New entrant to take on Tecno, Huawei with low cost smartphones

NAIROBI: New mobile phone company Obi Mobiles has entered the Kenyan market in a move that is likely to stoke competition in the country’s growing smartphone market. Obi Mobiles, a new phone brand co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley has picked Nairobi as its point of entry into the African market and is targeting a 10 per cent market share over the next 10 months.

“Obi Mobiles is of the belief that smart phones should be accessible to all and users should not compromise good phone features for lower price points,” said Mr Amit Rupchandani, Obi’s managing director for the Middle East and African region.

PREMIUM FEATURES

Mr Rupchandani states that Obi Mobile leverages on the founders’ connections and experience from the Silicon Valley to deliver low-cost mobile phones with premium features.

“Today users are using their phones for much more functions than they did 10 years ago and we are telling consumers that they do not have to sacrifice innovative design and functionality because of the price point,” he said. “The East African market and Kenya in particular has shown tremendous appetite for smart phones and we are looking to ride on partnerships with mobile service providers, supermarket chains and aggressive marketing to have a double digit market share in the country by year’s end,” said Mr Farouk Jivali, CEO of Despec Africa which is the local Obi Mobile vendor.

Obi Mobile will be available over a variety of six brands retailing between Sh7,000 and Sh25,000. The launch of Obi Mobile in the country is the latest move in the smart phone industry where phone vendors are unveiling low-cost smart phones that appeal to the youth and users, moving away from feature phones.

Phone makers like Huawei and Tecno Mobile have consistently introduced low-cost brands in a bid to claw some market share from rivals Samsung and Nokia that have traditionally dominated the market.