Xiaomi launches in Africa next month through Mobile in Africa

[cirr]

Xiaomi launches in Africa next month through Mobile in Africa

August 25, 2015
http://androidcommunity.com/xiaomi-...ough-mobile-in-africa-20150825/#disqus_thread

Ida Torres

The top mobile phone brand in China will finally arrive in the fastest growing mobile region for the past five years. This September, Xiaomi will finally reach the sub-Saharan African region as the Chinese brand will now be distributed by Mobile in Africa Limited to 50 countries across the continent. This is part of their brand expansion beyond their homeland, trying to get an even bigger share of the worldwide mobile pie and probably scaring their closest competitors in the process.

According to RJ van Spaandonk the president of Mobile in Africa and a renowkned tech entrepreneur, Xiaomi may very well meet the needs of the emerging middle class in Africa, as it is one of the most exciting brands in the industry right now. And having a presence in sub-Saharan Africa is strategically timely as it has been called the fastest-growing region in terms of both subscribers and connections. Last June 2014, there were 329 million recorded unique subscribers and 608 million connections, signaling a 38% penetration rate.

Xiaomi has made a name for itself by creating nice looking handsets with quality specs but selling it at a very affordable rate. They actually earn money from the apps and game store that they push on the consumers. Last year, they were number three in global sales, just behind Samsung and Apple. They are actually not directly available in other regions outside of Asia, although they do sell accessories and peripherals.

For their initial venture into Africa, two handsets will be available when they launch: the $160 Red Mi 2 and the $320 Mi 4. Mobile in Africa will be setting up 14 online stores across the region, which is the same sales strategy that Xiaomi has applied as part of their success in China.

Xiaomi launches in Africa next month through Mobile in Africa - Android Community

Let's sell tens of millions of Chinese brand smartphones in Africa。

 

[TaiShang]

Xiaomi launches in Africa next month through Mobile in Africa

August 25, 2015

Ida Torres

The top mobile phone brand in China will finally arrive in the fastest growing mobile region for the past five years. This September, Xiaomi will finally reach the sub-Saharan African region as the Chinese brand will now be distributed by Mobile in Africa Limited to 50 countries across the continent. This is part of their brand expansion beyond their homeland, trying to get an even bigger share of the worldwide mobile pie and probably scaring their closest competitors in the process.

According to RJ van Spaandonk the president of Mobile in Africa and a renowkned tech entrepreneur, Xiaomi may very well meet the needs of the emerging middle class in Africa, as it is one of the most exciting brands in the industry right now. And having a presence in sub-Saharan Africa is strategically timely as it has been called the fastest-growing region in terms of both subscribers and connections. Last June 2014, there were 329 million recorded unique subscribers and 608 million connections, signaling a 38% penetration rate.

Xiaomi has made a name for itself by creating nice looking handsets with quality specs but selling it at a very affordable rate. They actually earn money from the apps and game store that they push on the consumers. Last year, they were number three in global sales, just behind Samsung and Apple. They are actually not directly available in other regions outside of Asia, although they do sell accessories and peripherals.

For their initial venture into Africa, two handsets will be available when they launch: the $160 Red Mi 2 and the $320 Mi 4. Mobile in Africa will be setting up 14 online stores across the region, which is the same sales strategy that Xiaomi has applied as part of their success in China.

Xiaomi launches in Africa next month through Mobile in Africa - Android Community

Let's sell tens of millions of Chinese brand smartphones in Africa。

That's a great market to tap into. And China, as the world's largest developmentalist nation, is more than welcome to strengthen relations with African nations.

***

Huawei leads new efforts to develop cable infrastructure in Africa
By Olusegun Abolaji Ogundeji, IDG News Service

Due to increasing need for bandwidth, cable infrastructure in Africa is being upgraded, and China-based Huawei Technologies is involved in some of the bigger projects.

Stakeholders in the West Africa Cable System (WACS) Consortium will be upgrading the fiber cable using Huawei Marine Networks, a joint venture between Huawei Technologies and Global Marine Systems.

The approximately 16,000 kilometer-long cable is owned by 17 international telecom carriers in Africa and Europe. According to Telecom Namibia’s WACS project engineer, Sevelus Nakashole, the initial phase of the project will upgrade will upgrade the cable from its current 10Gbps capacity to 100Gbps by June 2015.

The WACS consortium opted for the system’s upgrade because of a huge uptake of bandwidth since it was launched in May 2012.

The decision to upgrade the cable was taken last week at a five-day meeting in Namibia last week. Telecom companies from South Africa, Botswana, Angola, DRC, Congo Brazaville, Cameroon, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde Islands, Spain, Portugal, U.K., India and Canada were represented at the meeting.

The WACS landing station in Namibia also provides transit for landlocked countries like Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, hence the growing importance of the facility for West and Southern African countries.

In addition, Huawei Marine last week won a contract from the Equatorial Guinea government to build the Ceiba-2 Submarine Cable System, designed to let the country connect to larger submarine cable systems including WACS, SAT-3, and Main One by the fourth quarter of 2015.

The project will also provide restoration or redundancy routes for existing traffic on Ceiba-1, the direct link between Malabo and Bata, and the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable branch to Bata.

Earlier this month at Mobile World Congress, Ghana’s first LTE operator, Surfline Communications, announced a US$40million deal with Huawei to expand its services to Ghanaian cities that have a growing number of data users.

Surfline said the project, once completed, will let it boast of over 700 cell sites. Surfline had earlier worked with Alcatel-Lucent to commercially launch its 4G LTE service.