plans, i usually subscribe to 10MB per day at a cost of 8shillings(about 0.1 of a dollar). Though you can subscribe to 25MB pet day at cost of 0.25 of a dollar. You can also subscribe to unlimited data plan for 30 dollars per month. Of course this are figures for my carrier but those from other carriers don't differ by much. I can say most people will move to android (at least my friends are planning to after seeing my apps). I mean, they were impressed by th fact that they can listen to any song using my jango android app.
- erikig 15y ago
  I'm Kenyan too (in the diaspora, though) and I've been amazed by how quickly and thoroughly some mobile technology has spread back home. Services like mPesa that enable mobile payments are actually much better implemented and more widespread than similar technologies Stateside. Even my grandma in Githumu which for years only had telephone service from 9am-5pm (and only via an operator) now has access to mobile phones will all the trimmings. I might even send her a new Android phone for xmas :^)
  - kenyan_komu 15y ago
    do that. Its amazing, still not sure why nokia chose microsoft over android.
    - sadlyNess 15y ago
      Your email's not visible in your profile. Put it in the About section, sawa?.
      - kenyan_komu 15y ago
        poa
mjijackson 15y ago
The title of this article tells me nothing. The real question is, how well do hotcakes actually sell in Kenya?
superuser2 15y ago
Why do we care about a $120 difference in the cost of the handset when you are going to sped at least $1600 on a contract over the 2 years you are required to sign it for? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why anyone cares about the prices of phones (unless they're outrageously high i.e. the original iPhone's $500).
- heresy 15y ago
  This is not the pricing model used in African countries. So the price of the handset does matter. As I understand it, most mobile phones in Africa are pre-paid, using per-second billing.
caller9 15y ago
QVGA (320x480) is a different aspect ratio than most Android phones which are 480x800 or 480x854. The size makes it look bad, but the aspect ratio makes designing a layout that looks good on all handsets really hard. Guess which one will get left out.
- angusgr 15y ago
  When the choice is between "no smartphone" and "smartphone with suboptimal/clumsy layout", guess which one gets picked? Not to mention that screen res and "looks good" is a specs geek problem not a real problem, anyhow. It somehow isn't stopping people (in Kenya, where I am in Australia, presumably all round the world at all economic levels) from finding these phones useful.
  - Maxious 15y ago
    Have one in Australia, the aspect ratio is more of a problem for Market manifests blocking downloads than actual usage - once you get an .apk, most apps scale such that they are still usable.
ujjvala 15y ago
It's another trick of pushing English, why not support the Kenynian language.
ww520 15y ago
Does anyone know of a cheap Android phone that can run Flash 10.1 comfortably?
- nikcub 15y ago
  my $3400 macbook doesn't run Flash comfortably
MikeW 15y ago
I have a variant of that Huawei phone charging in front of me. The battery life is appalling - It is charged twice a day. Luckily there are android mods that have multitouch integrated back into the rom. However I paid €25 for it on prepay after a rebate from my operator. An incredibly inexpensive device!
LeonB 15y ago
Why no mention of that badly photoshopped image of the girl supposedly holding the phone? http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan.jpg http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan.... Beneath which they say 'Hwawei's IDEOS smartphone' -- meaning Huawei.
tuxguy 15y ago
Some insightful discussion @ Berkeley TIER's mailing list https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-August/003045.html https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-Augu...

196 points by weston 15y ago

I work in Rwanda (http://www.nyaruka.com/ http://www.nyaruka.com/) and we're currently doing a project for an NGO that is using the Ideos for a variety of different things, the pricepoint really is amazing. For one, we're using them to act as SMS gateways to generate activation codes. Essentially they receive confirmation messages for mobile payments to a particular number and we wrote an Android app that generates a unique activation code and sends it back to the payer. Better than a PC because it's cheap, has redundant power, redundant network and better connectivity with the GSM world. The other task we're using them for is to act as network attached barcode scanners for inventory control. Essentially using the camera to read QR codes and allowing people to move / receive / send inventory using a rich app interfacing to the cloud based backend we are building. They are amazing for that. I guess my point is that this isn't just a milestone for the consumer, it is a milestone to have an easily programmable, portable, GSM connected device with a camera and a touchscreen that only costs $80. Nothing else compares.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
_mattb 15y ago
Are you seeing any adoption by consumers in Rwanda? A few months ago you wrote an interesting post about the lack of SIM Toolkit support -- http://blog.nyaruka.com/androids-achilles-heal-the-sim-toolkit http://blog.nyaruka.com/androids-achilles-heal-the-sim-toolk... Is that hindering uptake? Any updates?
- nicpottier 15y ago
  Sorry for the late reply, was asleep. :) One of the carriers here just started picking them up, haven't seen them as much in Rwanda here as I have in Kenya, but they are still new. The Ideos comes with a SIM toolkit, it's just the official 'Nexus' phones (and some others) that seem to lack it. So that part is fine, which is a good thing, because I buy electricity for my house using it weekly.
Cushman 15y ago
Is it insane to imagine that in 50-100 years the tech infrastructure in what is now the developing world could leapfrog the West due to this sort of thing?
- laglad 15y ago
  Very interesting point. I'm from Nigeria and I've witnessed how technology cycles tend to work here. In America and the West, the technology markets are efficient enough for incremental innovation to be viable enough for a new product. That's not the case in Africa (I can only speak for Africa, not the developing world). We don't innovate incrementally but we take massive leaps between commoditized technology. we need to build a stronger internet backbone that will give developers an active Internet market to cheaply test new products. it will be difficult for us to incrementally innovate otherwise.
- ristretto 15y ago
  The west has a problem due to the oligopolies of the behemoths that control infrastructure. It is the reason for example why the US ranks low in broadband speeds.
  - weavejester 15y ago
    That's more a problem for the US than the west in general. EU nations are more likely to use regulation to force large telecom companies to allow smaller competitors access to their infrastructure.
cageface 15y ago
I do have one worry about this though. If this is the only "computer" a lot of people can afford, this is going to mean that the bulk of a generation is going to grow up without access to computers they can program themselves. Maybe I'm just being alarmist, but growing up all our family's computers were also programmable, so I went from basic to c to c++ all on the same machines dad used for Word Processing. Losing all that for the convenience of mobile seems like a questionable trade.
- ristretto 15y ago
  You are assuming that people in the developing world can afford a computer just as easily. The importance of having an information device that connects to the internet cannot be overstated in places where education is not the primary concern. Early access to technology will inspire many more kids to learn programming when they can afford one.
  - cageface 15y ago
    I agree there are some strong upsides, but phones make it difficult to participate in a meaningful way at the higher levels of the information economy. They're consumption-oriented devices. Here in Vietnam I see a lot of people that have blown their entire computing budget on a high-end mobile phone and I worry that they may have stunted the growth of some of their talent as a developer, writer, artist etc. I realize that developers are rare but the money my grandfather invested in a C64 in 1983 has been repaid many, many times over. I'm not sure I would have the same incentive or opportunity to learn now.
- sho_hn 15y ago
  You might have done more research than me on this, i.e. it's possible that this particular Android device doesn't actually allow it, but generally speaking you actually can do some amount of Android development on an Android device: You can install the Android scripting environment and Python for Android, and hack up Python Android apps right on the phone. I don't mean to necessarily dispell your argument, though. I fully agree with you that it's really important that the computers we put into people's hands continue to be sustainable, i.e. that they're not just consumption devices but also allow the creation of programs. I probably wouldn't be a software developer today if my computer growing up had been an iPad, say. Just that I think that of the current crop of smartphone platforms, Android probably comes closest to allowing and enabling hacking.

saturdaysaint 15y ago

Fantastic to hear about computing reaching the hands of the world's poorest. I wonder if poor battery life would be an issue in areas with limited access to electricity, but this could be powerful even if it reaches the more urban areas. I love that it has a camera. I believe that omnipresent cameraphones have been an underrated deterrent for crime and government brutality in the last 10 years (in more developed countries).

nknight 15y ago
More places are picking up electricity all the time. Oddly enough, the very solar panels and wind generators that are still seen as too expensive in e.g. the US can be a HUGE help in getting electricity to remote areas. A typical cell phone battery stores 5-7 watt hours. With good sunlight, one 30-watt solar panel might provide full charges for 15+ phones in a day. Maybe add $10-20 to the cost of each phone to get a solar charging station set up in a village? That wouldn't be so bad, all things considered.
- danielharan 15y ago
  Better insolation and no need to run wires to a village make solar panels a no-brainer in a lot of places. Some entrepreneurs are already renting access to a charger. It'd be cool to get micro-loans for them to buy solar panels.
  - bergie 15y ago
    Good idea. Maybe I should pitch that to my contacts in Kenya
    - danielharan 15y ago
      Cool! Kiva has a few Kenyan MFIs, of which two look interesting: http://www.kiva.org/partners/133 http://www.kiva.org/partners/133 http://www.kiva.org/partners/142 http://www.kiva.org/partners/142 I'm guessing a lot of people would lend for this kind of initiative. Please contact me if you hear back from them: chebuctonian at gmail. Thanks! :)

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

6ren 15y ago

It isn't a smartphone, it's a computer. This is the real "one laptop per child". It is truly disruptive: in 1.5 years (Feb 2013), that $80 will buy twice the RAM, processing power, flash etc (or sooner, as they may well beat Moore's law via economies of scale). Wow, I got shivers up and down my spine at the Medkenya: as usual, disruptive platforms carry disruptive applications atop. This can really change the world. All the great things that computers can do, these "smartphones" can do - not just angry birds. Apple can't compete here, because they are only interested in cutting-edge technology that will not work unless it is put together with great ingenuity. It's essential that someone lights the way as Apple does; but it does mean that they have to keep inventing the next new thing to remain viable. EDIT oddly, they are priced $176-249 here in Australia (our AUD is currently worth 5% more than the USD). Guess it's priced by market. And of course, you still need to pay for connectivity (I wonder how much that costs in Kenya?). A review and specs: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/ideos_u8150/363402 http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/id...

nknight 15y ago
Agreed, this is potentially huge. Can you imagine the effect of getting one billion of these to people? It's possible. Even if every one were paid for by charity, it'd be just $80 billion. That's a small fraction of the charitable giving in the world every year. Even the stingy US foreign aid budget was over $45 billion in 2009.
- cageface 15y ago
  Wouldn't it be better to get them a cheap laptop or something they can use to learn development and/or longform publishing of some kind?
  - nknight 15y ago
    Uh, even in the west, less than 1% of the population does any real development. Why bump the cost from $80 billion to $200+ billion to give everybody a big power-sucking device that can't be concealed and will do them only limited good over a smartphone? These are people living off the land in third-world areas. Many are nomads. A communication and educational tool that fits in a pocket can be invaluable. In comparison, a bulky laptop does very little good at this stage in their development.

myth_drannon 15y ago

When I was travelling in Scotland I bought ZTE smartphone android 2.2 for 50 pounds without a contract just to use Google maps instead of paying expensive 10 pounds per day rental GPS. The touchscreen is horrible but the phone itself is pretty responsive ,Skype worked fine. Basically throw away smartphone for two weeks of vacation.

MikeW 15y ago
I have that phone. I run an Android 2.3.4 mod for it. I now get several days worth of battery life, multitouch and a very smooth responsive UI. That phone has proven to be a very hackable device and there have been some GREAT roms released in the last few months for that aging hardware.
- kenyan_komu 15y ago
  Hi I have th phone, could you direct me to web resources that will guide med on how to install a custom ROM, my email is komuw05@yahoo.com Thanks in advance
  - intended 15y ago
    You may want to hide your email address, or put it on your profile page.
  - robtoo 15y ago
    I (probably) have the same phone as the grand-parent. Best modding info is at: http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-blademodacocom/ http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-blademod...
    - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
      The Blade/Libra/San Francisco is a great phone, but it's not available for 50 quid, more like double that (though I bought mine for 70 a while ago, and got an AMOLED screen version too). Maybe he was talking about the ZTE Racer, a previous best buy in the world of Android. Modaco also have info on getting the best out of that device: http://android.modaco.com/forum/454-zte-racer-racermodacocom/ http://android.modaco.com/forum/454-zte-racer-racermodacocom...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

martythemaniak 15y ago

I've said it before, but I'll repeat myself: Android will be the dominant OS of this decade (found in phones, tablets, netbooks and other devices) because it is the only OS that is both fully modern and flexible enough to be adapted to whatever needs people have. One thing I'd love to see from Google is more support for "platform developers" - docs, examples, tutorials and tools to help anyone get Android up and running on different devices.

cageface 15y ago
The low barrier to entry for development is going to be important too. The development tools are free and run on low-end hardware and you don't have to pay a fee to distribute apps outside the app store. Make no mistake, this is why Apple and Microsoft are afraid of Android and it makes their selfish bullying that much more reprehensible. Apple is never going to make an $80 phone.
- sadlyNess 15y ago
  And Google advocating for more android developers here in kenya helps. In fact they have a dev conference next month in Nairobi and Android is one of the topic list(plus GAE,GWT, chrome).

r00fus 15y ago

$80 in Kenya, with probably market-rate voice and data (ie, reasonably cheap) will never see the light in the USA. First you have the IP battles (patents, trade-dress, etc), then you have a consolidated and generally anti-innovation telecom monopoly. What will happen is that the feature and dumb phone will be killed by cheap Androids... this will be mildly threatening to (currently) weak smartphone lines like WP7 and Blackberry, but will leave the iPhone unscathed for the near future. Any prognostication more than 2 years out is useless (what happens when the real FacePhone hits?)

smackfu 15y ago
USA customers tend to compare unsubsidized phones to subsidized ones, and seem surprised when the $150 product isn't as good as the $600 one.
- anigbrowl 15y ago
  Not as surprised as they are when they realize how much they paid for the expensive phone, in my experience. Regardless of brand, it's baffling to me why people don't just wait a few months and buy a phone outright instead of getting the one with the very expensive contract. Have you seen that MetroPCS commercial where the dumb kid takes the glittering gold phone only to to find himself swinging from a rope while the presenter admonishes 'Silly Billy! The contract is how the trap is sprung!' They should get some sort of award for promoting financial literacy at the same time as marketing their service.
  - wmf 15y ago
    If you buy a phone outright you still have to pay the same high monthly rates.
    - anigbrowl 15y ago
      I pay $50/month for my line and another $35 for my wife. I don't spend a lot of time on the phone and I don't text at all, but I have unlimited data. More importantly, I barely bother to look at my bill because I know what it's going to be in advance. The lack of admin more than makes up for any minor economic inefficiencies - I don't grudge the phone company making a profit off my relative underuse of the voice service.

alex_c 15y ago

I couldn't find much about data plan pricing in Kenya, but if I'm reading this[1] page right, there are unlimited plans for the equivalent of about USD $10 per month. Really not that bad. [1] http://kalahari.xtgem.com/internet_tarrifs_in_kenya http://kalahari.xtgem.com/internet_tarrifs_in_kenya

xyzzyz 15y ago
Not that bad, but only with US salary. Take into account average family income in Kenya.
- true_religion 15y ago
  What kind of average family is buying an $80 cellphone? The majority are still going to use cheap used phones shipped in from the EU, or discarded by the richer members of their society.
  - vondur 15y ago
    I'm assuming that most of the people in Kenya buying a smart phone are going to be on the upper end of the income distribution.
  - sadlyNess 15y ago
    The majority are using features phones(from edge-bluetooth-o.x-MP-camera to basic call-&text) manufactured by Nokia, samsung, lg,SE and Shenzhen. People rarely acquire phones discarded from the richer.

sssparkkk 15y ago

I thought the article was a little low on content; found this one somewhat better written and more informative: http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/37877/?a=f http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/37877/?a=f Will probably be visiting Kenya shortly, so I'm definitely going to have a look at how 'mobile' is being used over there!

jlees 15y ago
When you do, totally check out MPESA and how widespread it is. Mobile payment traction that a US startup would die for.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

ZeroGravitas 15y ago

The computer for the rest of us?

ConstantineXVI 15y ago

FWIW, T-Mobile USA sells this same phone stateside as the Comet[1] for $125 outright. [1] http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-detail.aspx?cell-phone=T-Mobile-Comet http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-detail.aspx?c...

jlees 15y ago
$79 from MetroPCS. http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm835(phones) http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm...

kenyan_komu 15y ago

Hi, kenyan guy here. I bought the ideos 3 months ago. Love the android OS, I'm writing this using swype n what a breeze. the battery life off the phone is a but of an issue but if u disable things like GPS then you can get almost a full day worth of charge. About data plans, i usually subscribe to 10MB per day at a cost of 8shillings(about 0.1 of a dollar). Though you can subscribe to 25MB pet day at cost of 0.25 of a dollar. You can also subscribe to unlimited data plan for 30 dollars per month. Of course this are figures for my carrier but those from other carriers don't differ by much. I can say most people will move to android (at least my friends are planning to after seeing my apps). I mean, they were impressed by th fact that they can listen to any song using my jango android app.

erikig 15y ago
I'm Kenyan too (in the diaspora, though) and I've been amazed by how quickly and thoroughly some mobile technology has spread back home. Services like mPesa that enable mobile payments are actually much better implemented and more widespread than similar technologies Stateside. Even my grandma in Githumu which for years only had telephone service from 9am-5pm (and only via an operator) now has access to mobile phones will all the trimmings. I might even send her a new Android phone for xmas :^)
- kenyan_komu 15y ago
  do that. Its amazing, still not sure why nokia chose microsoft over android.
  - sadlyNess 15y ago
    Your email's not visible in your profile. Put it in the About section, sawa?.
    - kenyan_komu 15y ago
      poa

mjijackson 15y ago

The title of this article tells me nothing. The real question is, how well do hotcakes actually sell in Kenya?

superuser2 15y ago

Why do we care about a $120 difference in the cost of the handset when you are going to sped at least $1600 on a contract over the 2 years you are required to sign it for? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why anyone cares about the prices of phones (unless they're outrageously high i.e. the original iPhone's $500).

heresy 15y ago
This is not the pricing model used in African countries. So the price of the handset does matter. As I understand it, most mobile phones in Africa are pre-paid, using per-second billing.

caller9 15y ago

QVGA (320x480) is a different aspect ratio than most Android phones which are 480x800 or 480x854. The size makes it look bad, but the aspect ratio makes designing a layout that looks good on all handsets really hard. Guess which one will get left out.

angusgr 15y ago
When the choice is between "no smartphone" and "smartphone with suboptimal/clumsy layout", guess which one gets picked? Not to mention that screen res and "looks good" is a specs geek problem not a real problem, anyhow. It somehow isn't stopping people (in Kenya, where I am in Australia, presumably all round the world at all economic levels) from finding these phones useful.
- Maxious 15y ago
  Have one in Australia, the aspect ratio is more of a problem for Market manifests blocking downloads than actual usage - once you get an .apk, most apps scale such that they are still usable.

ujjvala 15y ago

It's another trick of pushing English, why not support the Kenynian language.

ww520 15y ago

Does anyone know of a cheap Android phone that can run Flash 10.1 comfortably?

nikcub 15y ago
my $3400 macbook doesn't run Flash comfortably

MikeW 15y ago

I have a variant of that Huawei phone charging in front of me. The battery life is appalling - It is charged twice a day. Luckily there are android mods that have multitouch integrated back into the rom. However I paid €25 for it on prepay after a rebate from my operator. An incredibly inexpensive device!

LeonB 15y ago

Why no mention of that badly photoshopped image of the girl supposedly holding the phone? http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan.jpg http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan.... Beneath which they say 'Hwawei's IDEOS smartphone' -- meaning Huawei.

tuxguy 15y ago

Some insightful discussion @ Berkeley TIER's mailing list https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-August/003045.html https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-Augu...