A fewyears after ChineseOEMs started focusingon the Nigerian smartphone market–ending the Blackberry era and ushering in theAndroid revolution–things have really changed and Nigeria can now boastto bethe largest mobile market in Africa. Just afterTecno Mobile revolutionized itsbusinessand ventured into the smartphonemarket, Android OS smartphones becameaccessible to a lot ofaverage Nigerians at a time when Blackberry’s market sharewas atits peak.
Fast forward to the present, the competition is getting evenmore tightwith Infinix, Innjoo, Oppsson, Wiko and othercompanies trying towin the heart ofNigerians. New smartphonesranging fromlow-end devices tohigh-end gadgets are released into the marketevery now and then.
Butthe questionis this: Do thesecompanies really know what Nigerians want?
Judging with the new devices in the market now, it is obvious that some know exactly what Nigerians want and fashion their products based on thesebasic needs. An average Nigerian don’t really know what NFC does and don’t really care if a smartphonehas it. Even peopleusing smartphoneswith NFC enabled hardly use it.
Wetake a look at the 7 basic featuresan average Nigerian cares for in a smartphone.
1. Battery
In a country with a world record epileptic power supply, any smartphone with an efficientand strong battery that can last the whole day is automatically a winner. This is socrucial that most peoplewould never go for a devicewith a weak battery evenif all thefeaturesin the world are packed into it with a very cheap price.
Also read: 5 Tips to Prolong your Smartphone’s Battery Life
Nobody likes running out of batterywhen power supply isn’t even guaranteed. It’s eitherthe batteryis strong, or the phone comeswith a power bank.
2. Camera
I’ve come to realize that an average Nigerian wants to hear stuffslike 13Mp, 16MP… it seemsthose huge numbers are magical. Whether thecamera has a Carl Zeisslens isn’t important, and I’m not sure an average Nigerian knows what Optical Image Stabilization means.
As long as the resolution sounds prettyhuge and the produced image is clear and sharp, thesmartphone is likely to sell.
3. Durability
The truthis that nobody wants to buy a smartphonethat won’t withstand abuse. People want phonesthat can be dropped mistakenlyand still work.
Also read: 10 Tips to Fully Utilize and Optimize your Android Smartphone
4. Speed & Performance
At this point, a phonethat isn’t fast enough isn’t for an average person. Almost everyone usesFacebook, WhatsApp an BBM all at once. A smartphone should be able to run thesebasic apps simultaneously and conveniently whetheror not itsa quad-core processor phoneor it’s got 2GB RAM.
Device speed and performance is a very importantfactor.
5. Internal Storageor FreeSD Card
People want enoughspace on their device, a large internal storage meansa lot. And again, if a devicecomes with a free 16GB SD card or more, it’s can be a selling point. No one wants to run out of space. HD movies alone eat a lot of space not to mention “heavy” Android games.
A limited storage that’s not expandable isn’t for Nigerians, trustme.
6. Screen Size
A devicewith a 3.5″ screen? Nah… it’s probably the kind of phoneyou would buy for a kid.
7. Price
Nigeria may now be the largesteconomy in Africa but the truthremains that it’s still a growing economy. The price placed on a devicewill play major role in determining how many units will be sold.
The lower, the better.
Geeksand peoplewho understand the technology behind thesegadgets actually do want morebut theyare not the majority. Will a time come when the majority would prefer a Snapdragon processor to a MediaTek processor? I meana time when people will realize that a huge resolution doesn’t really meangreatpictures? Thatremains to be seen.
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