Airtel (Bharti Airtel) currently has an Android OS running smartphone offering for PAN African markets. The device is question is the Airtel Red 3G smartphone which comes heavily customised with the company’s various services.
Competing on the launch, Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria said;
“At Airtel , we are focused on migrating, existing and new customers from the traditional feature phones to android smartphones to take advantage of Airtel’s 3G networks. We anticipate high uptake levels within the first six months of operations.
Special attention was given to the device layout and the user interface to provide quick and simple access to services like Airtel mobile money and popular social media applications to our customers.”
Moving to the Specs, the Airtel Red 3G Smartphone as it’s name suggest supports 3G connectivity and runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat OS. It sports a 3.5-inch (320 X 480 pixels) HVGA display, powered by a dual-core Qualcomm SoC (unspecified chipset) with 512MB RAM and 4GB sapce of internal storage. There is a microSD card slot on-board for storage expansion (up to 32GB). The device has Front and Rear 3MP cameras, Dual SIM functionality and is backed by a 1300mAh battery.
The Airtel Red 3G smartphone will be sold at $53 and would be available at local retail outlets and Airtel shops. It’s availability is confirmed in Uganda, Seychelles, Burkina Faso markets; it is expected to debut in 14 other African Countries where Airtel currently operates in.
