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'Android devices to replace feature phones in Africa?'

Africa , 19 Feb 2015

'Android devices to replace feature phones in Africa?'

According to Opera Media Networks, owners of the mobile phone browser Opera, the Android platform is slowly taking up the space for feature phones in Africa, as Android devices become cheaper.

The report State of Mobile Advertising released today, indicates the growing use of mobile phones to access content on the internet, due to the increasing adoption of internet enabled phones.

The report shows that while feature phones still rule the continent, Android is gaining a relative portion of the market. Users who have Android phones are more likely to go on line more than feature phone users.

"Africans remain more likely to use a non-smartphone compared to users globally, but the report indicates that smartphones, specifically Android devices, are a growing part of the mobile landscape," the report said.

"Android users, who now comprise almost 30% of the total mobile population, use the mobile web twice as much as feature-phone users."

Mobile phone use has been the driving force for internet adoption in Africa, Opera Media Network admits.

The report adds that, "The strongest sub-markets for both page views and data consumption are Southern (South Africa and Namibia), Middle (Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Northern Africa (Sudan and Egypt), with the latter region approaching global averages in both categories."

The number one use of mobile web in Africa is social media. This consumption is especially in Nigeria and South Africa.

The report suggests that this growth will also see the increase of mobile web advertising in Africa.

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