According to recent statistics from research firm TNS RMS East Africa, despite the availability of most of global leading brands in the country, 99 per cent of Kenyans are unable to access tablet computers while 95 per cent say they do not plan to buy them.
The findings that come barely a week after Apple launched its latest edition of the much-awaited new iPad in North American and Europe presents a marketing concern to vendors of tablet computers in the country who have been relying on the growing popularity of the gadgets to boost sales.
Despite the hype, however, tablets are still considered by many as a reserve of the tech savvy elite in society, with many believing that they are more of icons of stature, than a portable computing necessity.
Tablets made their debut in the Kenyan market in mid-2010 with Apple's iPad 1 leading the onslaught.
Since then, tablet-makers have scrambled to make inroads into the niche market segment even as new models roll off the conveyor belt each fortnight.
According to John Makenga, head of sales at Elite Technologies, a computer shop in Nairobi's central business district, most buyers of tablets fit a particular well-heeled user profile.
"Most of our orders come from corporate clients both in the government and the private sector," he said.
"We also have walk-ins and these are people who have had prior exposure to tablets either through ads or through handling the devices from a friend or at work."
"Such buyers know what they want to buy and how much it costs and will directly ask for an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy without asking many questions about the price or specifications".
Mr Makenga, however, said it is not correct to compare the adoption of tablet computers in developing markets to their sale in more advanced economies where penetration rates are above 65 per cent.
"Consumers in developing markets have leaner budgets and long priority lists and tablets come low in the list especially if the user already has a desktop computer or laptop," he says.
"A lot of my customers inquire about the devices and seem to want to make a purchase but confess that the price is a deal-breaker," he said.
"Most of them are thus adopting a wait-and-see attitude in the hope that the prices will come down with the release of new models".
He is supported by the TNS findings in regards to the adoption and acquisition of mobile handsets.
According to the findings, despite having higher GDP/capita, Kenyans expect to pay less for their next phone as compared to Tanzanians.
In addition to this, Kenyans also replace their handsets more quickly and utilise the features in their high end phones.
The findings further go on to state that upgrades in Kenya happen faster and although the price point is lower, phones have better capabilities and there is a higher smartphone penetration.
The slow uptake of tablets in the Kenyan market further mirrors the adoption of e-readers which is still relatively slow.
This has been largely attributed to the fact that most of the reading material in the country is yet to be digitised.
There is no incentive to purchase the e-readers due to a shortage of local content.
But the country still remains in the top seven adapters of the device in Africa together with South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Gabon, Nigeria and Ghana.
In these countries, widespread 3G network and GPRS have led to an early adoption of e-readers compared to other African countries.
In Kenya, e-readers have been popularised by non-governmental organisations which distribute e-books to rural schools to promote technology-aided learning.
One of these organisations is Worldreader which has distributed 500 e-readers to rural schools around the country in partnership with other players in the book publishing and education sectors.
The early results of the project dubbed "One Kindle Per Child" has seen children spending up to 50 per cent more time reading than before the introduction of e-readers, and fluency scores in the exercise increasing quickly.
Price drop
With increased digitisation of primary and secondary school syllabi, the uptake of e-readers is bound to increase as the demand from teachers and students increases.
For users of tablet computers, however, it will be some time before they can see a significant drop in prices to enable more of the middle class to obtain the high end toys.
But for those who desire to have the latest iPad ahead of their peers, they should be prepared to pay the price of being the top one per cent.
The new iPad costs between $499 for the 16GB model and $699 for the 64 GB one.
The prices can go to as high as $829 for some models that have both wi-fi and 4G capabilities.
By FRANKLINE SUNDAY
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