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16 Aug 2011 20:10

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Tech, World: A growing market: Kenyans buying $80 Android phones left and right

  • This isn’t the fastest Android phone you can buy. Nor does it have the largest screen — in fact, at 2.8 inches, it’s downright tiny. And battery life is reportedly so short that it can cause problems for those without nearby electrical sources. But the Huawei IDEOS has a major advantage for Kenyan consumers — it costs just $80 without a contract. The result? In a country where 4 in 10 people live on less than $2 per day, they’ve sold in the hundreds of thousands. The moral of the story? There is a huge market in the developing world for phones like these — region-specific apps, too. Other companies, including Apple, are rumored to be trying for this market. But can they hit an $80 price point with their phones? That’s the real question. source