Vodacom's summer sales success is being pegged on its newest 'Smart' range of devices that will go on sale nationwide on 1 October.
Vodacom unveiled the three new low-cost smartphones and a new tablet today at its head office in Midrand as part of its strategy to get more smartphones into the hands of South African consumers.
"We are betting our summer on this," says Vodacom chief commercial officer, Godfrey Motsa.
He says historically Vodacom has sold more non-smartphones, but this trend is changing and now Smart devices have surpassed non-smartphones as best sellers for the network.
"We have approximately 12 million active smartphones on our network, up from nine million a year ago," says Motsa.
"The average amount of data used per smartphone in South Africa increased 24.8% to 408MB per month. The contributors to the uptake of smart devices and increasing data consumption are more affordable smart devices, wider coverage and our integrated plans which offer data bundles at competitive prices, enabling more and more people to connect to the Internet," says Motsa.
Vodacom's new range includes smart devices for both 3G and 4G networks, but it says it is pushing to have more 4G devices in the local market. Motsa says the strategy is not only to make cheap smartphones but rather high quality phones at low-price points.
The new range's cheapest phone is the 3G-enabled Smart Grand for R1 099, while the flagship 4G phone, the Smart Ultra 6, retails for R3 199.
Vodacom's managing executive for terminals, Davide Tacchino, says the success of the Smart range launched last year has given the operator ambitious hopes for sales of the new range.
"Since August 2014, we sold over 2.1 million Vodacom-branded handsets and tablets."
He says of these, around one million were sales of the entry-level 3G Smart Kicka, which retailed at R499. Tacchino says the ambition is to sell even more smart devices this year, and the new branded range "has been extended to compete in all categories, not only the entry-level smartphone and tablet category".
"It's no secret South Africans are data-hungry and there is an increasing need for smart devices. I'm confident that our own branded smart range, partnered with our propositions and world-class network, is well positioned to provide the best mobile experience to customers."
Motsa says Vodacom's strategy of putting smart data-capable devices into the hands of more customers is part of its commitment to democratising access to the Internet.
"We need to make sure no one is left behind by the data revolution," adds Motsa.
Smart family specs
Vodacom Smart Ultra 6, smartphone
5.5-inch full HD IPS display, Octa-core chipset, Android 5.0 Lollipop and 13MP premium rear camera and 5MP front
Prepaid: R3 199
Postpaid: Vodacom Smart Ultra 6 + 1GB data x three months + Top Dog voucher @ R199 per month on uChoose Flexi 110
Vodacom Smart Grand, entry 5-inch smartphone
5-inch TN FWVGA, MTK6580M, Quad core 1.3GHz CPU, Android 5.1 Lollipop
Prepaid: R1 099
Postpaid: Vodacom Smart Grand 6 black + m-pesa card + Top dog @ R89 per month on uChoose Flexi 55
Vodacom Smart Speed, entry LTE smartphone
4.5-inch full wide VGA display with 854x480 pixel resolution, and Android 5.1 Lollipop, 5MP camera
Prepaid: R1 299
Postpaid: Vodacom Smart Speed 6 black + m-pesa card + Top dog voucher @ R99 per month on uChoose Flexi 55
Vodacom Power Tab 10, 10-inch tablet
10.1-inch IPS WXGA, 10 point multi-touch, MTK 8311, Dual core 1.3GHz CPU, Android 5.1 Lollipop
Prepaid: R1 799
Postpaid: Vodacom Power Tab with Bluetooth keyboard + Top dog voucher @ R99 per month on the 250MB data price plan
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