I've really getting neurotic about mobile phones. Not so much in developing for them or their being the new-new data platform but mainly due to the fixation in how Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Yes, it's true, but that's because penetration is so low, whereas in North America of Europe, the market is saturated already.
I've said it before but the growth figures are way out of line. I have two numbers with two different carriers here in Côte d'Ivoire: Orange and Moov. I have to have both of these numbers as at any given point at least one of them is without a signal and that is often when standing directly below a tower. The networks are overloaded.
This last week put me over the top when both phones were without data access and voice at various points with 2-3 hour delays on SMS's. It makes people pouting about 3G access on their iPhone seem paltry. Although, after talking to a friend of a friend who was in Myanmar for the last three years, the networks here are blissful by comparison.
I'm seriously thinking about getting a third and looking like a true idiot with all these devices dangling off of me. But, it's the case that the mobile systems here, as in many parts of Africa (I've personally experienced the same problems in Ghana as well as Congo) are purely set up for the extraction of wealth. What mining and rubber harvest was to Sub-Saharan Africa during Colonial times, the mobile phone industry is to Modern times. Put in as little money as possibly to get out as much as possible. This explains why there are so many mobile players out there and they all offer pretty much the same kind of deal--a less than stellar one.
Sure, the market will continue to grow and with every person getting two or three numbers, it's going to look huge. But, for anyone actually using the networks on the ground, they leave a great deal to be desired, no matter how large and pretty their billboards down in Zone Quatre appear.
This article on Koranteng's Toli was a great read. Actually, in general, his blog is a great read, but this article really stuck out as it's about the fact that Ghana doesn't appear to exist in the world of Apple:
Yes, take your i-something, open the Contacts App, create a new contact and add a new address. Alternatively just try to edit an existing address. Now try to change the country field to Ghana. Note, if you will, the result: Ghana is not in the list of countries. Search under "Africa (Western)" and you'll see nary a trace of Ghana.
He goes on to talk about how it's probably just a bug and that it will be updated at some point in the near future, especially if a stink is to be raised about it. But, it begs that question as to why it's not there in the first place. It's not like the list of all 193 countries in the world is that hard to find and yes, Ghana is on that list.
I could buy the bug issue as I saw this first hand when working at a company and looking at their international shipping to see that my country, Croatia wasn't in the list. I really scanned through the list and then found it under Hrvatska, which is how you say Croatia in Croatian. But, this was the only country like that. There was no España or Deutschland in the list. I asked my manager what the deal with that was and he admitted that they had just cut and paste the list from another site. So, in this case it was abject laziness and it could be in the Apple iApp situation that the same applies because Americans and by association, American coders are often unaware that Africa is a continent and not a country, they probably just screwed up.
But then there rises the issue that Jean-Patrick Ehouman ran in to when trying to run ads on Facebook in that when you choose a country to target in their system, Côte d'Ivoire is not in the list. Oddly enough, in this instance, Ghana is in the list as well as Nigeria. But, in West Africa the following countries are not available for ad targeting on Facebook: Mali, Cameroon, Liberia, Benin, Togo, Guinea, Senegal, The Gambia, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Mauritania. That's a big list and I didn't even check for the rest of Africa.
So here is where you get in to a chicken and egg problem. Businesses will claim that there is no market for them in Africa. But, they are in effect creating the barriers to any kind of market developing by simple acts of non-inclusion. If Apple does some kind of Big Brother thing (which I wouldn't put past them) and looks at all the contacts that all their iPhone users have registered, they'll see none in Ghana and assume that there is no business in Ghana. The same goes for Facebook. They can easily say that they won't bother with West Africa because no one is buying ads for the region. Likewise, Google can claim that AdWords in Africa don't work because you can't register or get paid for running AdWords for most everyone on the continent.
The solution to all of this is basically for companies to stop sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to Africa. As I've said before, Google is making a good deal of headway in this department, although it's slow going. Facebook, Apple, and a great number of others still have some way to go. But just having all the countries in the world available as options would be a rather massive first step. An important second step would be to incorporate more languages. So what if you don't see any French or Spanish users on your site or for your product? Maybe if that version is made available the market will suddenly explode.
It all boils down to the fact that at some point, you gotta say screw it, roast the chicken, boil the eggs, and take a chance that in all likelihood will pay off big time.
While El Dorado is something for storybooks and popular mythology, I know the actuality of it all too well having grown up in California with Gold Rush history all around me as a child (my home town is called, 'gold town'.) Much is made about the wealth that flowed through Northern California during the mid-19th century, but rarely is the dirtiness of that period ever covered with people working in terrible conditions, catching all manner of diseases, often dying, and all to have the actual wealth go to an elite few with the connections. We've repeated this story in a number of ways over the past 150 years...
I mention this because of the title of this article, L’Afrique, nouvel eldorado des télécommunications (Africa, the new El Dorado of Telecommunication.) The article talks a great deal about the developments in the industry and the growth, but doesn't actually follow up on what is a very catchy title in that while the mobile phone growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is tremendous, it's illusory at best. This growth is being painted in such a good light at the moment, because a great many worldwide companies see a gigantic market there. This is definitely true, but what happens when the growth slows down? Yeah, I know, the slow down is years and years away given that there are a billion people there, but still, it's not as far away as you may think.
At best, a great deal of the adoption is coming about because service, coverage, and prices are sub-par. I think that everyone I've ever met in Sub-Saharan Africa has two if not more phones. One is for talking. One is for texting. Maybe one is for another region if they go there often. This isn't growth, it's people dealing with less than adequate service. Up until about 10 years ago, people in a lot of the US had to do the same as the coverage just wasn't "there" yet. And 150 years ago, miners in California bought multiple claims for when their current one ran out. You hedge you bets and when that translates to numbers, it looks impressive. But, you probably own more than one pair of shoes and always need new ones. You're really only wearing one at a time, so is there really huge possible growth in the shoe industry? Nope.
Yes, there is innovation, like this MTN address book function that Elia tipped me off to and is quite cool. But, I've seen this type of thing before. It was in the 1990's in the US and Europe. Innovation in mobile technology was awesome then. Every couple of months, something groundbreaking would come out from a network provider (not a handset maker mind you) and then they'd all flock to copy it. It was a wondrous time to play with mobile technology, but it's gone as flat as the growth rates in these regions.
I'm just saying that El Dorado was never found. The gold mines of Northern California dried up. A lot of things have happened along the way, but the one thing we know is that growth rates are finite. What happens when the growth flattens out or once numerous networks have swallowed each other? There's conflict in Eastern Congo for the materials that are fueling all this growth. What about that? What if the exports were to stop as they're systematically inhumane?
I know that a lot of my fellow tech bloggers will point to all that's coming about because of the mobile penetration and that the mobile phone is the computer in Africa (although my African friends with computers might disagree), but there is a day very soon where things will flatline and a lot of folks will be left in the lurch. Competition will dry up. Innovation will fall off. Prices will go up and then what?
Instead of constantly talking about growth (especially as if it's going to go on forever), maybe we should be paying a great deal more attention to what's happening at the top and on the sides of this new El Technorado and see that it really isn't all that it's being purported to be. Only then we can maybe talk about what's sustainable in the industry.
Many thanks to Rebecca for pointing out this video. Appears that the solar powered mobiles have hit the market in Kenya and they're selling out like crazy. This video gives good coverage, unfortunately in Dutch, but with English subtitles. The phones look pretty cool, although on cloudy days, one must revert to the way of the charger...
Apparently as of 1 July, 2009 all mobile phones numbers need to be fully registered in South Africa. Prior to this, it was like many places in that you popped in for a SIM, topped it up and off you went with a number. Now, you need some form of identity and an address tied in with buying the number. You can read more about the general aspects of RICA, which stands for "Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act" (I'd hate to see how it's written in Afrikaans) here.
As attendees to Highway Africa found out, even if you're just a visitor and MTN is handing out free SIMs (which only cost $0.13 anyways) you need to somehow register the number before you can use it. While a passport works fine on the ID side of things, the address is a problem as their system will not accept foreign addresses. So, you just register the hotel's address.
While picking up a SIM is still a much better deal than in Africa in general than in the--US ($25) or Europe (~$8)--regulations like these have always left me scratching my head. It is true that it's the same deal to register in most European countries and most definitely the US with all of this is in the name of security, but it can very easily be sidestepped. Wouldn't some would-be criminal there on a fake passport just give a fake address and (no way!) render the whole registration process useless? Or maybe mug somebody with a valid SIM and just use that? These laws are antiques, from the days before people moved as much as they do now, when we had much more permanent addresses, and no mobile electronics. Governments at some point need to realize that if they're going to actually monitor security on mobiles, then they need to get ahead of it. Of course, given the fact that this requires people working for the government who innovate faster than those catering to the private sector then it explains why we're stuck with things like RICA or the PATRIOT Act in the US.
One note on the instruction sheet about RICA they hand out with every phone that I found most remarkable was this to deal with the address issue:
If you live in an informal settlement you can provide a letter and/or affidavit from a school, church or retail store where you receive your post...
Again, it circumvents the whole thing they're trying to achieve and has rendered this Act to be more of a pain than anything useful to the state. And according to the Wikipedia article, it's quite possibly unconstitutional. Plus there's the fact that it's clear this was done in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, which is ludicrous as it's going to kill anyone visiting from picking up a number and using the telecom providers while there. If a fan or journalist has to go to a special place to register a South African number or just deal with the price of roaming while in South Africa, I'm assuming they'll choose the latter given how much they're already spending on the flight, tickets, and everything else. Way to start killing World Cup profits early on SA regulators.
allAfrica.com had a post two days ago about dangerous 'Chinese' mobiles. Apparently these dual SIM card phones that are coming in from China emit large doses of radiation. The link I just provided was more to talk about dual SIM phones in Africa overall as that article talks dual SIM phones in Zambia that are being produced there. No word on if those are harmful.
Naturally, these 'Chinese' ones (I'm not sure if this is a blanket term being used to insinuate something or not) are being scooped up by the masses in Africa as they're cheap, feature-laden, and can even support up to three SIM cards. Who wouldn't want to buy something like this? Of course, there are no hard facts and numbers to back up this article, which is unfortunate as it's so much easier to say something than to prove it. Still, there may be merit and hopefully people will look in to it.
And what gives with major handset producers not jumping on the dual SIM bandwagon in the US and Europe? Everyone talks about smartphone this or 3G that, but given the amount that a lot of people travel, having the ability to take only one phone to hold your home number and host country number would seem like a really useful feature, but Yugatech points out why they probably aren't doing it. Still, dual SIMs are a lot more useful than some point and shoot camera which, no matter how you make them, always have sub par quality. Maybe it's just me, but I vote Yes on proper dual SIM phones. Three might be a bit overkill though.
It was recommended to me by several sources also going to the Maker Faire Africa that Zain would probably be my best network to go with when picking a pay-as-you-go mobile plan for my stay in Ghana. The main reason being that they have some of the better speeds for data and pricing over the other providers here. I also found out that text messages between Zain numbers is free, although I'll have to back that up with more research.
Well, I picked it up and the speed seems pretty good, although I don't travel with 3G phones, so it's impossible gauge just how much better it could be. The only problem is that the phone I brought to set up with Zain doesn't work. It's an unlocked Blackberry Curve. This phone is pretty much indestructible everywhere I've gone and whatever network I've wanted to use it on, but for some reason it just doesn't work with Zain. I even made a trip to their main store on Oxford Street and the minute I pull the phone out of my bag, the girl at the counter looked at it and said, "Ah... a Blackberry. Yes, they have trouble with our network." Thankfully I have a Nokia 6301 and a Sony Ericsson K530i that it works fine with, although not having the full keyboard does lose a bit of the appeal with internet from a phone.
But initial hookups aside, I am again reminded of how vastly superior competition is in the mobile market. The fact that I can pick up a SIM card for about $.75 USD is great. While having so many companies in a smaller market can get dizzying I suppose, it also makes them have to compete for their customer's business. I think that the last attempt at competition in the US ended about 10 years ago. Since then, it's all been about re-branding stuff that they already have.
I suppose that there will be mergers down the line in the African mobile scene,but I rue the day that I won't be able to pick up a number from some guy on the corner and be able to buy phone credit every 10 meters I step.
On June 27, 2009 in Mbabane, Swaziland the first technology BarCamp will take place. Being billed as, "the first technology unconference in the last monarchy in Africa" it promises to be an interesting event. Well, BarCamps are always interesting because they're an equal platform for all to share and learn with even the worst mix of folks bringing about an interesting result. But, where there is often a wifi base set up for the event so that everyone in attendance can twit, blog, and whatever else, this BarCamp will be conducted completely on the mobile.
This makes sense given the ubiquity of mobile handsets in Swaziland (penetration at around a whopping 90%!) and the fact that on this side of Africa, the fiber channels are still lacking, although that will change soon.
I personally have no idea how all of this is going to go down, although I hear that the data network in Swaziland is pretty good. But while I am very comfortable doing all kinds of activities within the confines of the QWERTY keyboard on my Blackberry, there are a number of things that my big ogre hands require the use of a laptop for--coding being one of them. So, I'm really quite interested to see how all of this will come about and how their Twitter coverage will go as that's going to get expensive, texting it from Swaziland.
The main group working to get this event going is Youth Assets. There is also the official website www.barcampswaziland.org, Twitter @barcampswaz, and even a Facebook page. It appears that the web front of this mobile event is well setup. I'm really quite bummed that I won't be able to be there, but I look forward to the coverage, especially embarrassing photos of the after party because oh yes, I know there will be an after party.
For some time, I've been thinking about what the best setup would be for a cheap, yet proper kit of items to take along for blogging purposes when one is moving about a lot. Erik Hersman asked a similar question with his Weapons of Choice article. A lot of great people (and me) chimed in there as everyone loves showing off their gadgets. That was all a lot of fun, but what if you can't or don't want to lug around a laptop? What if having a DSLR is going to be more of a hindrance (due to its size) than a help? And most importantly, what about if you're just going to be getting online via internet cafes?
In addition to all these questions, let's toss in to the mix that we want to keep it cheap, but at the same time durable so that if it needs to last it can, but at the same time, it's more affordable to a greater group of people. You could maybe call all of this the "African Blogging Kit", but I think that it is something that can apply to just about anybody who is dynamic, on the go, and needing the information they collect, write, and relay to be lightweight and easy to deal with.
This is by far #1 on the list. These days, a lot of storage comes cheap. For instance, this one is only $10, yet has 4gb of storage and an aluminum case for durability. One might say that you can store pretty much everything you need in email these days and access it as needed, but I have yet to be in any internet cafe outside the US where my GMail account is snappy enough to warrant this. Also, having your files accessible in an offline format is always preferable in my book. And if you don't own your own computer, then this is really the absolute best way to maintain your data. Additionally, if you need to carry around your local language font in order to type in a language like say... Bambara or Fula, then this is an absolute must.
Upgrade: 8,16, or 32gb drive, although the cost goes up a good deal at the higher end.
This vies with the Flash Drive for a top spot, although it's a lot easier to store the details of an event in your head than a PDF file, so that's why the Flash Drive wins out. Still, memory fails us and we need to write things down. It goes without saying that a notebook and a couple of reliable pens are pretty important to the dynamic blogger. For me personally, I don't like spiral bound notebooks are the spiral part gets tangled up in just about everything you have in your bag, but they are the cheapest and can lay flat on a table, so it's really a matter of preference.
Upgrade: For notebooks, costlier options than cheap Mead notebooks are Moleskin or my personal favorite, Miquel Rius. For pens, it seems that most people love the Zebra Pen and someday, I need to give them a try over the ubiquitous Bic that are in such abundance.
You need it. You love it. Get a local SIM for it as soon as you arrive somewhere. Their convenience is as endless as the choices. Anyone who moves around knows that you've just got to have one if you're talking to people. As for models, my only real preference is Nokia and cheap. The Nokia have been the most rock solid phone for me just about anywhere I go with great battery life (which is a key factor) and solid construction. You can usually pick one up for less than $20 used, which offers a great value.
Upgrade: The only limit here is cost. If you are blogging to a site that is powered by an SMS gateway like Frontline SMS (as Maneno will be down the road), then a full QWERTY keyboard on the phone is quite handy. It's also nice just for banging out text messages. Of course, these fancy phones are generally more expensive, bulky, and suck up more power.
This gets more in to that gray area of "nice to have" as you don't have to have photos. Still, a well written text article is great, but it's nearly impossible to compete with one that has a photo as well. In regards to equipment, everyone goes nuts about cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II and yes, that's a great camera, but if you know what you're doing, a nice fellow like the Canon A470 for around $90 does a fantastic job. Plus, a compact point and shoot is a lot easier to carry around and it doesn't freak people out as much as the barrel of a huge lens in their face. I'm a fan of the small form factor and cost when it comes to a camera and needing to be portable. Plus, you can usually shoot decent video with them as well. The only down side to the camera is storage. If you're relying on the aforementioned Flash Drive and the camera memory to keep all your photos, you're going to run out of space quite fast unless you're just uploading everything to the web and deleting it from the camera. This is definitely not an ideal option, which is why the camera falls rather far down on the list due to all the added hassle it brings. Oh, make sure that whatever you get, that it doesn't have a proprietary battery format and you can snap in a couple of AA batteries in the off chance you are far between places to charge the camera's batteries.
Upgrade: Obviously, you can spend more than $90 on a camera. Geez, you can spend $20,000 for an amazing camera body and incredible lenses, but why? If all you want are photos to illustrate an article, then it's just not necessary. One upgrade that may be worth looking in to are multiple large memory cards for the camera so that you don't have to shoot in a low format and/or download so often.
You're often not going to find an easy way to get those photos from that camera to the computer unless you luck out and the internet cafe has a reader for your specific card format. Just to be safe, carry a USB cable. They're just a dollar or two and even if you don't use it, you might make some very grateful friends along the way who forgot theirs.
Upgrade: Firewire is nearly dead these days, thanks to USB 2.0 so forget needing one of those. Otherwise, you could spend $50 on a fancy cable, but why? You're probably going to be transmitting photo data to a desktop computer, not the human genome out in to space.
These fellows start making things more expensive quite fast, but a sound recorder like the Zoom H2 or H4 can be a nice addition. A compact video recorder like the Flip is great as well, but completely unneeded if you have a digital camera that shoots video as well.
But that's about it as I can see it. A solid kit to blog like crazy when out and about without carrying around or buying something akin to what the CIA uses for surveillance. If you have any other ideas on what to add or think my suggestions are ridiculous, the comments await you below.
I first learned about Mobile XL on White African. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much, as there are a number of mobile browser out there (Opera Mobile being one of the better open-format ones I've used). The big twist with Mobile XL however is that it does all of its transmission work via SMS. There's no data connectivity needed, which means that the reach of their browser in Africa is massive, despite being limited primarily to Nokia phones.
Word has come down that they've partnered up with Go Places to provide mobile restaurant information served up over the Mobile XL browser:
Providing information about restaurants to mobile phone users furthers our commitment to increasing awareness of the many wonderful eating venues within the East African Region. The XLBrowser provides consumers with a new way to quickly and easily find great places to eat from anywhere at anytime.
This is quite wonderfully fantastic. It's the first large scale instance that I've heard of where someone is doing what Yelp or Qype are doing. Obviously there isn't the user review components...yet, but I find those to be such a secondary element to these type of ventures. It's the directory of information and the ability to find new places that's the most important. That being the case, the East African region will hopefully benefit from this partnership and people will discover more than what their Lonely Planet or Rough Guide decides to tell them. Maybe locals will even learn about new places as well!
