Smartphones to be made locally

A JOHANNESBURG startup is set to become the first company ever to manufacture smartphones in Africa, taking advantage of low costs and growing local demand to build handsets, tablets and other devices based on Google’s Android system. Onyx Connect, a privately backed company that has raised R150 million from investors, will begin production in the first quarter, according to Andre van der Merwe, its sales director. The company is licensed to load Google software such as Android and Chrome on to devices sold under its own brand or products it makes for others. “We are talking to companies to manufacture handsets, laptops and possibly Android TV boxes,” Van der Merwe said. Those talks include Google itself and Johannesburg-based Vodacom Group, the South African unit of Vodafone. – Bloomberg