VMK startup that unveiled an Android-based tablet called Way-C, which means “the light of the stars,” and now the first African smartphone.

Verone Mankou, age 25, the designer of the first African smartphone, on Thursday unveiled his latest product, which is the very first of its kind to be designed in Africa.

According to the reports from the startup, the VMK named the touch screen phone “Elikia”, which means “Hope”.

The cost of the smartphone Elikia would be around $170, which runs on Android operating system and the tablet would cost around $300.

Way-C has a 1,2 GHz CPU, the Way-C fits both personal and professional usage and a 7-inch multitouch screen, with a resolution of 800×480, and run Flash player , HD movies, 3D games, and has 6-hour autonomy. Designed on A8 Cortex platform with a 1,2 GHz CPU and its fluid screen, you can easily play any type of game. Way-C is a real media player as it can also read eBooks with an 16/9 screen and a good autonomy.

Elika has a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, 512Mbytes of memory, a 650MHz processor and 5-megapixel camera.

VMK’s founder Verone Mankou said he had invested US$120,000 in the development of the handset, which will be produced in China. “We decided to assemble the smartphone in China because as you all know, it’s difficult to find a company with the necessary materials and capacity to do the work here. So just like most companies in the world, we decided to keep China as our factory not only because of a better quality there, but also because of the lower production cost which enables us to sell the phone at an affordable price,” he told the Chinese Xinhua news agency.

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