By Kester Omu
The birth of smartphone, which has revolutionized the way we communicate, play, think and surf the internet is forcing Original Equipment Manufacturers across the world to reduce the volume of Television sets they produced annually; Masiyiwa, the Chairman of KweseTV at a town hall meeting in Lagos submitted.
Masiyiwa noted that never before in the history of human kind has a single device had the capability to replace so many other items, arguing that the proliferation of Smartphones that give access to digital and pay TV contents can be said to have replace the TV set.
At the meeting, which he organized for entrepreneurs, Masiyiwa believes that with the proliferation and relative affordability of Smartphone and data giving access to Internet TV, not many people need the TV anymore.
According to him, the manufacturers of TV sets like LG, Sony and others have in the last few years cut down on TV production and are investing heavily in Smartphone as a way of remaining in business, especially in Africa where a whopping 250 million owned a smartphone out of a population of 600 million people.
“Television is migrating towards the mobile phone. With Internet TV, who needs a TV sets?” he asked. He stated that more people are subscribing to pay-TV services on their phones, tablets and computers, with subscription of Video on Demand and online streaming platforms on the rise.