At last, technology that specifically targets African needs

Many global manufacturers point to Africa as the next big growth market, with its own unique appeal - and then target the continent with the same cut-and-paste products that appear on shelves the world over.

But this week's launch by Samsung Electronics of a range of new products - and the way they will be marketed - signalled a shift in thinking.

The company's annual Africa Forum, held this year in Antalya, Turkey, introduced the slogan "One Beat".

This, said SY Hong, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics Africa, embodied the spirit of overcoming challenges and moving towards a vision of togetherness across the continent.

Vice-president and chief operating officer George Ferreira said Samsung had researched how people in Africa bought and used products. "We work hard to understand what people need and want. And then we push the limits of what technology can do to deliver this. The products on display embody this way of thinking and offer our African consumers solutions through new experiences and aspirational products."

The forum provided a sales school of sorts for delegates, highlighting the various opportunities in the African retail landscape and ways to optimise sales by studying African consumer purchase behaviour.

The African focus of the event was underlined by overviews of Samsung's Digital Village and Solar Powered Internet School, initiatives geared towards "uplifting communities and creating sustainable education systems", the company said.

It showcased its Electronics Academy, a four-year-old initiative aimed at developing skills in the industry in parallel to what Hong referred to as "meeting consumer needs and passions".

It was no surprise that the hi-tech highlights of the event were not smartphones but TVs, fridges and washing machines.

It displayed the new SUHD TV, a proprietary Samsung version of ultrahigh-definition TV. It doesn't expect to ship vast quantities of the flagship model in this range, but the 88-inch JS9500 TV - the price has yet to be announced - with its curved screen and eco-friendly nanocrystal display is expected to be aspirational on an aesthetic and environmental level.

"SUHD TV's nanocrystal technology transmits different colours of light depending on their size to produce the highest colour purity and light efficiency available today," the company said. "This technology provides viewers with 64 times more colour expression than conventional TVs."

Four new series of SUHD TVs sold in Africa will introduce features tailor-made to match the lifestyles of users in the region.

For example, African Cinema Mode is designed to enhance locally produced African cinematic content, with a feature called Ultra Clean View creating crisper picture quality. More TV Plus offers easy content transfer from other devices, whereas Review uses minimal resources to record TV programmes by capturing still images every five seconds, but with full audio.

Add a refrigerator designed to keep food fresh for longer, a washing machine that includes a built-in sink with water jets and scrubbing surface to turn the machine into a one-stop laundry unit, and new approaches to airconditioning for quicker cooling with lower energy, and it becomes clear that selling technology to Africa does not have to be a one-size-fits-all marketing effort.

Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee