Did you know? The first smartphone was 'Simon' and could send a fax

The smartphone is gradually replacing the mulika mwizi handset, at least in urban areas, where searching for romance has gone online and friends are made and lost on social media.

Without WhatsApp and other smartphone applications, you’ll be left kwa mataa in terms of social interaction, be it hooking up with blood relations or long-lost schoolmates from Mihang’o Secondary.

The upsurge in the uptake of smartphones in Kenya is a combination of increased purchasing power, increased access to the internet, improved mobile connectivity and the entry of affordable brands to the market.

Just so you know, Kenya’s GDP under the beleaguered Jubilee administration has been growing at 5.8 per cent annually since 2013. That is not to be sniffed at, considering China, the world’s fastest growing economy, is out-pacing everyone at 7 per cent, according to the World Bank that pegs Kenya among the top-five fastest growing economies in the world.

This economic growth (forget the shenanigans surrounding the NYS and Eurobond dough), coupled with competition between cellphone makers and local telcos and our 58 per cent internet penetration- one of the highest in Africa - has seen 83 per cent of Kenyans access mobile phones - the most preferred device in accessing the internet.

But did you know that 1.8 million smartphones were sold in Kenya in 2015, with 750,000 of those in Nairobi alone, according to Sofia Zab, Head of Marketing at Jumia Kenya in a white paper titled, The Growth of Smartphone Market in Kenya, released in June 2015?

The report also notes that Kenyans aged between 24 and 34 (despite earning less) have an appetite for the latest smartphones, while those staggering towards 44 have reduced appetite for smart gadgets, (despite a higher purchasing power).

Did you also know that these smartphones (their steep price tags aside)are more used for chatting and social networking (78 per cent) than calling (75 per cent)?

The most frustrating thing about smartphone use in Kenya are:

Battery about to die (78 per cent), crammed up memory space (47 per cent), and ‘hanging’ (36 per cent). Interestingly, the top-three smartphone purchase drivers are memory (72 per cent), battery life (59 per cent) and camera (56 per cent), not the brand.

The smartphone is making its foray into the Kenyan market now; but did you know that the first smartphone was created by American engineers at IBM in 1994, over 20 years ago?

Nicknamed ‘Simon’, this touchscreen smartphone could send an email, and even fax!