Rutger-Jan van Spaandonk is the Chairman, Apple Africa and Head of Core Group. In this interview with STANLEY OPARA, he speaks on the rate at which technology is being adopted in Nigeria and how technology companies can leverage the situation to develop the local market
How would you describe Apple’s business in Nigeria given the very tensed competitive situation in the market?
For Apple, we are so excited being in Nigeria. The last time I was in Nigeria, the statistics weren’t yet official that Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa. It is something we have known all along. I have been travelling and working in Nigeria since 2002. I do know this is the most vibrant and buoyant economy in sub-Saharan Africa and that is why we really worked hard to bring Apple into the country.
The country has its challenges, but we are not here to discuss the challenges. I was recently at a conference in Lagos where people were lamenting about the numerous challenges that exist in Nigeria. We will rather focus on the opportunities that exist because Nigeria has the largest population in sub-Saharan Africa.
What you also find very encouraging in Nigeria is the fact that the country leapfrogged the Personal Computer era. The usage of smartphones and tablets by people to access the Internet is far above the use of computers for the same purpose. This is a very attractive preposition.
For us in Apple, we think Nigeria is ideally suited because we are fast becoming a mobile technology company.
How far has the high usage of smartphones and tablets affected businesses?
Another thing that is very encouraging about Nigeria is that it is very rapidly becoming a huge electronic commerce market, seeing the rapid growth of Jumia and Konga in the country. One thing about Jumia and Konga is that they have localised their models to Nigeria.
In many other countries in the world, when you order something, you need to have a credit card and get some approvals before goods are shipped to the buyer. They very quickly figured out that using credit cards is not a kind of model that will work in Nigeria since people are bound not to have credit cards to settle their bills. So, they developed their payment and delivery model to be successful in Nigeria.
One Challenge in Nigeria is that there are very few shopping malls and the likes. But this gap is fast being covered by e-Commerce. So, we predict that a large part of our trade in the next couple of years will be fulfilled by e-Commerce. In fact, e-Commerce is novel and the tablets, smartphones and others are very novel and advanced. The people that aspire to own these products are the vanguards of new trends in society. So, we are very excited about our prospects in Nigeria.
There have been campaigns against grey market. Do you think the country has made the desired progress in this regard?
The Nigerian media had never stopped in raising awareness about the grey market. Recently, it has been very interesting because the number of grey iPhones that has been switched on the networks in Nigeria is very low. There is an awareness of the Nigerian consumer. Hence, we take Nigeria seriously, and we are working hard to bring new products to the Nigerian people very quickly. That goes to show why we launched iPhone 6 three weeks before we launched in South Africa. That goes to show the importance we place on the Nigerian market.
The benefits of grey are well understood, and one of the things that give us a lot of encouragement is that the grey distributors are very upset now, saying that we are taking away their source of livelihood. But to us, this is not about their livelihood; it is about the interest of the Nigerian consumer.
People invest in technological products, and they are entitled to know if they are genuine products, and the level of warranty and support. We also need to make the buying experience a pleasant one. If one is spending so much to get a phone, one wants to go to a nice shop where the members of staff are very competent in helping you out setting up your phone and transferring data from your old phone to the new one, and explaining to you in detail how you can use the phone to your benefit.
There is a whole lot of competition in the phone market right now. Players have a lot of money to invest in research and development. What does this mean for Apple?
What this means is that Nigeria is making a rapid transition from being a feature phone market to a smart phone market. So, the fact that you see amazing brands coming into the market is testament to the fact that the Nigerian market is mature. The Nigerian consumer is looking for more value coming out of the smartphone. We believe these other brands have unique value proposition for their own customer space. We are on the lookout for people that are looking for the best possible personal technology tool that is integrated with their tablets and with their laptops.
What I like about the Nigerian market is that people here are very quality conscious. People are willing to pay premium price but there has to be a premium performance. We’ve seen three major waves in Nigeria. The first was a company from Finland that was very strong in features phone, and also made the first waves in smartphone with its Symbian Operating System. Then, there was another company from the United States which was very strong on handheld devices for emails, and Nigeria is one of their strongest markets. And then, we moved into the current phase, which is the smartphone phase. This market is being dominated by two Operating Systems – iOS and Android. Something very interesting is happening in that space. For the longest time, Android is the leading OS, and still is today in Nigeria.
Owing to this reality, do you think the iOS has a future?
The future for iOS, which is the Operating System for Apple, appears very bright because our target segment is the sophisticated user of technology (not talking about rich people).
With poor quality of service hitting hard on telecoms operators in Nigeria and low penetration of the Internet, what is your hope as a brand in Nigeria?
The Nigerian media are more negative about Nigeria. They don’t give their own country the credit that is due. If you look at the subscriber base in the country in April this year, it was put at 125 million mobile connections by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Now it is about 150 million. The country is currently approaching a 98.5 or 90 per cent tele-density. When I arrived here first in 2002 when the GSM licences were awarded, this was never the case. What has been accomplished in 12 years is actually quite astonishing.
Secondly, dropped calls, voice quality and not being able to reach people are situations you also see in Europe, America, South Africa, and so on. They are functions of the uptake of the technology. You may say it is a bad thing, but I say it is a good thing because customers continue to use the networks and the operators keep trying to meet the demand.
One of the areas I think Nigeria is ahead of other emerging markets is the adoption of mobile Internet. When I was growing up in the Internet age, we used the Internet and surfed the Internet. It was a very conscious decision to do that. One particular thing about Nigeria is that people don’t consciously use the Internet; they use their smartphone.
The fact that they use the Internet without an underlying infrastructure is very significant. The strength of the Nigerian market is that it attempts to solve the problem most people in other parts of the world won’t want to touch.
Data is the next big thing in the world after voice. How can smartphones help to drive this revolution?
The big Korean companies are getting out of laptops, and are now focusing on tablets and smartphones. In fact, the use of watches for communication is the next big thing. Even Apple is looking at this direction.
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