Africell, and KaiOS today launched the afriphone, a 3G smart feature phone in the Gambia and Sierra Leone, and will also be made available in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Africell and KaiOS’s afriphone will have essential and popular apps like WhatsApp, the Google Assistant, Facebook, YouTube, and Google Maps, and an Africell’s customer care app.
It will also come with other smartphone-level features such as Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and offers a hybrid dual-SIM slot that supports two SIM cards with 512MB memory + 256MB RAM. It also boasts a powerful battery which enables extended hours of talk time.
Ziad Dalloul, Africell Chairman and CEO stated that :“As a digital company, Africell provides a link between yesterday and tomorrow. Our network gives everyone the freedom to be and to do what they want. People of all generations and from all walks of life can shine with the powerful tools Africell offers. We listen to the young generation, and we are committed to helping them shape the best future. Introducing this smart feature phone will help us bring valuable digital services and information to the markets we operate in at a price that people can afford.”
KaiOS enables a new category of affordable smart feature phones that require limited memory, while still offering a rich user experience. KaiOS-enabled phones come with the KaiStore, the only app store for feature phones, with over two hundred essential apps from global and local content providers. KaiOS is now the third largest mobile operating system worldwide, running on over 100 million devices shipped across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
“We’re excited for this brand new KaiOS-powered device from Africell, which will help us continue spreading mobile internet in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Sebastien Codeville, CEO of KaiOS Technologies. “The afriphone will have an immediate impact on people’s lives across the region, offering an inexpensive and convenient means of accessing the internet’s invaluable resources including education, banking, and healthcare for the first time. We are, and will be continuing our journey to enable a sustainable ecosystem by bringing in relevant apps and services that are designed to benefit people in emerging markets.”