Kenya’s telecommunication industry will this year realize a revenue of over Sh1 billion in the re sale of smartphones.
According to the Deloitte Technology, Media Telecommunications Predictions report for 2016, one in every five phones that will be sold in 2016 in the Kenyan market will be a second hand phone.
This represents 63 per cent of the average 1.8 million smartphones sold every year. Hence about 1.1 million of the smart phones that will be sold this year will be second hand.
Usually a second hand phone goes for about Sh9, 800 according to online retailer Jumuia. The 63 per cent is represented by 37 per cent who usually sell to a family member, and 26 per cent who have the phone as a spare.
“Given the accumulation of smartphones on peoples’ drawers, in 2016 we expect that in every five phones sold will be a used phone. However, majority of these sales will likely remain in the black market due to lack of a well-established used phones market,” read the report in part.
Only seven percent of Kenyans will trade in their phones for new ones while three per cent will dispose them. Some 20 per cent of the second hand smartphones sold are said to be usually stolen.
However, of all the smartphone users, 10 per cent of them will not make any traditional calls in a given. This is because many will substitute voice calls with a combination of messaging, video services for the over the top service providers.
During the launch of the report, Information Communication Technology Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru challenged manufacturers to come up with innovations that focus on peoples’ needs.
“Technology often fails when it stops addressing the problems that people face. The reason for the explosion of innovations such as WhatsApp, Facebook and M-Pesa was because they were centred on real people and their needs,” said Mucheru.
He added: “The success of these innovations has never been about being the most technically sound, but rather addressing the problem that people face in the simplest and most effective manner.”
