Dialing up for Africa

Africa is the new frontier for smartphone growth, say analysts, but that growth will be driven by more than just fancy features and improved cameras.

As manufacturers and operators push for the next wave of upgrades, there are a number of parallel developments that are aiding technological growth spurts.

Economies of scale and greater demand mean the cost of smartphones is dropping while their processing power is steadily increasing.

The ideal price envisioned for most smartphones is about $50, down from $100 a few years ago.

Analysts predict that once this price target is the norm, sales will radically increase.

"We think more than 50% of smartphone sales will come from emerging markets in the next few years," said Dominique Friedl, business development director at Qualcomm.

Qualcomm designs the processors in smartphones, which are used in handsets from Sony, some BlackBerries, all of Nokia's Lumias and all the new Windows Phone 8 devices being developed by Samsung, Nokia, HTC and Huawei.

Another great positive for the smartphone market is that while feature phones tend to use older, second-generation networks for voice calls, smartphones are 3G, data-consuming devices that are more like mini-computers than phones.

"'Why are you investing all this money in 3G and still selling 2G phones?' we ask operators. You're leaving money on the table," said James Munn, Qualcomm's vice-president of business development.

Besides working with top-end companies, Qualcomm designs and gives away smartphone blueprints to so-called white-label manufacturers - manufacturers who rebrand a service or product another company has developed.

A few years ago, Qualcomm's high-end processors were only seen in the most expensive smartphones. Now those very same computer chips are appearing in $50 handsets, said Friedl.

Consumers are interested in what they can do with these mobile wonders - but they also want locally relevant content.

"People who have smartphones are not using them, not to their full potential," Friedl said.

"The key is the untapped market in LSM 4 to 7."

The focus in Africa, he believes, needs to be putting smartphones into the hands of this demographic, but the value offered to such users needs to be clear.

"Africa is different. If you want to take money out of a person's wallet, you have to give them value for money," said Friedl.

"Not just the internet, but applications that will improve their lives."