Naijagal

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a partnership with Chinese manufacturer Huawei to offer an affordably priced smartphone in Africa geared toward tapping into the continent’s exploding mobile market. 4Afrika smartphone Introducing the phone at an event in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, a Microsoft executive said the aim was to have the 4Afrika phone priced at below $200. The Huawei phone model is not exclusive to the continent, but the 4Afrika version is being adapted to African markets, including with apps geared toward specific countries. At the Nigerian event, officials demonstrated apps including a dictionary for the local Yoruba language and local news. There would also be an app related to the country’s popular low-budget movie industry, called Nollywood. “The key aspect of this is not price,” said Gustavo Fuchs, mobility director for Microsoft in the Middle East and Africa. “It’s really the content and the applications that we are working through our innovation...