
$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next? - weston
http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/16/80-android-phone-sells-like-hotcakes-in-kenya-the-world-next/
======
6ren
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/id...](http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/ideos_u8150/363402)

~~~
applepie
the 3GS is only $45 on AT&T. Some carriers overseas are offering the iPhone
3GS/4 for free (with a contract of course).

Not to diss Android, but iOS devices have better apps, better battery life,
etc.

~~~
applepie
all i'm saying is it would be nice if these users can at least have a great
first-time user experience without having to worry about their phones crashing
, running out of battery within 30 min. of use, or getting malware and trojans
on their Android phones.

~~~
juliano_q
Why I feel that I am reading Engadget? This is not the kind of comment that I
expect to read on HN.

------
nicpottier
I work in Rwanda (<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.

~~~
cageface
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
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
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.

------
kenyan_komu
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
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
do that. Its amazing, still not sure why nokia chose microsoft over android.

~~~
sadlyNess
Your email's not visible in your profile. Put it in the About section, sawa?.

~~~
kenyan_komu
poa

~~~
sadlyNess
@sadq70 on twittah.sent u mail from th same handle on gmail.will be at gkenya
2.0, you?

------
martythemaniak
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
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
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).

------
myth_drannon
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
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
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

~~~
robtoo
I (probably) have the same phone as the grand-parent. Best modding info is at:
[http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-
blademod...](http://android.modaco.com/forum/453-zte-blade-libra-
blademodacocom/)

~~~
ZeroGravitas
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/)

~~~
MikeW
I got my Blade/San Francisco for £75. From time to time there are deals, Argos
was selling them on discount, some online retailers were too, Orange had a
weekend sale on them a few months ago, and of course the second hand market.
But yes you are right, they are closer to £100 than £50.

<http://blade.modaco.com/> is a real gem and truly the best place to get all
sorts of roms for the phone.

------
sssparkkk
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>

Will probably be visiting Kenya shortly, so I'm definitely going to have a
look at how 'mobile' is being used over there!

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

------
ConstantineXVI
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?c...](http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-
detail.aspx?cell-phone=T-Mobile-Comet)

~~~
jlees
$79 from MetroPCS.
[http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm...](http://www.metropcs.com/shop/phonedetails.aspx?productid=hwm835\(phones\))

------
saturdaysaint
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
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.

~~~
sliverstorm
Solar panels are only "too expensive" in the west because:

1) the west is used to consuming a lot more electricity

2) power lines from coal plants are cheap here. There, they don't even have
the plants yet.

In other words, they don't need a whole lot of juice there, and whatever other
alternatives exist (if any do) are even MORE expensive.

~~~
nicpottier
Solar panels actually aren't a great option here believe it or not. People
have been trying for a long time to get them working well and they just don't.
Typical problems are theft, quick degradation from too much sun etc.. They are
also pretty darn expensive.

There are other options though. One of the more interesting ones is being done
by Nuru, which sets up micro-businesses of people who charge lights / phones /
radios using a pedal powered generator. Those generators are really simple,
last a long time and they are set up right from the start to provide an income
source for the owner.

That said, smartphones aren't really viable for the 'villagers' for a while
still, charging every day really isn't practical even with something like
that, it is just too expensive. But there are still a ton more just above them
that live in more urban environment where electricity is available, and for
them cheap smartphones can really change things.

------
alex_c
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>

~~~
xyzzyz
Not that bad, but only with US salary. Take into account average family income
in Kenya.

~~~
true_religion
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
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.

------
LeonB
Why no mention of that badly photoshopped image of the girl supposedly holding
the phone?

[http://singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan....](http://singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/07/Kenyan.jpg)

Beneath which they say 'Hwawei's IDEOS smartphone' -- meaning Huawei.

------
MikeW
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!

------
caller9
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
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
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.

------
tuxguy
Some insightful discussion @ Berkeley TIER's mailing list

[https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-Augu...](https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tier/2011-August/003045.html)

------
ww520
Does anyone know of a cheap Android phone that can run Flash 10.1 comfortably?

~~~
nikcub
my $3400 macbook doesn't run Flash comfortably

------
ZeroGravitas
The computer for the rest of us?

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

------
superuser2
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
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.

------
r00fus
$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
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
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
If you buy a phone outright you still have to pay the same high monthly rates.

~~~
anigbrowl
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.

