$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes In Kenya 205
kkleiner writes "Earlier this year, the Chinese firm Huawei unveiled IDEOS through Kenya's telecom titan, Safaricom. So far, this $80 smartphone has found its way into the hands of 350,000+ Kenyans, an impressive sales number in a country where 40% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. The smartphone is the exemplar of a truly liberating device, and thanks to Android and Huawei, it has the potential to reach virtually untapped markets."
Re:Africans are idiots. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, they tried when people were peddling import substitution. Then they realized that it was costing a whole lot of money, that what was being made was of poorer quality and more expensive than what was available abroad. And the whole world eventually learned good economics and saw that it was not a good idea to try to manufacture everything at home. So, now, people in Africa are quite happy to buy what the Chinese sell them and actually put their resources to good use. Which means that they typically don't try to create their own technology.
Neither do the Chinese by the way. Most of the heavy lifting in still done in other countries (primarily USA and Europe). The Chinese still by and large take existing designs and build them to order, assemble things that were manufactured elsewhere, and make shoddy copies that are touted as great innovations for nationalistic purposes (the Loongson CPU for instance).
To be fair they're trying to move up the value chain. They've been spending a lot on R&D, but we'll have to see how that translates into results that can be profitably put on the market. But they're still very far from the technological frontier. They're having a good run with catch-up growth and it's smart to prepare for the future but, for now, China's comparative advantage will still be manufacturing for the foreseeable future. I'm skeptical that China's current political environment can sustain the kind of dynamics that are very useful to get innovation. Somehow it doesn't seem very conducive to innovation to have to worry about what the Thought Police thinks you're up to, to have to deal with bureaucrats and a very top-down style of economic policy, not to be able to freely communicate with others (including foreigners) or move about your own country, etc.
Thought experiment time. (Score:0, Insightful)
Gitonga is a self-employed Kenyan farmer. He takes out a loan and invests in an $80 phone. He can now reach a larger market and increases his annual gross income by $300.
Richard is an American business owner. He takes out a loan and invests $80k in his truck fleet. He can now reach a larger market and increases his annual gross income by $300k.
Apparently, one of these two men inherently dumber than the other by merit of being black.