Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Mara Group has launched two first made-in-Africa smartphones – Mara X and Mara Z – as part of its efforts to support Rwanda’s ambitions to become a technology hub in the region. Both of the mobile devices apply Google’s Android operating system and cost $190 and $130, respectively.
According to Ashish Thakkar, Mara Group’s CEO, the new Android-OS smartphones are targeting customers who prefer quality over the price. Even though the set prices are much more expensive than the Samsung smartphone that only costs $54, the smartphone manufacturing company is confident with the quality.
“We are actually the first who are doing manufacturing. We are making the motherboards, we are making the sub-boards during the entire process. There are over 1,000 pieces per phone,” said Thakkar told Reuters.
The launching ceremony was attended by Rwandan President, Paul Kagame. The President alongside Mara Group officially launched the two smartphones on Monday, October 7th. The President hopes that the new phones will grow Rwanda’s smartphone usage.
“Rwandans are already using smartphones but we want to enable many more. The introduction of Mara phones will put smartphones ownership within reach of more Rwandans,” said the President, quoted from Africa Feeds.
The production of the Maraphones officially started in April. It had cost $24 million and made about 1,200 units per day, as stated by the company. According to the company officials, the smartphones run Android Oreo with optimized apps like Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite, and YouTube Go.
Source: Reuters.com and Africafeeds.com
