Software giant Microsoft unveiled its very first branded smartphone device to the South African market on Tuesday.

Speaking at the launch event Patrick Henchie, head of product, Microsoft Mobile Devices for sub-Saharan Africa, said the new Lumia 535 is both a single and dual SIM device.

Nokia Lumia is now part of the Microsoft family and the Lumia brand is helping Microsoft deliver everyday technology to everyone, he stated.

"We are looking at taking mobile technology and putting it in everybody's hands," said Henchie.

He added, "535 is certainly going to bring the very best of Microsoft services at an affordable price."

The new device boasts features such as a 5 megapixel front facing camera, a 5-inch qHD display screen and 1GB of ram as well as 8GB of onboard memory.

The Lumia 535 also has built-in Skype integration for video calls. It also enables users access to edit and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and OneNote notebook, and a pre-installed Office suite.

Customers have a choice of purchasing the device either on prepaid for R1699 or on contract for R149 per month, said Henchie.

Henchie also noted that Microsoft would continue to sell and support feature phone devices branded Nokia.

Last year Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nokia's mobile business unit for $7.5 billion.