By Ogova Ondego
Published March 5, 2015
French telecommunications operator, Orange, has launched a digital offer for its clients in Africa and Middle East which it says will be a “catalyst for smartphone and data adoption across the region.”
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The Orange Klif digital offer starts from under US$40, inclusive of a smartphone, data, voice and text bundle and thus sets a new benchmark in price.
The 3G Firefox OS smartphone is exclusive to Orange and will be available in Egypt, Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, The Ivory Coast, Jordan, Niger, Kenya, Mauritius and Vanuatu in the second quarter of 2015.
Orange says the launch that it announced in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2, 2015, “follows a successful history in delivering and marketing smartphones in the region with Orange witnessing a doubling of smartphone sales in 2014, representing a 35 percent slice of total handset sales.
Since launching its first smartphone in the region in 2013, Orange has sold more than a million smartphones to date, attributable to Orange’s strategy to launch the right device at the right price to the right customer.” With the Orange Klif digital offer, Orange says it is “addressing a new market segment for the first time that to date, has found access to the mobile internet unaffordable.”
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“Although the smartphone revolution is well under way across the African continent,” Yves Maitre, Orange’s Executive Vice President of Connected Objects and Partnerships, says, “there remains a proportion of the population that so far has been underserved, not just because of the cost of handsets, but because of concerns about data costs. By scooping up all the costs into one, incredibly priced digital offer, we hope that critical access to the mobile internet and all the opportunities that that opens up, will be within reach of many more people.”
The Orange Klif is marketed as promising “an enviable introductory smartphone experience featuring the latest Firefox OS, ample screen size with its 3.5 HVGA screen and 2 mega pixel camera. With its 1300mAh battery offering 810 hours of standby, the smartphone also provides a reliable companion when on the move.”