Handset manufacturer Mi-Fone launched the Mi-Q200 family of devices with Synchronica''s Mobile Gateway next-generation mobile messaging technology in Africa. The brand is focused on developing aspirational, affordable handsets aimed at the tech-savvy African and Indian youth market.

Mi-Fone's Mi-Q200 family of devices is based on the MediaTek platform optimized for Mobile Gateway to provide messaging services directly to the native clients found on the device. This approach delivers the possible user experience with minimal memory footprint, enabling smartphone-like features on these affordable devices.

Alpesh Patel, Founder and CEO of Mi-Fone, said: "Synchronica's Mobile Gateway mass market advanced messaging solution stands out from competitive solutions because we can brand it as our own and because it allows us to deliver a great, BlackBerry-like user experience on our latest Mi-Q handset models. We expect these Synchronica-enabled devices to be a hit with the young, urban Africans that want a cool phone without an expensive price tag."

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, said: "As a forward-thinking device manufacturer operating in a number of high-growth, yet highly competitive emerging markets, Mi-Fone has chosen to differentiate its offering with an addictive and compelling white-label mobile messaging solution from Synchronica. We are excited to work with Mi-Fone and are looking forward to introduce a winning combination of device and service delivering affordable aspiration to the fast-growing pan-African market." 

The handset is available at a price of USD 80.