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Onyx Connect, a South African startup, will begin mass producing a $30 smartphone in June, according to CNN.

The privately backed company received a 150 million rand ($11 million) investment from undisclosed investors in 2016. This will make Onyx the first African smartphone manufacturer, according to the company.

The low-cost smartphone will run on a “clean” version of Android, which means it won't come preloaded with apps. The company signed a licensing deal with Google in December 2016, giving it the opportunity to use the clean Android software. This differs from most other Android-run devices, which come pre-loaded with Google Suite and carrier-branded apps. Removing pre-loaded apps means the phone will be able to cater to various African languages by providing space for country-specific apps.

Low-cost smartphones can act as a catalyst for smartphone adoption in emerging markets like Africa, and could also help boost developer interest in the continent. Africa is affected by a fluctuating currency, which is partly responsible for stifled smartphone shipment growth.

In 2016, 95 million smartphones were shipped in Africa, up just 3% year-over-year (YoY), according to the IDC. Meanwhile feature phone shipments grew 16% YoY, accounting for 56% of all handset shipments in Africa. Feature phones are typically less expensive than smartphones, making them more appealing to consumers.

Lowering the barrier to smartphone purchase will boost adoption of 3G. In West Africa, for example, low-cost smartphone adoption is expected to help 3G and 4G connections overtake 2G by mid-2019, according to the GSMA.

Developer interest will likely follow smartphone adoption. This could help boost the number of localized apps being made for consumers in Africa, in turn making the devices more useful.

Moreover, an uptick in smartphone adoption could also help drive infrastructure investments. Once local governments and international tech companies see a growing demand for smartphone connectivity, it’s likely investments will follow. For instance, the Nigerian Communications Commission recently made investments to improve the country’s mobile network ecosystem.

But Onyx’s new product faces stiff competition from Chinese low-cost phone makers, which have a head start in tapping the entry-level African market. For example, Huawei offers budget smartphones for around $40 and currently dominates the South African market, according to an Onyx employee. Huawei was the third-largest African smartphone vendor in 2016 and has increasingly shown interest in the African market. By undercutting the competition, Onyx Connect is likely hoping to appear more attractive to consumers.

The global smartphone market is expected to slow considerably over the next few years. Despite a record-setting holiday quarter, 2015 was likely the last year of double-digit growth for smartphone shipments.

Mature markets were at the heart of this year’s deceleration. Adoption has reached new highs in key markets in the United States, Europe, and China. The pool of first-time buyers in these countries is shrinking rapidly, and sales are now primarily coming from phone upgrades.

Meanwhile, emerging markets will continue to see robust shipment growth. India and Indonesia, in particular, will help fuel a large share of the shipments growth within the global smartphone market over the next few years.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on smartphones by country that forecasts the market through 2021 to reflect slower, stabilizing growth in the long term.

Here are some key points from the report:

The global smartphone market is still growing at a steady pace due to more widespread adoption in emerging markets. We estimate the global market will hit about 2.1 billion units shipped in 2021.

Shipments growth over the past few years has been driven by the falling price of smartphones, which has made handsets more accessible in emerging markets. The average selling price of a smartphone in India nearly halved between 2010 and 2015.

With relatively low smartphone penetration, we forecast Indian smartphone shipments to grow rapidly over the next five years. Nevertheless, India has a long way to go before it surpasses China as the world’s leading market for smart handsets. India is estimated to account for roughly 10% of the global smartphone market in 2016, considerably less than China’s 30% share.

The global platform wars are over, even as smartphone adoption continues to rise across various markets worldwide. Android and iOS are estimated to account for 97.3% of global platform market share in 2015, compared to 96.3% last year.

Apple closed the year with another strong quarter on the back of its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launches. Still, the vendor saw a slight decline in YoY growth of its share of the market in the face of stiff competition from Samsung and Chinese vendors such as Huawei.

In full, the report:

Forecasts global smartphone shipments through 2021.

Explores why India is the next high-growth smartphone market.

Breaks down the global smartphone platform wars.

Discusses smartphone vendor performance market share.

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