Business
Seemahale Telecoms: An African company building an African smartphone for Africa’s needs
Those features, says Lehlokoe, are must-haves on a continent where a relative lack of home computers or fixed-line telephones means most people interact with the Internet from their cell phones.
“Longevity of the battery is very important, given our target market. It’s not people who have access to power all the time,” Lehlokoe said.
Africa already has at least 600 million cell phones, but the billion-strong population is growing rapidly, as are incomes, and governments are promoting connectivity in the hope that it can speed up delivery of education and health services.
Seemahale has yet to receive any pre-orders – the devices are still undergoing regulatory tests – but Lehlokoe said one South African operator was already testing the phone and another was interested. The phones are designed to be rebranded by operators, with their own logos.
The components will come from Taiwan and China, but the phones will come part-assembled for the first few months, until factory workers are more familiar with the production process.
Eventually, Lehlokoe says, Seemahale has the capacity for a monthly output of 150,000 smartphones or the 10.1-inch tablets that it also intends to produce, retailing for 3,500 rand (US$362).
But even an output of 5,000 devices per month could mean 50 to 100 new jobs.
Being prepared to take small orders might give Seemahale an edge in selling to smaller firms that lack the purchasing power of the big mobile operators to secure discounts from the bigger manufacturers.
