Sun King moves from solar to smartphones, shaking Kenya’s mobile market
On today's Techpoint Digest, we discuss Sun King's transition from solar to smartphones, Chowdeck facing a pricing transparency lawsuit, Liberia suspending Starcell's telecom licence, and South African SMEs complaining about Takealot's Buy Box policies.
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Γεια σου,<br />
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Victoria from Techpoint here,<br />
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Here’s what I’ve got for you today:<br />
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Sun King moves from solar to smartphones<br />
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Chowdeck faces pricing transparency suit<br />
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SMEs cry foul over Takealot’s Buy Box rules in SA<br />
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Liberia suspends Starcell’s telecom licence<br />
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Sun King moves from solar to smartphones<br />
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Sun King Mombasa<br />
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Sun King, the company you probably know for yellow solar lanterns and pay-as-you-go home power, has officially launched its first smartphone in Kenya, shaking up the mobile market. The EZ 1 is the company’s own brand of entry-level phone, and it’s being built locally at Sun King’s new manufacturing facility in Nairobi, part of a big push to make devices more accessible and grow local tech production.<br />
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The twist isn’t really the hardware. The EZ 1 looks like many basic Android phones with 4 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, a 6.56-inch display, and a big 5000 mAh battery. What then is? How Sun King is selling it. Kenyans can get the phone with a KSh 2,999 deposit and KSh 60 daily payments through the same “lipa pole pole” pay-as-you-go model that has helped hundreds of thousands afford solar kits.<br />
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Why should you care? Because high upfront costs still keep many people out of the digital economy in Kenya. Smartphones are essential for communication, mobile money, education, and small businesses, but imported devices often cost more than some households can manage. Sun King’s model makes ownership feel affordable day-to-day, even if the total cost over time could be higher than buying a cheap phone outright.<br />
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There’s also broader context: Kenya’s local phone assembly scene has been growing, with companies like M-Kopa assembling millions of devices locally, though import competition and grey-market phones still dominate the market and complicate the economics for homegrown makers. Sun King’s move is part of this trend, using industrialisation and financing to tackle digital exclusion, even as consumer perceptions and quality concerns around locally assem...
