With Android firmly established in the smartphone domain in developed countries, Huawei and others now seem poised to bring such smartphones also to emerging countries, with hardware that has quite a different price point.
$80 for a current IDEOS device from Huawei, a price point that seems afordable to quite an audience for example in Kenya. Erik Hersman, who doesn't only write about tech in Africa but who knows the countries there inside out, reports via links that in Kenya alone 350.000 Ideos smartphones were sold this year alone. Apps with local appeal have sprung up in the meantime and Google is fostering development and thus device take-up. After "less walk more talk" this could very well be the important jump-start required for the second revolution mobile technology brings to emerging countries.
And I wonder how Opera Mini adoption is doing on the Ideos!? For full web access, the browser offers an ideal combination of access to full web pages on low spec (RAM, processor power) smartphones in combination with only 2G EDGE coverage in most places. Not that I would give up Opera Mini on my high end smartphone with 3G network availability in most places as even here, it has its advantages, especially in trains and when roaming. But that's anther story already previously told.