Hmm… Why would MTN come up with its own smartphone? Does it think it knows the phone business and the African consumer enough to develop a smartphone for its consumers?
With the development of the MTN Steppa Smartphone, MTN is indeed saying that it knows the consumer well enough to develop a specific phone for him.
The MTN Steppa smartphone is a white label Qualcomm reference design, featuring a 3.5-inch screen, 512MB of RAM, an FM radio and a 1,300mAh battery which is specced to last for up to 627 minutes of talk time. It also features Google Play integration, HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0 and A-GPS.
The Steppa is sold unlocked and it retails for R499 (less than $50).
According to Mike Fairon, GM of products, services and innovation at MTN, the Steppa is not an ultra-low-cost smartphone. It is rather an affordable high performance smartphone with 3G connectivity. “MTN assessed what users do on their smartphones, and designed a device which serves these needs. The hardware and software are geared towards giving users a great experience.”
Farhad Khan, Chief Customer Sales, Service and Distribution officer at MTN at MTN SA adds that “Our challenge was not only to bring to market an affordable smartphone, but to create a device that is not complicated and which seeks to simplify things for our customers by enabling them to access the internet easier,” says Farhad Khan, Chief Customer Sales, Service and Distribution officer at MTN at MTN SA.
The benefits of using an MTN Steppa smartphone include catering for the needs of customers who are trendy, confident and action oriented by providing access to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Google+, Pinterest, 2go to name some of the device’s capabilities. It also provides a free and faster web browser plus an AVG anti-virus pro which combats viruses and malware, and also provides loss and theft protection through the ability to track and control your smartphone remotely if you should you become separated from it.
“We are launching MTN Steppa not just to provide an affordable smartphone, but also to offer a smartphone that throws weight behind efforts to bridge the digital divide and help those who can’t afford high-end smartphone devices to enjoy the capabilities and opportunities presented by smart devices,” concludes Khan.
As laudable as all these might be, one wonders whether MTN would be able to compete with the true smartphone manufacturers as this is not their core business. Can MTN match the rate at which Samsung, Nokia bring out numerous models?
According to Memeburn, the Steppa is already attracting criticisms. Some of the criticisms include the fact that it runs a a customised version of Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) which is already 3 years old and it does not have BBM for Android. But BlackBerry has confirmed it’s readying a special release of BBM that runs on Gingerbread.
While we congratulate MTN for this effort, we hope it can keep up with its promise as time goes by.
