The Rise of the Low End Smartphones

Watch out Samsung and Apple! Unless you’re joining the low end smartphones production, you will be left behind. Nokia is launching a low end smartphone, and it’s going to have an Android Operating System (OS)! That’s not all, however, because HTC is also joining the crowd in a bid to gain back a percentage of the market share. The scene is getting crowded because phone giants have realised that there is a high demand for smartphones due to data hungry consumers who are hunting for the best deal as opposed to a brand name.

We can correlate this disruptiveness to the automobile industry. Think Mercedes Benz and BMW. Now think Toyota, then Hyundai and eventually Kia. Get the point?

According to Engadget, Nokia is reportedly unveiling its low-end Android phone this month. The phone currently nicknamed Normandy, will be unveiled later this month at Mobile World Congress. Details of how much the phone will cost have not yet been released.

In addition, HTC has revealed that it is turning to cheaper smartphones for profits after losing out in 2013. “The problem with us last year was we only concentrated on our flagship. We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market,” said co-founder and Chairwoman Cher Wang. A Reuters report states that HTC is seeking to reverse a two year sales slump matched by an 80 per cent drop in its share price.

Early this month, on February 5, we revealed that MTN South Africa had launched a high performance phone which they have dubbed as the “the most affordable smartphone ever.” And to top it all off, MTN will be offering Steppa-specific prepaid products such as email and messaging bundles to make it suit your pocket as well… well, only if you are currently in South Africa. The phone retails for approximately $50  which is equivalent to about K275.

With all this hype surrounding smartphone penetration as the future of telecommunications, we predict that Zambian companies will soon catch up by launching similar products or at least importing them non-exclusively.

Image credit: @evleaks