The Cerco group has just launched the Superphone Open, a smart phone capable of performing tasks from a few simple words, without the need to know how to read or write. Another advantage is that the telephone responds to requests in about fifteen local Ivorian languages.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Youenn Gourlay
Bénédicte Koffi came specially from Bouaké to buy a Superphone, which she has just configured in the Baoulé language. The Superphone is a creation of the Ivorian group Cerco, a phone without a keyboard, presented as revolutionary because it can perform any task just by talking to it.
A phone accessible to almost all Ivorians since the simplest French words, it answers in local languages and directs the person to other applications. ” Already, I manage to do voice commands, that is, I can access WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube without typing syntax or searching in the search bar. With the voice, I manage to do what I want “, explains Bénédicte Koffi.
The Superphone required seven years of work from the Ivorian company, but the idea was born 17 years ago in the head of computer science doctor Alain Capo-Chichi, president of the Cerco group: ” Both of my parents didn’t go to school, they can’t read or write, and very early on I experienced the frustration a parent can have when you hand them a letter and they can’t read and to write. When I had the chance to do my doctoral thesis, all my hope was to find how to create a product to try to relieve these people. »
In two weeks, the Ivorian brand says it has already sold thousands of models ranging from 30,000 to 60,000 CFA francs (between 45 and 90 euros approximately).