Technology is changing the world and narrowing the gap between developed and developing nation around the globe. In some cases poorer nations have been able to skip current technologies to embrace emerging technologies. A good example of this is how third world countries had rapid acceptance of mobile services as they skipped over fixed lines of communications. With new smartphones rapidly becoming the norm it is not too big a leap to see that developing markets will also accept these powerful devices readily because they allow the use if the internet and other computing function at much lower costs than regular computers. With this in mind, Microsoft is aiming for the 1 billion residents of the African content with it Windows Phone operating system. The world’s largest software manufacturer is teaming up with Huawei to bring to market the Huawei 4Afrika smartphone that will cost $150. The new device will go up against feature phones that have dominated the market for quite some time.
The new product is a Huawei Ascend with several changes to fit the market. It has a four-inch display, 4GB of storage along with a dual-core processor. Huawei 4Afrika will be available in blue, red, black, and white.
The introduction of the smartphone is one move from Microsoft’s as part of its Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative and the over all battle for consumers. The initiative wants to create more Africans that use the internet daily on their mobile devices. The Huawei hardware will help in this regard because it provides a platform that its offers both call services along with the ability to get online with out having a physical line infrastructure. In turn as more Africans started going on line they will buy the Windows phone devices benefiting Microsoft and its hardware partners.
Microsoft International president, Jean-Philippe Courtois, claimed that, “We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to technology — particularly cloud services and smart devices — can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness.”
The new Huawei 4Afrika is targeting specific countries and will be available in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa by the end of February. If the initiative is successful, Microsoft may develop a stronghold in a marketplace that is fast emerging as a new technology frontier. This could help the company take on competitors like Apple who are more focused on the higher end of the market.
Source: Venture Beat
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