Global Phone vendors target 20percent growth from Africa

Wednesday, 31st August, 2011

The world’s new mobile phone subscribers will come from sub-Saharan Africa largely driven by rising income levels, a top industry operator said last week.

Mary McDowell, the Nokia executive vice-president for mobile phones, told a briefing in Nairobi, Kenya that as telecom operators continue to expand their networks, they will provide device vendors like Nokia and Samsung with new territory to grow numbers. She said telecom operators strategy to partner with device vendors to develop and bring in cheap devices in large volumes would lead to a 20% by 2015.

Nokia has unveiled the Nokia 100 and 101 series that the company hopes will push penetration. The 100 series costs between $30 and $35. The company was pushed by competition to make double line phones as the mainly counterfeit double line devices from Asia ate away its market share.

"The consumer is always right," said McDowell conceding that a few years ago, Nokia had said they would not make double line phones.

By David Mugabe: The New Vision Newspaper