It is my belief that life is what we make of it. I do not mean that there are things that are not outside of our control. I mean that we do have the ability to make the best of those things that are within our control.

Personally, 2011 was a rough year for me – so many things happened that were out of my control. But would you have been able to tell if I had not mentioned it, or if you are not privy to my personal affairs? I doubt. You see, in spite of the rough patch, I made the best of the year, and for that I have some landmarks and achievements to point to.

I am sure that some of you had rough patches through 2011 too. But you made it through; didn’t you?

Dear friends and mobile enthusiasts, you and I made 2011 an exciting year here on the Mobility blog. We built a blog that we all looked forward to visiting first thing in the morning, several times during the day, and sometimes the last thing at night.

We made 2011 rock.

Thank you!

Thank you for helping out with other people’s questions and issues. Thank you for your positive comments. Thank you for the criticisms – and sometimes the arguments. Thank you for reading (over 90% of our visitors never post a comment)! Thanks to those who sent in guest posts too.

You know that we put our money where our mouths are, so when we say “Thank you”, we usually also match it with something tangible. We have given out smartphones and a few other niceties here in the past. We intend to continue with that tradition this new year and beyond. So stick around. E fit be you o!

A big thanks to the businesses, ad and media agencies, and other advertisers who sent business our way in 2011. You know how we delight in helping you meet your goals! Let’s do more for you this year 2012.

To Your Success In 2012!

Now, how about your own personal goals and aspirations? Go for them!

I started this blog in 2008 and it didn’t look like much then. Over three years on, and the Mobility blog has become the most referenced and most respected blog on mobile technology in Nigeria, West Africa, and arguably in Africa. We also have a strong following from Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Get on with those dreams. Life is too short, and I can’t shout. May your paths be prosperous, dear friends!

To your success in 2012!

RIM have expanded accessibility to the BlackBerry App World by adding another 9 African countries to the list of supported countries.

The countries are:

1. Cameroon
2. Cote D’ivoire
3. Madagascar
4. Malawi
5. Mauritius
6. Mozambique
7. Uganda
8. Congo
9. Lesotho

BlackBerry users in these countries can now access the App World to make purchases and download items to their smartphones.

San Francisco, CA – Spinlet is a company dedicated to meeting the needs of music lovers and artists. The company will become the premier digital distribution service to enter the African market and is focused on promoting music as the catalyst for positive social engineering. San Francisco based Spinlet is committed to ensuring they have their finger on the pulse in the Nigerian and African entertainment industries and have recently set up a location in Lagos, Nigeria. The company has hired a local team to assist in the launch of the new Spinlet service set to release this November.

As Africa’s premier digital distribution service Spinlet will assist artists and musicians in capturing revenue streams often lost to the piracy markets. Spinlet began exploring African markets after noticing gaps in distribution of media content in Africa. Spinlet’s move to fill this void was made to revolutionize the distribution and purchasing behavior in the booming African markets.

Spinlet will work together with labels, artists and musicians to produce world-class music that can be marketed and sold throughout Africa and in international markets. The achievements already made within the African Entertainment Industry are monumental with first rate recording studios, international recognition on the rise and commercial opportunities becoming available to artists. “Through digital distribution and artist development we can help to generate economic growth, create jobs in the entertainment industries and help raise international awareness of African artists’ increasing live performance and publishing revenue” says Spinlet’s Mark Redgard.

In addition to the many benefits of working with Spinlet, the company will focus on helping artists connect with and grow their fan bases through film and tv soundtrack placement, multi-national endorsements and commercial opportunities. ”The domestic market is huge and can sustain artists singing in regional languages and experimenting with indigenous styles,” says Redgard, “we want to encourage the youth of Africa to continue to make and market their music and see that they are adequately compensated for it. They deserve commercial success just as anyone else would.”

Artists and record labels can join the Spinlet service and begin selling their music immediately upon launch of the service by contacting a Spinlet representative or submitting their music through an online process. Spinlet does not discriminate on any artists and encourages all rights holders to submit their music or contact Spinlet as soon as possible to begin the process of joining the global Spinlet brand.

You can learn more about Spinlet at www.spinlet.com.

Johannesburg, November 3, 2011, Nigeria is the fifth-largest country in the world for Opera Mini browser usage and that is expected to increase even further with the recently-released co-branded MTN and Opera Mini offering. Nigeria is far ahead of major players like China, the United States and Brazil for the number of Opera Mini browser users.

In the past year, Nigeria experienced 634.3% growth in the number of Opera Mini users and 547.7% growth in the number of webpages viewed each month. Nigerian mobile web users are busy too, with the average user viewing 345 pages each month.

Around 90% of Nigerian mobile surfing is done using Opera Mini.

The top four sites for Nigerian mobile surfers are Facebook, Google, Yahoo! and the BBC. Opera Mini is the most popular mobile browser in Nigeria and the browser of choice for 73% of all mobile web users in Africa.

Not only does Opera Mini deliver a faster Web to almost any phone, it also cuts data costs by compressing webpage data before pages are delivered, while retaining all the functionality of a normal webpage. In a nutshell, this gives Nigerians the ability to view almost nine times as much content on their phones as with their existing browser – for the same price.

Opera Mini works on more than 3,000 different mobile-phone models, from basic feature phones to the latest smartphones.

Existing Opera Mini users on the MTN network in Nigeria will be automatically updated to the new version when they run Opera Mini. Users can also download Opera Mini directly to their phones at m.opera.com.

The Android Developer Challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa is a competition to encourage the development of exciting, high quality applications
that can delight mobile users in Africa and around the world.

Developers in Sub-Saharan Africa submitted hundreds of innovative and interesting applications across three broad categories: apps related to entertainment, media and games; apps related to social networking and communication; and apps related to productivity, tools, and local and geo services.

In July, the top 29 applications were announced and their developers provided with new phones, mentoring from Googlers and six weeks to improve their applications. From those 29, three have been selected, as follows:

Entertainment/Media/Games

Afrinolly – Nigeria
Team: FansConnectOnline Limited
Afrinolly brings African movies to your pocket, allowing you to watch movie trailers, read entertainment news and gossip, track celebs, listen to music and share it all with your friends.

Social/Communication

Olalashe – Kenya
Team: David Lemayian, Capefield Ltd.
Olalashe (which means “brother” in Maasai) is a geo-alert application that can help you communicate when you’re in trouble, through a widget that can send your location and a pre-set message to your ‘In Case of Emergency’ contacts with the push of a button.

Productivity

Shoppers’ Delight – Kenya
Team: Elan Telemedia Ltd
Shoppers’ Delight is a shopping application that allows shoppers to compare product prices across different area supermarkets. The app also helps shoppers discover bargains and relevant sales, and access maps and health information.

Each winner will be awarded $25,000 to help them build and grow their business, and will receive additional mentoring from Google employees to help them make their app even better. Honorable mentions also went to finalist apps Rainbow Racer and Wedding Plandroid. The developers of those apps will each receive $5,000.

All three winning apps, both honorable mention apps, and many of the finalist apps are or will soon be available on the Android Market.

The above infographic should serve as a guide for developers targeting the African continent.

Source: Afrographique

With the recent opening up of the Android Market to 26 more African countries, the smartphone war in Africa has only really just begun. Before now, there was no war – there was Symbian as the supreme lord, and all others fighting insignificant guerilla campaigns.

Perhaps Android’s greatest asset on the African continent (and probably globally) is the Korean company named Samsung, and I will state why.

Samsung is the world’s second largest mobile manufacturer after Nokia.

Samsung it was who declared that they were going after Nokia in marketshare and aiming to take the top spot by 2014.

Samsung is that manufacturer whose devices get mentioned the most alongside Apples’ iOS devices, be it in the smartphone or tablet segments.

Samsung it is who have made a household name of their Galaxy brand. There is a Galaxy for everyone – touch, QWERTY, budget, premium, teenagers, students, etc, etc.

According to market research firm IDC’s 1st quarter 2011 figures, Samsung is currently the world’s number 4 smartphone manufacturer (after Nokia, Apple and RIM at numbers 1, 2 and 3 respectively). On the African continent, both Apple and RIM are not doing as fine, and Samsung holds the number 2 position here. Note, this is smartphones.

Samsung, I daresay, is the manufacturer to watch on almost all fronts.

While there has been a general conception that Apple is the greatest threat to Nokia, the truth is that the honour goes to Samsung. And here on the African continent (and indeed here in Nigeria), it is Samsung who will drive Android adoption rates from west to east, and north to south.

With all the noise of the BlackBerry craze, BlackBerry adoption on the contiment has largely remained a niche phenomenom, limited to mostly elite circles. Of course, with the introduction of more mid-range BlackBerry devices, RIM is looking to see BB adoption rates grow some more.

It will take some time, but Samsung are aggressive and seem to have hit a homerun with their Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Nokia’s switch from Symbian to Windowsphone as primary smartphone OS will help Samsung’s cause. It means that Symbian’s share will drop further and certainly more drastically.

Years ago, Motorola fell from the coveted position of the world’s largest mobile manufacturer, but they are not doomed. They are in business and churning out great products. I do not believe that Nokia is doomed in anyway.

Such a transition on the scale that Nokia is making will – even if only in the short-medium term – slow down the Finnish giant in some way. And even if Nokia loses the top spot in the long term, I do not belong to the camp of those who see doom with all things Nokia.

Nokia will need to speed up their delivery process. Nokia will need to convince hard-core Symbian fans to switch to Windowsphone. Nokia will need to find a way to offer Nokia Windowsphone smartphones at budget levels (a hard task, considering Windowsphone minimum specifications). Its going to be a tough job. And while Nokia is at all that, Samsung who have built tremendous momentum over the years, will be pushing. Pushing hard.

Without doubt, this transition from Symbian to Windowsphone will be at a significant cost to Nokia. And guess who will be closing fast while this transition takes place? Samsung, of course. And this Korean love affair with Android looks exactly like the right recipe for this brutal campaign to take the number one spot.

Globally, Samsung is already closing in on Nokia in the smartphone race. If they pull it off in Africa, Samsung would have succeeded in taking a major Nokia stronghold and getting closer to their objectives.

Ladies and gentlemen, however this turns out, things sure are getting more interesting by the day.

Today Google announced that Android Market will increase consumer access and developer support for paid applications in several new countries. From today, consumers from 99 new countries – including 26 African countries – will be able to purchase apps from Android Market. This latest expansion of Android Market means more applications – including games, social, and productivity apps – for consumers and more selling opportunities for developers in more countries.

Over the next few days, the number of countries where Android users can purchase priced apps will increase to 131 including the addition of South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. Consumers from these newly supported countries will have access to over 200,000 free and paid apps in Android Market, which they can access directly from their Android-powered device.

Android Market was launched to help developers distribute mobile applications on a level playing field, while enabling users to find and download apps which leverage the unique capabilities of the Android platform. Today, we’re pleased to announce the expansion of Android Market’s offerings in these additional countries to deliver more apps for more people.

A full list of countries can be found here: Supported locations for distributing applications.

Source

India’s largest telco Bharti Airtel yesterday said it has tied up $8.3 billion from a clutch of foreign banks and State Bank of India (SBI) to fund the acquisition of Zain telecom’s African assets, for which both the companies are in exclusive talks till March 25.

“Bharti Airtel is pleased to announce that the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for the proposed acquisition of Zain’s African unit (Zain Africa BV) has been successfully tied up,” the company said in a statement. “Financing was oversubscribed, with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount,” the statement added.

If Airtel is acquiring Zain Africa’s assets, then we can expect that Zain Nigeria will be undergoing another name change sooon. Sounds familiar; right?

Read the full news item

The news of the proposed sale of Zain has been around for a while. However, the CEO of Zain’s African operations claims that Zain Africa is not for sale.

Sounds odd. Zain Africa is not an autonomous unit apart from the global Zain operations. If Zain global is selling, surely wouldn’t this affect Zain Africa? But the CEO seems to know this. Hear him:

Zain Africa isn’t for sale. We are focused on our objective of becoming a top-10 mobile player globally by 2011. There is absolutely no lack of focus in Africa. There is always great appetite for expansion…

Whether shareholders decide to sell is entirely up to them. Shareholder matters are outside the scope of my responsibility.

Ahem. Looks like Zain Africa is up for sale. The last time we checked, that’s what the shareholders said.

Sources: The Punch newspaper; All Africa

The name, Mi-fone, may not ring a bell to many, but the company has been in operation for over a year now, and are now in the Nigerian market with a range of phones that look good, feel good, and at very interesting prices.

Mi is currently running a promo in which consumers can pick up a unit of their Mi-210f for just N8, 000, two units for N13, 500, or three units for N18, 000.

The Mi-210f has the following key features:

• Built-in FM radio
• MP3 music player
• Video player and recorder
• Built-in torchlight
• 64 Chord / MP3 ringtone

Visit the Mi website.

This article was originally published in March 2005 on Mobile Africa

The need for Nigeria to bridge the digital divide and improve internet penetration has been discussed for years. The need is immense and it looks like our leaders are yet to really identify any clear means of doing so.

My opinion is that the coming of GSM mobile technology to our shores about 3 years ago opened up a new vista that can help bridge that chasm significantly and speedily.

The American Model
Mobile data is not a big hit in the US because most business premises and homes are already wired or connected wirelessly.

The Japanese Model
The Japanese model is definitely something we can learn a few lessons from. The Japanese – adults or kids – are probably the most connected set of people on this planet. And this is because of data via mobile phones. As a matter of fact, the Japanese mobile industry is driven not so much by voice traffic as by data on CDMA, i-Mode and 3G platforms especially. People access their mails, make online payments and access a wide range of information via mobile phone data services.

Which Way Nigeria?
Here in Nigeria, our environment and present circumstances are just right for mobile data to be a big hit. Very few homes around the country have any form of Internet access. Even scarier is the fact that most business offices have no form of internet access as well.

The cost of acquiring a PC and subscribing for internet access alone is so unthinkable for the vast majority of people and businesses that it is clear that is not the way to go if we are serious about catching up with the rest of the world in cyberspace. Add to that the pathetic fact that one would also need to purchase and maintain a power generating set to be able to put one’s PC and internet connection to any productive use, and that case is lost.

Enter GSM Data
The average mobile phone on the market is either CSD-enabled or GPRS-enabled or both. Every network on ground in the country provides at least WAP access, and in other cases full internet access. In my opinion, most people with a mobile phone are walking around with the world in their pockets. All they need do is harness the potentials of their devices and network services.

Networks & Pricing
It is clear that the mobile networks need to work out subsidized tariffs for data calls (in the case of CSD) and connections (for GPRS). This will encourage the average Joe to put those data facilities to regular use.

Current trends show that at least 2 networks in Nigeria are driving GPRS-based data to be taken up my a huge chunk of their subscribers. A 3rd network appears to intend to limit GPRS services to “premium” customers, an action that will be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot, if I may say so.

Possiblities
It is amazing what information is available on such a simple basic platform as WAP. Subscribers can do Google and Yahoo! searches, access and respond to mails, check currency exchange rates, stocks quotes, update themselves on news from around the world, and join worldwide discussion forums. In particular, these forums are veritable learning centres where we can tap into free and useful information that drive today’s world. As a network administrator, I even found a WAP site from which I could ping my clients’ hosting accounts to ensure they are running fine, and a couple of others from which I can run domain name searches! Even WAP is no longer as basic as it used to be.

With the advent of full websites that can now be accessed via WAP, the limits on WAP are fast fading (visit www.mobilitynigeria.com on your WAP 2.0/XHTML mobile phone to comprehend this). Of course, there are more and more phones being released with full Web browsers, further expanding the horizons of mobile data.

Conclusion
It is my submission that our country needs to take a serious look at how we can harness the power of mobile data in moving forward. In particular there is an urgent need for mass enlightenment of our population in this matter. Maybe, just maybe then we will truly be using what we have to get what we want.