South Africa’s first homegrown cellphone

More than 18 months of research and development, with a meager budget of just R15 million, South Africa’s first locally produced cellphone is ready to hit the South Africa market by early next year.

The company behind the cellphone, Qeo Wireless, is based in Cape Town and was initially started with just 15 staff members.

18 months development
In the eighteen months before the phone was revealed to the press, the company had been financed by “angel investors” who had provided the capital to cover the initial research and development, and the marketing costs.

The phone, boast its creators, can be branded by the network carriers and will not necessarily carry the Qeo Wireless brand. The phone had been tested by the network operators in South Africa to allow them to offer it to their contract subscribers.

Display data in a rich format
Derek Hume, CEO of Qeo Wireless, said that the phone would cater for specific niche markets; he adds that the phone was developed to provide more than just voice and data.
“The idea is to display data in a rich format rather leaving the user to scroll through text messages. It’s effectively a mini-client server that has telephone functions as well,” Hume told a Cape Town website.

Customised for various applications
Demonstrating the phone, Hume says that it can be customised for various applications, from checking records off a central database by sales reps of traffic police who would do a background check on driver. The first prototype was made last year using imported components. Hume says though that the phone will be assembled in this country with the manufacturing outsourced.

Tom Hoole, an electrical engineer, one of the three founders of the company says "What we're trying to build up is a running venture that generates money and moves forward."

The phone will utilise data services from Qeo Wireless with a users being able to customize their own suite of services. “The user experience is graphically richer with and has been made much simpler than existing phones, with a fast two-click access to any data service,” says Hume.

Information to flow between mobile employees or customers
Hume acknowledged that while one can easily put a piece of software on any other phone, Qeo Wireless is offering something very different. "We've opened up the phone and are saying to businesses who want to put applications on phones: our platform is here," said Hume. This unique platform will enable organisations that require information to flow between mobile employees or customers to do so using the Q500.

In theory, Qeo is not taking on the big cellphone manufacturers such as Nokia, says Hume, because it is offering something very different.

Coming back home
Hume, a computer scientist, had worked in France and Silicon Valley for several years before returning to Cape Town and completed his MBA at the University Of Cape Town Graduate School Of Business at the end of 2002.
“I had found about the company through friends of friends, when we hooked up we saw that we had the same vision,” he says of how he joined the company.