Business
The Africa Report Special Feature: iPads versus locally made tablets
These kinds of innovations pave the path for more Africa-based technologies. “Could the next Google come from Africa?” asks Richard Tanksley, entrepreneur and senior faculty member at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, reports the Guardian, a British daily.
He believes “There is so much focus on Africa as a place to invest and to build businesses … and there is no reason why you couldn’t have multi-million dollar software companies coming out of here”.
Smartphones and Tablets for Africa
Early 2012, excitement greeted news that Vérone Mankou, the 26-year old entrepreneur from the Republic of Congo, has designed Africa’s first smartphone and a tablet, the hand-held computer that comes with a touch screen. Mankou’s tech company, VMK, designed the sleek smartphone and tablet, which was originally conceived in 2006 as an affordable computer to give Africans access to Internet.
The devices run on Google’s Android software and are assembled in China, making some technology analysts question Mankou’s assertion that these were the first African touch pad tablet and smartphone. In response to such criticism, Mankou writes on his website, “We are somewhat offended by the disregard of those who persist in denying the authentication of our products, despite evidence.”
To reinforce the Made-in-Africa claim, Mankou named his smartphone Elikia, for “hope” in Congolese Lingala dialect. The official name for the tablet is Way-C, and it comes with wireless internet connectivity and four gigabytes of internal storage. Elikia has rear and forward-facing cameras and a 3.5in (8.9cm) screen, 512MB of RAM, and a 650MHz processor.
Mankou plans to sell the devices across African countries as well as in Belgium, France and India. VMK’s smartphone will have to compete against established brands such as Blackberry and Nokia, while the tablet has to face Apple’s iPad, Samsung Galaxy and others.
About his smartphone, Mankou says, “We wanted to place on the market a quality smartphone with the same capacities as the others, while ensuring that it’s a product which is accessible to all.” Mankou hopes to rely on pan-African sentiments. There appears to be an increasing desire among some in Africa to support homegrown products.
