A coalition of telecom companies, device manufacturers, and industry organizations is pushing to bring $40 smartphones to market - a price point they believe could connect tens of millions more people to the internet. While the movement is gaining traction, significant questions remain about whether manufacturers can actually produce these ultra-affordable devices at large scale.
At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA announced it's partnering with major African mobile carriers - including Airtel, Axian Telecom, Ethio Telecom, MTN Group, Orange, and Vodafone - along with smartphone makers to test ultra-low-cost 4G phones in six African countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The goal is to make smartphones accessible and bring an additional 20 million people online.
Affordable smartphones are seen as critical for closing the digital divide in developing countries, where millions live within mobile broadband coverage areas but can't get online because internet-capable devices cost too much. Through its Handset Affordability Coalition, the GSMA is working with carriers and manufacturers to promote devices priced around $40.
The initiative is still in early stages, with commercial negotiations happening between mobile operators and smartphone manufacturers to create devices that hit the target price point.
The GSMA hasn't revealed which manufacturers will make the devices yet, with Jagueneau saying negotiations with smartphone makers are still underway. However, the organization hopes initial proof-of-concept devices could be ready this year, with early consumer versions potentially hitting markets by late 2026.
None of the six pilot program countries have committed to reducing import duties or taxes on entry-level smartphones yet, Jagueneau said. The group is working with operators to start conversations with governments over the coming months.
"We believe there's an urgency for the public sector to address this part of the equation for digital inclusion purposes," Jagueneau said. She pointed to South Africa's decision last year to remove a 9% luxury tax on smartphones priced below R2,500 (around $150) as a positive example, saying more countries should follow suit.
Thin margins & Increasing Component Prices
Industry experts say producing smartphones near the $40 price point will be tough under current component cost conditions.
"Pushing smartphones in the $30-$40 range might have been possible historically when memory costs were much lower," said Ahmad Shehab, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research.
Devices at that price would need extremely basic specs and razor-thin profit margins, Shehab told TechCrunch. He added that getting low-capacity memory components is also getting harder as suppliers increasingly focus on higher-capacity chips.
The average smartphone selling price in the Middle East and Africa was about $188 in Q4 2025, according to Counterpoint - showing just how big the gap is between current market prices and the $40 target.
"While a few brands have hit prices below $40, these sales volumes are tiny and mostly don't come from major global manufacturers," Shehab said.
Ramazan Yavuz, EMEA director at IDC, said initiatives targeting $30-$40 smartphones seem too ambitious given current market challenges.
Feature phones - typically priced between $10 and $15 remain the main option for many consumers in African markets, making up 39.5% of all mobile phones shipped in Africa in 2025, Yavuz said, showing they still dominate across the continent.
Efforts to bring ultra-cheap smartphones to emerging markets have struggled before. In 2014, Google launched the Android One initiative to promote affordable smartphones in markets like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia before expanding to Africa in 2015. But it failed to achieve widespread adoption.
Google continued the program in some markets for several years, including Japan, but it never became a dominant platform for entry-level smartphones.
Jagueneau said the effort would need coordinated action across operators, manufacturers, and governments, but stressed that improving access to affordable smartphones is critical for getting more people online.
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