One of the not so talked about news from Mobile World Congress 2019 is the announcement of 8 KAIOS-powered Energizer feature phones, or smart feature phones, to be more precise.
The tech media are largely smartphone-crazy, and so this kind of announcement isn’t big news for them. But, the global smartphone market has hit a plateau, currently making up only about 50% of mobile users.
Contrary to what you may have heard, smartphones do not exactly rule the world. It is a near-even split. And the smartphone market has stopped growing.
That means there is a huge market for a new generation of feature phones that have smart features. And KaiOS is a mobile operating system makes that possible.
The Energizer brand is stepping in to take advantage of that. The new Energizer feature phones will run on KaiOS and come preinstalled with the KaiStore, as well as several apps and services including the Google Assistant, Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube, and Twitter.
KaiOS currently runs on more than 50 million devices in over 100 countries. It is the operating system that runs of the famous Jio Phone lineup in India, and also Nokia’s 8110 4G rehash.
Smart feature phones are a solid way to bridge the gap between feature phones and smartphones. The rise of KAIOS in the last two years is testimony to that.
Release Date of the Energizer feature phones
Avenir Telecom is the company with the exclusive rights to produce Energizer feature phones. The new smart feature phones will be in the market by June 2019 with manufacturer’s suggested retail price pegged at 19.99 Euros – about NGN 12,500 each.
That price makes sense, considering that feature phones thrive primarily because of their low prices. Which is why we still find it baffling that Nokia’s KAIOS-powered 8110 4G costs as much as ₦ 25,000 in the market. That is the price of a decent entry-level Android-powered smartphone.
Our Nokia 8110 4G review should interest you.
- Don’t miss our reviews.
- Join our WhatsApp Group, to be notified of the most important articles and deals,
- Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Way back from the days of EPOC, Symbian, Palm, PocketPC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/BB10, webOS, Windows Phone, Firefox, Ubuntu Touch, to Android, iOS, and KaiOS operating systems, founder of MobilityArena, Mister Mobility, has owned a few hundred smartphones and tablets, and counting.