African company VMK officially launches first African-designed tablet and smartphone

Verone Mankou with his Way-C tablet. PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images

A tablet and smartphone said to be the first designed by an African company have been officially launched.

The products, designed by Congolese entrepreneur Verone Mankou.

The devices built by his company VMK, will run on Google’s android operating system and will retail at US$170 for the smartphone and US$300 for the tablet.

“Only Africans can know what Africa needs, Apple is huge in the United States, while Samsung is huge in Asia, and we want VMK to be huge in Africa,” said Mankou at the Tech4Africa conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The tablet supports WiFi connectivity and 4 gigabytes of internal storage. Its name, Way-C, means “the light of the stars” in a dialect of northern Congo and measures 19 x 17 x 1.2 centimetres (7.4 x 6.7 x O.5 inches) and weighs 380 grammes (13.4 ounces)

The smartphone has rear and forward facing cameras and a 8.9 centimeters (3.5 inch) screen.

There are plans to sell the devices across 10 other West African countries as well as India, Belgium and France.

Mankou revealed that VMK is in the process of developing a cheaper tablet which will be available for students in 2013.