China ups it high-tech game

Published Dec 1, 2015

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Made in China. There was a time when finding those words on the underside of a gadget was a warning it was probably a cheap knockoff. Not any longer.

Sure, there’s plenty of rubbish still coming out of the world’s most populous nation, but some of the priciest, most desirable electronic devices on the planet are now also made there – think the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S6.

Not content with churning out products on behalf of foreigners, Chinese companies are increasingly exporting their own home-grown high-tech creations to the rest of the globe, Mzansi among them. Here are four that have crossed my radar this year. See how many you recognise.

WeChat

As an instant messaging app, WeChat may not be nearly as popular as WhatsApp in South Africa. But it’s gaining traction among discerning technophiles who want more out of a platform than simply keeping in touch with friends and family.

Web radio pioneer and Idols SA judge Gareth Cliff uses it as a primary broadcast channel for his CliffCentral internet radio station.

Tech-savvy mobile marketing companies – Durban’s AAT among them – have seized on the platform as a cheap, yet powerful, tool for reaching a far wider audience than traditional channels allow.

And in just the past week, WeChat signalled its intention to be a player in the emerging mobile payments sector with the launch on Tuesday of WeChat Wallet, a mobile money offering that allows peer-to-peer money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases, and the ability to “draw” cash at retailers.

With the might of its parent company, Chinese media and technology heavyweight Tencent, as well as local partner Naspers behind it, WeChat is definitely one to watch.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi may not have the profile in South Africa of a Samsung or, even, Huawei, but if its local distributor has its way, that’s about to change.

It’s been dubbed “the Apple of China” due to its explosive growth over the past five years, so it’s perhaps apt that the same people who brought Apple products to Africa are involved in bringing Xiaomi to the continent.

Mobile in Africa Group (MIA), an offshoot of the Core Group, recently launched two of the Chinese company’s smartphones in Nigeria, the Redmi 2 and Mi 4. Both will be available in South Africa.

The Redmi 2 will arrive at a recommended price tag of R1 999, while the Mi 4 is expected to sell for R3 799.

Mobile network MTN will be the launch partner, and MIA also intend to distribute the phones in Makro, Game and Dion Wired stores.

Coolreall ‘hoverboard’

With 2015 being the 30th anniversary of the film Back to the Future, I was really hoping it would also mark the release of one of the movie franchise’s most iconic gadgets – the hoverboard.

A handful of genuine, but extremely limited, prototypes of this wheel-less skateboard were released this year. But it’s been the explosion of fake hoverboards in the form of self-balancing scooters that have grabbed the popular imagination, fuelled by their adoption by celebs like Wiz Khalifa.

If you haven’t seen one of these “scooters”, picture the two-wheeled love child of a Segway and a skateboard.

Which brings me to the Chinese company Coolreall. I must admit I had never heard of it until this year, when its canny pivot from making cellphone screen protectors to producing hoverboard-like scooters transformed it into a leader in this new market segment.

If you want your own “hoverboard”, you had better be prepared to shell out plenty of devalued South African rand. The Coolreall version sells for $470 on Amazon.com, but you can expect to pay significantly more than its rand equivalent of R6 600 once you have coughed up for shipping and customs duties.

Huawei

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past year, you’ll almost certainly recognise this brand.

Huawei’s been on a concerted marketing drive that’s included giant billboards in high traffic areas and sponsorship deals with some of the country’s biggest sports teams.

But the company’s best adverts have been its beautiful, high-quality smartphones.

In the past 12 months, Huawei has brought not one, but three flagship devices to the local market that can compete with the best in the world – the Mate 7, P8 and, most recently, the gorgeous Mate S.

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