South Africans in debt for smartphones
Mark Taylor, CEO of Nashua Mobile, says a portion of the group’s customers actively seek financing to purchase the smartphones they aspire to own.
“The factor that I would single out as perhaps the most important trend of 2012, is the rapid move of smartphones into the mainstream. In the process, they have brought easy, personal access to services such as the web, social networking, email and instant messaging to many South Africans for the first time,” Taylor said.
According to Strategy Analytics, one billion people around the world – or one in seven people – today carry smartphones compared to 708 million in the third quarter of 2011.
Adoption in South Africa has been just as impressive, with a World Wide Worx study earlier this year showing that around 10 million smartphones have been sold in South Africa to date.
World Wide Worx also notes that the average user’s cellphone spend on data has increased by half in the past 18 months – from 8% of budget at the end of 2010 to 12% in mid-2012.
“This shows that smartphones are slowly starting to deliver on their promise of closing the digital gap between those who can afford PCs and ADSL lines, and those of more modest means,” the chief executive said.
According to Nashua Mobile, one reason why smartphones are becoming such an attractive option is the fall in local data tariffs over the past three years.
“From our side, we are seeing massive uptake of smartphones among our subscribers. It is interesting to see that many users are looking for financing to purchase the smartphones they aspire to own.”
“In some cases, these are users wanting to buy latest devices from Samsung or Apple. In other instances, the requests for financing come from people who really want to take up the technology for the first time so that they can be connected to the Internet and all the services and benefits it offers.”
“It’s encouraging to see this adoption, but smartphone penetration is still very low – one in five, if that much. So the challenge that we face as the telecoms industry for the next year is we will get even more of these devices in the hands of the consumer at an affordable price,” Taylor said.
The company lead said that falling device prices may help – we’re seeing talk of sub-$40 Android handsets – but innovative financing models will be important.
“It will also be critical for the industry to package more flat-rate data services that make prices affordable and transparent to the end-user. If we get these factors right, smartphones could within a few years become as pervasive as cellphones are today,” the CEO said.
Related article
SA’s real mobile penetration revealed
BlackBerry and Nokia dominate SA smartphone market
Nashua Mobile partners with Look & Listen
Loading ...