Despite teething problems, mobile Web is taking Africa by storm and is certainly the next stage of mobile technology evolution. Zachary Ochieng and Alex Owiti of CIO report.
The advent of mobile Web–the web browser-based access to the World Wide Web using a mobile device connected to a wireless network—has completely changed the way people do business. Notably, advertisers are increasingly using the mobile Web as platform to reach consumers. As at 2007, the total value of advertising on mobile was $2.2 billion. A recent study by the Online Publishers Association reports that about one in ten mobile Web users said they have made a purchase based on a mobile Web ad. While 23 percent said they have visited a Web site, 13 percent said they have requested more information about a product or service and 11 percent said they have gone to a store to check out a product. continue reading »
I will be quick and to the point on this one. A consultative forum was called by Mobile Monday in-conjunction with the ICT Board as a follow up to the Mobile Web East Africa conference that was seeking to explore synergies going forward between local developers, PRSP’s and mobile network operators.
The call was sent to various tech list and to all the mobile operators to send reps. For the tech community, it was a chance to meet the decision makers and understand their point of view and get advice from guys who have been there and done that. The top cream of PRSP’s were present – head honchos, Ken Njoroge of Cellulant, Kiran Dhadialla of IMS and Moses of Adtel and gave some interesting input on how best to work with the operators. Ken and Moses also challenged the networks somewhat all inline to developing and expanding the streams of revenue. continue reading »
iPay is an easy-to-use mobile money transaction processing system that incorporates the popular M-Pesa and Zap modes of money transfer.They have packaged these two popular money transfer systems into an online transaction processing system that will allow you to receive payments off your website and thus further extend the reach of your brand’s products and services within the East African Region and beyond. continue reading »
MobileMonday has announced the opening of chapters in Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya. The Kampala chapter opens its doors on March 8, and the Nairobi chapter launches on March 11. A new South African chapter will also open in Capetown. After over a year of background work, the global organization formed a partnership with the World Bank to take the community’s concepts to several African countries.
“We visited selected African markets a few weeks ago with absolutely no idea how the open community values would be received, and were pleasantly greeted with much enthusiam by the business, governmental, and academic communities, and by the media as well,” said Jari Tammisto, MobileMonday’s CEO. continue reading »
Good ideas are a dime a dozen, or so the saying goes. But now a single good idea could be worth a million dollars (USD). Nokia has announced a million dollar venture challenge to encourage innovators to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growth economies. The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s global Calling All Innovators competition announced on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Announcing the Growth Economy Venture Challenge at the conclusion of his keynote at CES, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo called on innovators to do good by bringing mobile solutions to parts of the world that can benefit most. At the same time he explained that mobile solutions can be quite profitable, but not exploitive, leading to financial “win-win” scenarios for both innovators and consumers.
“We’ve seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities”, Kallasvuo said. “We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world.” continue reading »
Decided to start doing my videos in HD, thing is the damned format (AVCHD)requires more resources than my trusty desktop packs…one small upgrade for my pc,one big jump in video quality across my online properties
Summary
This was a follow up meeting to one that took place in December 2009 where Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC) and the Trade Affairs Department of the Embassy of Sweden were exploring strategies for greater cooperation in the ICT sector.The meeting listened to and critiqued presentations from Kenyan software developers and on this basis discussed some areas of interest for bilateral cooperation.
From the discussions of the meeting, several resolutions were made:
1. As an immediate step, MOIC would initiate discussions with the Ministry of Industrial Development and other concerned departments with a view to finding a solution to the difficulty associated with patenting software in Kenya.
2. A team of five was appointed to draft a concept paper encompassing areas of interest for cooperation.
Mbugua Njihia – the mind of is a personal soapbox: views, opinions and thoughts reflected here can be ingested and regurgitated in support of knowledge sharing.
