Consumers wishing to buy smartphones are increasingly turning to sophisticated needs to push manufacturers into improving features to make competitive phones for their liking.
At the heart of these specifications are higher storage, larger screen size, better camera resolution and 4G network connectivity on their devices. These revelations were made in the 2019 Jumia White Paper.
The paper records that despite the price of smartphones falling, the specifications push brand perception and quality. “This has resulted in brands offering higher specifications at lower pricing by investing in”, reads the report in part.
These specifications create value for Kenyan consumers.
The report further revealed that the average amount spent to purchase a smartphone on the platform in 2014 stood at about sh18, 600 which reduced to sh9,700 in 2016 and sh8,600 in 2018. It added that the rise of affordable entry-level devices from brands continues to remain a key driver of smartphone adoption
Some of the brands selling entry-level phones include Huawei, Neon Kicka 4 and Xiaomi among others.
These specifications and needs by Kenyans see them spend most of their time on WhatsApp, followed by Facebook then Twitter at 74 per cent, 70 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.
The white paper puts the number of social media users at 8.2 million who spend at least three hours a day on the different social media platforms.
According to the state of mobile data by Nendo, Kenyans use their internet connectivity and mobile data bundles to access news, information, entertainment and various services including search with Google being Kenya’s most-visited website and most-frequently used search engine, Sport with Sports betting company SportPesa has been the most “Googled” word by Kenyans every year from 2016 to 2018 and social with Facebook is the second-most-visited website in Kenya and the largest social media site with over 8.5 million users.
In addition, sex is very high as Kenya has two adult websites in its top 10 most-visited sites. This is greater than any other East and Central African country. Finally, the country has a growing appetite for content spanning news, entertainment and video.
Data on the number of Kenyans who access the internet continues to be contentious. Communications Authority of Kenya puts internet connectivity, at a penetration rate of 84 per cent with 43.3 million of the total population having access to the Internet in Kenya. However, Google only identifies 13 million active internet users in the country.
In a surprising revelation, the white paper says that better internet coverage across the country has also led to the growth of mobile content in Swahili, with the number of mobile apps in the language increasing from 5,000 in 2014 to almost 30,000 in 2017.
