South Africa’s cost conscious clothing retailer Pep Stores, and software giant Google are allegedly teaming up to create an Android operating system that is essentially lighter on the pockets and bank accounts of South African citizens.
To prevent consumers from being blindsided by data costs, Pep and Google are looking to accommodate the massive uptake of low-cost mobile devices in South Africa by creating a Android OS that is data efficient.
According to World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, Pep and Google are working on Android propositions that are friendly to South African consumers. This also includes a user interface that will let the user control their own data usage.
According to memeburn.com, during Google I/O developer’s event last month, the tech giant showcased Android One as a new initiative that would see the first low-cost, yet capable smartphone manufactured in India with a cost price of less than US$100.
Google first shared this vision when it launched the latest version of its mobile OS, Android 4.4 KitKat last year, when Google’s senior vice president, Sundar Pichai said, “As we get on our journey to reach the next billion people, we want to do it on the latest version of Android.”
The cost of data
While mobile operators across Africa tend to offer their client base a cost-effective rate when it comes to mobile data, South African consumers are still bearing the cost of expensive data packages. While in bundle rates can be fair, out of bundle rates are ridiculously high… with some mobile operators charging R2 per megabyte used.
While R2 does not seem to be a large sum of money on its own, downloading a 100 megabyte file will cost a staggering R200 if your are accessing the internet while using “out of bundle rates”. Download a 1 Gigabyte file, and you will receive a data bill of around R2000.
Data hungry apps
South African citizens tend to use messaging services such as Whatsapp, BBM, WeChat and many others. Additionally, users stream music, videos and other content through their mobile devices.
While Whatsapp essentially seems to be a cost-effective way to communicate, it is reported that it tends to act as a “gateway” to other, more data-hungry apps. To add to this, while left open, or even closed, a multitude of apps send and receive data requests without the user being aware of this.
With Pep and Google’s collaboration, these high costs could essentially be eliminated.
Darryl Linington
