Business News of 2012-10-22

African content in Samsung phones from January 2013

Samsung, world leading handset manufacturer has hinted it would start loading some African pictures, videos, music and dialects into its new handsets beginning from January 2013.

Samsung South Africa Chief Operating Officer, George Ferreira disclosed this to Ghanaian journalists at the grand launch of Samsung Galaxy Note II in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the world tour of the new handset being promoted as a tool designed to enhance creativity.

Africa alone accounts for 40% of the 10 million copies of the original Galaxy Note handsets that Samsung has sold globally, but there is hardly any African content in terms of in-built ringtones, language options, and pictures in any of Samsung’s hand held devices.

But Ferreira said all that is about to change beginning January 2013.

“We are about to launch something in January and that would answer the question about African content in Samsung hand held devices – you will see African videos, music and pictures in our devices,” he said.

He hinted that Samsung is gearing up to feature the songs of selected top musicians in Ghana, adding that major tourists sites in places like Kenya, South Africa and other places in Africa would also be included in the in-built wallpaper and screensaver photos.

“In Ghana I know we have more than one musician we plan to work with in this direction” he said, but he stopped short of mentioning which Ghanaian musicians have been selected for the purpose.

Ferreira also hinted that within the next three to four years, Samsung would establish an assembling plant in West Africa, and Ghana is one of the countries under consideration for the purpose; the other country being Nigeria.

He also noted that Samsung has established a number of Engineering Academies across parts of Africa and in the next few years, a similar facility would be established in Ghana and other countries to train young Ghanaian Engineers who have passion for telecoms and electronic engineering.

Head of Hand Held Products for Samsung West Africa, Jaspreet Singh told journalists that the Twi dialect has, for instance, been selected as a language option in Samsung devices from next year, confirming that in January Samsung would launch a major initiative and roll out some exciting local content from Africa.

But ahead of that, Samsung Ghana is poised to introduce a new Ghanaian brand icon to create an even bigger affinity with the Samsung brand in Ghana, particularly the youth.

Singh said currently Samsung hand held devices has the largest market share of 43% in terms of volume and 68% in terms of revenue in Ghana, and he was confident that with the initiatives it would launch later this year and early next year, its market share would further increase.

Magic of Samsung Galaxy Note II brought alive

Samsung Galaxy Note II with S Pen

Meanwhile, at the launch of the Galaxy Note II handset, the ‘magical’ functions of the handset was brought alive through a bevy of exciting activities, which aptly depicted the tagline for the handset “Be Creative.”

Audiences, including journalists, musicians, Samsung products distributors, government officials, and Samsung officials from across the world, were treated a wow performances by carefully selected South-African dancers, drummers and a magician at the launch.

A presentation and real life demonstration of the unique functions of Galaxy Note II handset, revealed the immense possibilities available to the user particularly with the use of a thicker and longer S Pen.

The handset is truly multi-tasking, meaning the user can run two or more programmes at the same time on the same screen, unlike other handsets which only allow one task on the screen and all others on the background without being seen.

With Galaxy Note II you can for instance watch a movie, and chat or facebook at the same time on the screen.

It other unique features include the Air View, which allows the user to preview the details of the content of a picture, video or text without necessarily opening another window, but just by holding the S Pen the icon, it shows the content of that icon.

Pop Notes and Pop Videos allow the user to do multiple tasks on the same screen at the same time, while Easy Clip also allow the user to instantly cut and paste any content (picture/text) unto the screen and send by email or MMS, just by selecting an option with the S Pen.

Galaxy Note 2 Idea Sketch feature allows the user to just write what he or she wants to draw, and just with the right touches with the S Pen, the phone sketches the picture.

The Photo Note feature allows the user to keep one’s memories on the back of pictures on the phone for easy remembrance of what occasion particular photos were taken.

The handset costs $1,000 at the global level, but in Ghana it is being offered for $1,539, which is less than $1,000.