Devices tailor-made for Africa

From solar-powered lights to televisions that can withstand blackouts, big electronics companies are wooing African consumers with products that target local, often challenging, environments.

Samsung Electronics, the largest maker of flat-panel and flat-screen televisions, and memory chips, aims to increase its business in Africa to $10-billion by 2015, a five-fold increase from last year.

"This year we aim to get about $3-billion," said Park Kwang Kee, Samsung's Africa president and CEO.

"Our base is still not as big as on other continents so . our growth rate is higher than [on] the other continents. Other than South Africa, we have shown more than 100% [growth] for the last two years."

The International Monetary Fund predicts that sub-Saharan Africa's economy will grow by 5.5% this year, outpacing all other regions apart from developing Asian markets. Some countries, such as Angola, are likely to achieve double-digit growth.

Africa's population mix, from massive poverty to booming, brand-savvy middle class, offers varied opportunities, despite constraints such as lack of water and electricity, which force an eco-friendly shift.

Nick Kelso, spokesman for Philips Lighting Africa, said: "Africa is seen as increasingly important, with higher economic growth rates than Europe or the US, and with a fast-growing middle class.

"It is important to realise that Africa is not one entity. Peoples and cultures differ widely and this needs to be taken into account when designing product s."

Samsung's dedicated "Built for Africa" range includes the world's first solar-powered netbook and televisions with power-surge protection. This year it will launch an entry-level Galaxy smartphone. The company showed off the products in Cape Town at the weekend.

After opening its Africa headquarters in 2010, the company visited 43 countries to see the environments in which its devices are used and found that durability, efficiency and reliability were crucial.

"We found that the products we were selling to the advanced market don't work as much as we'd expect here in Africa, and the people in the different countries and different continents require different [product] attributes," Park said.

"For example, we found that the failure rate of TVs is almost four times higher than in advanced markets because of power fluctuations."

Roelf Mulder, managing director of South African company XYZ Design, said research was essential to entering the African market.

"Big multinational corporations are saying: How should we design for Africa? The first step is to do research.

"They all want to increase their market share. What is the method for doing that? It's going to be embedded in research."

With more than half of Africa's population without electricity, Philips sees the need for renewable energy solutions and has designed solar-powered home and flood lights.

"When transforming these insights into products, we work with partners on the ground who test and give us feedback. This is essential.

"You cannot do this from outside Africa," said Kelso.

"We believe it's the right time to start to invest in the Africa market, given its population," said Samsung's Park.

"Seventy percent of Africans are under 30 years old - they are our future customers."