ICT firm and equipment vendor, Huawei, has partnered Microsoft and chip set maker, Qualcomm to produce a Windows 8 mobile phone named Huawei 4Afika.
Speaking at the launch of the mobile phone in Lagos, Senior Director of Business Development and managing director of Qualcomm’s West Africa operations, Alexander Dadson, said the firm was proud to be associated with the new mobile phone.
According to him, Qualcomm developed the processor (chip set), the computation engine that made things happen. He disclosed that the new phone has two big engines, adding that it is a product of advanced technology in terms of hardware and software. For him, the new mobile phone is a computer with multimedia functionlaity.
“We are deeply ommitted to Africa. We may have missed the PC era but the smartphone is as good as the PC. We must support this device. PC is too expensive but the device is cheaper,” he said.
Country Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Emmanuel Onyeje, said the technology firm is deeply committed to developing Africa, deepening device penetration to the continent there by empowering them. He said the time has come for Africa’s renaissance, adding that when devices are made available to the youths, they will take advantage of new opportunities in e-commerce, tele-medicine and e-learning.
He said the firm is empowering Africans to showcase their skills, encouraging them to build local applications for Africans, adding that as a Windows phone, it easily integrates with existing system.
The smartphone is 10.15 mm slim and features a 4-inch IPSLCD 480×800 touch screen woth OGS technology, powered by the high-end Qualcomm Snadragon s4 MSM8230 dual core 1.2Ghz processor and Adreno 305 GPU, with a 1950 mAH battery, the Ascend W1 has 470 hours of stand by time, the longest among all smartphone in its class.
