Smartphones will soon replace TV sets – Experts

Experts in the business of digital and pay television services have said that Original Equipment Manu

facturers of television sets across the world are cutting down on the number of TV sets being produced annually.

They stated this on Friday as they converged on Lagos for a town hall meeting organised by Dr. Strive Masiyiwa, the Chairman of KweseTV, for entrepreneurs.

KweseTV is the latest entrant into Nigeria’s pay-TV sector and the owners of Econet.

Masiyiwa said that with the implosion of gadgets and devices, the mobile phone would become the television of the future.

The KweseTV boss said, “Many Nigerians are not aware that manufacturers of TV sets have since cut down on the number of TVs they produce annually, because the world’s smartest people now watch the TV on their smartphones. The smartest Original Equipment Manufacturers are now producing smartphones just to remain in business.

“You will watch television on your mobile phones in less than 10 years, especially with a Nigerian population that will emerge as the third largest globally, after China and India, by 2030. More so, this is very obvious because most mobile phone manufacturers are currently making heavy investments in Nigeria.”

According to him, television is migrating towards the mobile phone.

Masiyiwa said, “There are 60 million people in Africa with a TV, but there are more than 250 million people in this same continent with a smartphone and they worry about the cost of data. But the cost of data will come down, just as the cost of smartphone is coming down.

“We are having more people subscribing for pay-TV services on their phones, tablets and computers. Subscription on Video on Demand and online streaming platforms in the country is growing because of the presence of too many gadgets and devices. And the more it grows, the more people dump their TV sets.”

A Nigerian expert, who did not want to be named, said, “Tablets are now more important to Nigerian children than their TVs, with more than one-third of young people aged five to 15 owning their own devices.

“Around 34 per cent of children in this category own their own tablets, which is up from 19 per cent last year.

“The rapid increase means that some pre-schoolers are using a tablet to surf the web, play games and watch video clips.”