More and more Africans are using a smart phone. By 2021 there could be on the continent of about 900 million devices. Especially Chinese suppliers benefit from the Boom but also African firms entering the market.
“I can’t imagine my life without a Smartphone,” says Lafu Baldé. The everyday life of the 35-year-old father on the streets of the capital of Guinea-Bissau, where he searches for odd jobs. Time, he exchanged foreign currency for foreign business people, sometimes he does errands for the shop owners. “With the Smartphone I keep contact to my customers here in Bissau, but also to my friends and Acquaintances around the world. For me, the Smartphone is now almost as important as electricity, water or bread,” he says of the DW.
77 percent of people on the continent are under 35. Many now use Smartphones. “With the mobile phone we can make, for example, Transfers. We buy mobile phone credit and send it via SMS to their relatives and business partners in the country. There you will be able to redeem it anywhere,” says Lafu Baldé. Meanwhile, it is also possible to pay with the Smartphone, the electricity bill, at many universities you can enrol online, or requests in government Offices and ministries.
Chinese Smartphones are ahead
The Smartphone market in Africa is hard-fought, but only a few devices are designed to meet the needs of African customers. The Chinese company TRANS-Sion has been detected by the early – and ascended with their devices in the last ten years, the market leader in Africa. More than 130 million phones of the brands Tecno or Itel has sold the TRANS Sion Holdings according to their own information in Africa.
Lafu Baldé can no longer imagine a life without a Smartphone
“Just need to be Smartphones,” says Lafu Baldé. He himself had only Recently purchased a TRANS Sion phone: “There are only 50,000 in CFA cost Francs (the equivalent of about 76 Euro) and it has everything we want here in Africa: The access to the main social media pre-installed, the device is robust and in the Standby mode keeps the battery for several days. I can be the Chinese just grateful that you have facilitated us the access to the mobile Internet in such a way!” In addition, TRANS-Sion-phones have custom menus in various African languages, and usually offer space for two Sim cards. It arrives at the customer.
Guinea-Bissau is not an isolated case. Also in Senegal or in Africa’s most populous country Nigeria, the mobile phones will dominate from the middle Kingdom. Also on the second largest market in sub-Saharan Africa, in the boom country of Ethiopia, the Chinese are the market leader. As the first non-African company TRANS-Sion is already almost 10 years ago amharische Fonts and After-Sale had Support in Amharic in the Portfolio.
The Chinese success formula
According to information of the Chinese program of the DW, only a few know in the middle Kingdom from the great success of the TRANS-Sion phones on the African market. The company is gone at the end of September on the stock exchange, and had already achieved on the first day with a market capitalisation of around six billion dollars. The company’s focus on Africa has begun, according to DW-China-editorial staff, but in 2008, as a TRANS-Sion was defined for the strategy “focus on Africa”. With resounding success: In the year 2018, the shipment volume of mobile phones of China reached to South of Sahara-Africa is already 124 million. The market share in Africa stood at nearly 50 percent.
Mara-Smartphones are the first to be manufactured in Africa
“The low price is the strongest weapon of the TRANS-Sion,” says the Chinese IT expert Wang Ting in the DW-Interview. The company have also analysed the needs of the African users carefully, and the phones then aligned. “The cameras of TRANS-Sion, for example, recognise black faces with low contrast better than conventional cameras,” says Ting. The Team of TRANS-Sion is rooted in the African markets and investing continues to be on a large scale in research and development. Possible competitors will make the Chinese company continues to life difficult for.
Meanwhile, also the first African producer pushes for the Smartphone market: Mara Phone. Behind the company Ashish Thakkar, an entrepreneur from Dubai, according to the Rwandan government. In early October, Rwanda President Paul Kagame in the capital Kigali opened the first Smartphone factory, which produced directly in Africa. Only ten days later the second one followed – this time in Durban, South Africa.
Rwanda: The new African Player
Mara Phones based on the Google Android operating system, in which the Social Media presentations are to the needs of African users adapted. The year is for production of approximately 1.2 million units. Thus, Mara is a niche player. But that should change soon.
Many African users want long Battery runtimes
“High-Tech for Africa from Africa, a project with the Rwandan government from the very beginning, will actively support,” says Clare Akamanzi, the state Rwandan development Agency RDB. “We are excited about this project because it facilitates the access of our population to powerful Smartphones.” Currently, only 13 percent of Rwandans have according to their information on Smartphones. “But we want to propose a toast in our country a big development leap and the digital tag to promote,” said Akamanzi for DW.
In fact, Rwanda is progressing in terms of digitisation with large steps. The Public administration has already made two years ago, an Internet platform called Irembo (“gate”) online, by all citizens – also via Smartphone to have digital access to all public services. “All of the applications, for example, on certificates and confirmations, we have made it online. For us it is therefore of great importance that the citizens have Smartphones, so that you can use our Online Service easier,” said Akamanzi.
Smartphone charging: A challenge
In other countries, the interest in Smartphones “Made in Africa” is growing. “I’ve heard of the new African mobile phone from Kigali and I’m really looking forward to when they arrive here in Bissau. It makes me proud that there is also a cell phone that is fully produced in Africa,” says Lafu Baldé. He would like to buy an African mobile phone, if the price-to-performance ratio would be similarly favorable as in the case of the Chinese. However, he heard that the cheapest Mara device at least to 130 Euro cost. Baldé: “Clearly too much.”
Especially Social Media Apps are among African users of popular
He wishes in particular to higher performance batteries. Because the power supply is the main problem, especially in the country. “My Relatives in the interior often have to walk several kilometers to the nearest electricity connection,” he says. But in the meantime, there is a small, home solar energy systems are a viable solution for Charging mobile phones in remote areas without electricity.
In fact, the Kenyan company sells M-Kopa, especially in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda mini-solar systems that are directly supplied with the matching accessories such as backup batteries, charging cable for all kinds of mobile phone connectors, battery radios, and economical LED lamps. Lucky says Lafu Baldé – and a good business model: “In remote areas of Guinea that Many a man has made a mini solar system independently, and earns his money by Charging mobile phones and Smartphones”
Collaboration: Jun Yan