Even as the race to upgrade to a smartphone heats up and more and more Kenyans ditch feature phones for them, there’s still a huge market for just phones, regardless of their capabilities. This is the market segment that is being served by Wiko’s Lubi feature phones, the Nokia 105, 230 and others, the Tecno T series and even, surprisingly, options from new entrant BLU. To keep up with these and as a way of following up last year’s success story, Telkom Kenya has once again partnered with iTel to release Kaduda 2.0.
Kaduda 2.0 is an upgrade to last year’s Kaduda phone which was a surprise hit in the market, further underscoring the need for very cheap mobile phones all over the country.
As with the first generation Kaduda, Kaduda 2.0 is a dual-SIM mobile phone. It packs a 1,200mAh battery that should last several days on a single charge. It goes for Kshs 1,100.
It does not end at the Kaduda for Telkom Kenya, formerly Orange Kenya. The end game is to have as many users on its network using smartphones hence increased demand for other services like data which Telkom Kenya or any other telco for that matter should be happy to provide. To that end, it is using entry-level smartphones like the Alcatel Pixi 3 and the Nokia Lumia 435 to lure them thanks to their cheap pricing.
According to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya, the industry regulator, Telkom Kenya saw its market share grow to 12.4% up from 11.8% last December. Devices like the Kaduda are part and parcel of its strategy to net more users and thus increase its market share. They are also key in increasing the country’s mobile phone penetration which currently stands at 88%.
