Nairaland Forum

Africa has introduced its first ever smartphones into the market. Elikia is its name and designed by VMK founded by Congolese entrepreneur, Verone Mankou

Verone Mankou would like his newly introduced gadget be to Africa what Apple is forthe US and Samsung Galaxy is for Asia.

The smartphone is rich in multimedia functions like videos, photos and others.

VMK Elikia is a phone that runs on Android, has lots of features like Wifi capability, GPS, Screen Resolution of 320 x 480 (QVGA), virtual key board and many more.

The smartphone is reported to cost around $170 without contract.

Source: http://www.michaelokeje.com/2012/12/meet-africas-first-designed.html

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First African smartphone launched in Rep. of Congo
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 29, 2012 16:30 EST





The inventor of what has been billed as Africa's first tablet computer, Verone Mankou. Photo via AFP.
Topics: central African nation ♦ Rep. of Congo A Congolese inventor ♦ smartphone


A Congolese inventor has unveiled what he says is the first African-designed smartphone.

Verone Mankou, 27, told AFP that the so-called Elikia, which means “hope” in the local language, went on sale the day before in the Republic of Congo.

Mankou, head of the company VMK, said the Android-powered device was on sale in only in Congo for now, but he planned to launch it in other countries.

The phone was initially due to go on sale in October but its launch was delayed “because of an explosion in demand,” he said.

Though the phone is Congolese by design, it is manufactured in China. It costs about 130 euros ($170) — a considerable sum in this central African nation.

The phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 512 megabytes of RAM and a 650-Mhz processor. Its camera is five megapixels, and it also comes with GPS and Bluetooth.

Mankou last year designed what was billed as Africa’s first tablet computer.