A recent study by Enterprise Africa! on emerging-market technology trends examines the poverty-alleviating aspects of mobile phones in Africa. The organization looked closely at the small, Southern African nation of Botswana, where cell phone subscribers jumped from zero in 1998 to 823,070 by March 2006. With mobile technology now reaching roughly half the population, Botswana is a model for other developing economies striving to impact development through access to technology. Most notable about the study is the utilitarian rationale provided for cell phone ownership - safety and business expansion.
As handsets penetrate ever-lower rungs of the economic ladder, new buyers are more concerned that the purchase can be justified as an essential utility. Mobile phone companies in developing countries are competing for a share of the wallet with non-traditional competitors such as household appliance retailers. Vital Wave Consulting research found that many low-income residents of developing countries consider a stove, TV and refrigerator to be “essentials” and all other electronic and durable goods, including mobile phones, “luxuries.” In one study of prospective phone buyers in six emerging-market countries, TVs were preferred over both landline and mobile phones by two-thirds of respondents.
In order to capture growth opportunities in these rapidly-expanding markets, mobile phone service providers and manufacturers would do well to convey the safety and business benefits of cell phones to potential customers who live on little more than $1 per day. Low-income consumers are required by virtue of their limited resources to conduct a careful cost-benefit analysis for all purchases. With refined value-proposition messaging that includes the utilitarian functionality of cell phones, the mobile industry may accelerate the growth of their market opportunity among lower-income segments in developing countries.
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