On the 5th of November, I updated my Facebook status with the following:

In contrast to me, my wife is very cyber-disconnected. For example, she has over 60 pending FB friend requests. How can I win her over to the “dark side” of ultra-connected people?

You see, she would go for weeks (and sometimes even months) without access to her Facebook account or Yahoo mailbox.

I got some interesting responses to that status, with a good friend even jabbing me for using up the quota of connectivity that she should have used. Here are some of the responses:

• Ah! sir, I don’t think you can win this battle. Even fasting and prayers won’t solve this. Maybe you should try gisting tech things with her. I’m not even trusting this would work sha
• How can she when you have taken over her own quota of connectivity. You need to slow down a bit so she has some more opportunity.
• Yomi, whenever u get the answer let me know so I can use same formula on my wife Lol

Well, I do think that the solution I opted for hit the nail right on the head. The following day was her birthday, so I simply gave her a new phone as a birthday present. Since then, she has been active online with Facebook, her Yahoo mail account, and web browsing. She even visits Mobility Nigeria. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

Now, I know that you are all interested in knowing what phone that must be. A device that has successfully turned an internet-disconnected middle-age mother of two and corporate manager into a semi mobile nerd within two weeks must be of interest to anyone who is into phones.

Is it a Symbian device or a Blackberry? Windows Mobile or Android? Or perhaps even an iPhone? Please hold on to your horses and take a chill pill first.

I thought you would also be interested in the factors that I had to contend with in choosing a device for her. Here they are –

1. Simplicity – the device must not be so complex as to overwhelm her. This is someone who has done little more than voice, SMS and taking pictures with her past phones.
2. Battery life – she very often fails to remember to charge her phones, so it must not be a device that would die by 2pm. Her previous phones went at least two hectic days on a charge.
3. Hardware QWERTY – from experience, she’s pretty much lost with touchscreens. All that swiping and tapping takes her nowhere – or to the wrong menus. If I was getting her this device because of email and Facebook, text entry must be sweet and easy
4. Appearance – well, it must look the part. A trendy-looking, classy-looking device
5. Cost – yes; it must not cost an arm and a leg. This device was supposed to be an experiment to see whether given the right tool, she would adapt. If this worked out fine, I would be very willing to splash out on a more expensive device for her

So, those were pretty much the factors that I juggled in mind in approaching this very difficult problem. Plus, it was almost embarassing that the wife of a mobile web nut like I am goes for months without logging into Facebook or checking her Yahoo mail (for all those of you who had requested her FB friendship, sent a message or mailed her and didn’t get a response until recently, now you know why). Eventually, I did make a choice. And so far, that choice seems to be working. Perhaps its still the euphoria? Is this a crush that my wife has for her new toy or is this the start of the making of an epic?

Oh, yes; the phone?

A Standing Ovation Please
My madam’s new connected lifestyle was made possible by getting her a simple, non-smartphone device – The Nokia C3 running the proprietory S40 operating system. That’s it? yes; that’s it.

Don’t tear your hair out (at least not yet). The solution works. Or is working. Or appears to be working.

Now, you know what to get your wife (or, God forbid, husband) if you’d like to gently prod her into hopefully becoming a hopeless mobile internet addict like yourself.

Opera today unleashed the final version of Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian/Series 60 phones, with significantly faster JavaScript performance for a speedy browsing experience.

Making its debut in Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian is just-in-time compilation (JIT) performance optimization to the Carakan JavaScript engine, the same powerful engine that drives Opera’s desktop browser. Speed trials of today’s release show that Opera Mobile 10.1 races ahead of its predecessor, performing nine times faster than Opera Mobile 10.0 on the SunSpider JavaScript test.

Location, location, location… Also making its debut in Opera Mobile 10.1 is support for geolocation, which puts you and your mobile on the map. Geolocation enables web services such as maps and travel applications to recognize your location to provide you with customized, relevant content. Your privacy is in your hands, and you choose if and when Opera Mobile shares your position.

“Powerful smartphones deserve an equally powerful browser,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mobile 10.1 today brings the best mobile browsing experience to the world’s most popular smartphone platform.”

Here are more reasons to put Opera Mobile 10.1 in the driver’s seat for your Symbian mobile browsing:

• Pioneering features from Opera — such as Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, Opera Link and password manager — reduce the time and typing required to navigate your favorite websites.
• When slow network speeds put the brakes on your browsing, gear up with Opera Turbo compression. Opera servers shrink webpages to as little as 20 percent of their original size, reducing your data costs and turbo-charging your browsing speed.
• Opera Mobile fine-tunes the look and feel of your browsing with kinetic scrolling, a virtual keyboard and auto-rotation to landscape.

Opera Mobile 10.1 is available for smartphones based on Symbian^3, and Symbian S60 3rd and 5th editions. Opera Mobile is free to download from m.opera.com. Read more about Opera Mobile at www.opera.com/mobile.

Source.Thanks to EyeBeeKay for the tip-off.

MoboFree development group announces that MoboFree, mobile first social network, is entering the Nigerian market.

Mobofree is an emotions based mobile social network. It possesses all the great things social networks bring to the customers – communication, content sharing, dating, self realization, etc. Additional features make Mobofree an exclusive product – it is mobile first (and therefore is mobile users oriented from the start), it adapts to user and it brings emotions to the Mobile Internet. Emotions do not only mean that user can set his current mood status. There is a unique CRM engine inside which analyses contextual information, user’s mood, users’ behavior and after a few weeks the system starts to change according to user: CRM engine models the user interface according to the mood and also encourages community to share good emotions and to help dissolve negative ones. In addition, the menu structure automatically changes according users habits and so on. Though MoboFree was launched only a few months ago, it has already been nominated at the World Summit Award mobile contest in Entertainment & Lifestyle projects category.

Mobofree membership is free and members only pay standard data rates to their Mobile Internet service provider.

Yomi Adegboye, Editor of Mobility Nigeria, an online mobility magazine with a focus on Nigeria, and Managing Director of Alireta, one of Nigeria’s leading hosting providers, has joined the Mobofree team as Business Development Partner for Nigeria. Mr. Adegboye will be responsible for strategic and commercial development of project and marketing actions to increase project awareness in the Nigerian market.

“I am excited to join the Mobofree team and execute on our expansion plans,” said Yomi Adegboye. “The Nigerian mobile market is growing rapidly and Mobofree is an innovative product with huge potential. I am looking forward to helping the team to establish Mobofree here in Nigeria.”

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About Mobofree development group:
Project is developed by SIR EU and partners – an Eastern European company with headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania. SIR EU has developed more than 30 successful mobile internet projects and applications for iPhone and Android.

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Visit Mobofree on your mobile device today.

Overview

• Total visits (desktop + mobile): Over 40,000 visits
• 30% mobile of MobilityNigeria’s traffic in October 2010 was from mobile devices
• Over 12,000 mobile visits
• 418 devices on 360 networks from 101 countries accessed Mobility Nigeria in October 2010
• 38.8% of devices are wi-fi enabled
• 5.5% of devices accessed MobilityNigeria on wifi
• 22.4% are QWERTY phones
• 16.8% are touchscreen phones
• 29.6% are smartphones

Top 5 Phones
Nokia totally dominates this chart and the Nokia 5800 has been dethroned – actually flung down 2 steps to share the number 3 spot with the 5130 Classic. The non-smartphone, S40-powered Nokia 3110 Classic is the new king of the MobilityNigeria.com mobile space.

1. Nokia 3110 Classic – 5.4%
2. Nokia E63 – 5.1%
3. Nokia 5800 / Nokia 5130 Classic – 3.7%
4. Nokia N70 – 2.9%
5. Nokia E71 – 2.4%

Top 5 Brands
Nokia’s dominance is still strong and up a few decimal places.

1. Nokia – 57.9%
2. BlackBerry – 6.7%
3. Sony Ericsson – 6.6%
4. Samsung – 5.0%
5. Apple – 4.6%

Top 5 Operating Systems
Symbian, S40 and iOS are up some more from last month. Blackberry drops a bit and Android is still not in the picture.

1. Symbian – 34.2%
2. Series 40 – 24.3%
3. BlackBerry – 6.7%
4. iOS – 4.6%
5. Windows Mobile – 2.9%

Top 5 Networks
MTN makes it straight to the top this time.

1. MTN Nigeria – 28.1%
2. Etisalat Nigeria – 20.7%
3. Glo Nigeria – 14.2%
4. Zain Nigeria – 8.9%
5. KPN Netherlands – 1.1%

Top 5 Countries
USA takes over number 2 spot from India

1. Nigeria – 72.7%
2. USA – 5.1%
3. India – 4.8%
4. UK – 1.8%
5. Netherlands – 1.7%

Top 5 handsets for top 5 Countries

Nigeria:

1. Nokia E63
2. Nokia 3110 Classic
3. Nokia 5130 Classic
4. Nokia N70
5. Nokia 5800

2. USA:

1. Apple iPad
2. Blackberry 9630
3. Blackberry 9700
4. Blackberry 9550
5. Nokia 3110 Classic

3. India:

1. Nokia 3110 Classic
2. Samsung C3212
3. Nokia 5130 Classic
4. Nokia 2700 Classic
5. Nokia 7210 Supernova

4. UK: 100% Blackberry-dominated territory!

1. Blackberry 9700
2. Blackberry 8520
3. Blackberry 9000
4. Blackberry 8900
5. Blackberry 9500

5. Netherlands: 100% Blackberry-dominated territory!

1. Blackberry 9700
2. Blackberry 8520
3. Blackberry 9300
4. Blackberry 9000
5. Blackberry 8900

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Don’t forget, this is all MobilityNigeria.com traffic only.

Overview

• Total visits (desktop + mobile): Over 35,000 visits
• 28% mobile of MobilityNigeria’s traffic in September 2010 was from mobile devices
• Over 10,000 mobile visits
• 389 devices on 334 networks from 112 countries accessed Mobility Nigeria in September 2010
• 38.4% of devices are wi-fi enabled
• 24.3% are QWERTY phones
• 15.5% are touchscreen phones
• 26.5% are smartphones

Top 5 Phones
Nokia totally dominates this chart and the Nokia 5800 is still king though the QWERTY-spotting E63 is right on its tail.

1. Nokia 5800 – 5.0%
2. Nokia E63 – 4.8%
3. Nokia 3110 Classic – 4.5%
4. Nokia N70 – 2.9%
5. Nokia E71 – 2.5%

Top 5 Brands
Nokia’s dominance is still strong. Short of amazing.

1. Nokia – 55.6%
2. BlackBerry – 8.2%
3. Sony Ericsson – 7.2%
4. Samsung – 4.4%
5. Apple – 3.2%

Top 5 Operating Systems
Inspite of Android’s glory blaze, it is still not showing on the top 5 chart here.

1. Symbian – 29.2%
2. Series 40 – 21.6%
3. BlackBerry – 8.2%
4. iOS – 3.2%
5. Windows Mobile – 2.8%

Top 5 Networks
MTN makes a surprise strong showing. Enter a Dutch network.

1. Etisalat Nigeria – 24.8%
2. MTN Nigeria – 18.4%
3. Glo Nigeria – 15.6%
4. Zain Nigeria – 10.6%
5. KPN Netherlands – 1.3%

Top 5 Countries

1. Nigeria – 70.0%
2. India – 5.3%
3. USA – 4.5%
4. UK – 2.2%
5. Netherlands – 1.4%

Top 5 handsets for top 5 Countries

Nigeria: 7189 mobile visits. Nokia-dominated territory!

1. Nokia E63 – 6.0%
2. Nokia 5800 – 5.4%
3. Nokia 3110 Classic – 4.9%
4. Nokia N70 – 3.7%
5. Nokia E71 – 3.1%

India: 539 mobile visits.

1. Nokia 3110 Classic – 13.0%
2. Samsung C3212 – 6.9%
3. Nokia 5130 Classic – 5.0%
4. Nokia 7210 Supernova – 3.0%
5. Samsung SGH-E860 – 2.8%

USA: 459 mobile visits. Blackberry-dominated territory!

1. Blackberry 9000 – 8.7%
2. Blackberry 9630 – 7.2%
3. Blackberry 9550 – 5.9%
4. Blackberry 9700 – 5.2%
5. SonyEricsson K770 – 4.4%

UK: 224 mobile visits. Blackberry-dominated territory!

1. Blackberry 9700 – 26.8%
2. Blackberry 8520 – 23.2%
3. Blackberry 8900 – 10.7%
4. Blackberry 9000 – 7.6%
5. Blackberry 9500 – 7.1%

Netherlands: 145 mobile visits. Blackberry-dominated territory!

1. Blackberry 8520 – 39.3%
2. Blackberry 9700 – 33.1%
3. Blackberry 9000 – 9.7%
4. Blackberry 8900 – 6.9%
5. Blackberry 9520 – 2.1%

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Don’t forget, this is all MobilityNigeria.com traffic only.

Nokia has introduced the Ovi Browser beta for Series 40 phones to help meet the needs of mobile Internet users in emerging markets and around the world. We believe users of Series 40 should be entitled to rich web browsing experiences like those of smartphones, but without the same price tag.

Ovi Browser brings rich web browsing to Series 40 devices that’s fast, easy, and saves on data charges. The browser is powered by patented cloud-based Internet compression technology that delivers advanced web pages to your phone. As a result, pages show up quicker than ever and over the air data usage is reduced up to 90%. Beyond performance, the browser includes an innovative user interface that makes it easy to access your favorite content directly from the start page without having to hunt through menus.

Supported Phones

The Ovi Browser is only supported on select Series 40 devices. Supported S40 devices include:

Nokia 2700 Classic, Nokia 2730 Classic, Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia 3600 Slide, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, Nokia 5330 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5610, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6303, Nokia 6500 Slide, Nokia 6500 Classic, Nokia 6600 Slide, Nokia 6700 Classic, Nokia 7210 Supernova, Nokia 7900 Prism, Nokia X3

Key Features

• Fast page load times
• Over the air data usage reduced up to 90%
• Three view modes – Full Page View, Zoomed-in View, Column View
• Integrated search on start page with selectable list of search engines
• Favourites
• Browsing and Search history
• URL and Form auto completion
• Snap to text during scrolling
• Speed scrolling using numeric keypad
• Automatically jumps to the main content on a page to reduce scrolling
• One click jump to login and search in Column View
• Page segmentation in Column View to simplify navigation

You can download Ovi Browser beta version by going to http://browser.ovi.com on your current mobile browser

Webkit has become popular as a rendering engine for mobile web browsers. At last count, available Webkit-based browsers include:

1. Nokia’s S60 Web
2. Apple’s Safari
3. Android
4. Samsung’s Dolfin
5. WebOS
6. Bolt
7. Iris (no longer in development; developers were purchased by RIM)

***Since the acquisition of TorchMobile, developers of Iris, RIM has been working on a Webkit-based browser for BlackBerry devices.

While it looks like Webkit is taking over the mobile space, someone has taken time to run some tests to compare the capabilities of the different Webkit-based browsers in circulation. The results are amazing.

In brief, almost no two Webkit-based browsers are the same in terms of capabilities and performance. According to the test results:

• Nokia’s S60v3 browser is the worst
• Apple’s Safari 4 is the best

Some of the other popular browsers available in circulation include:

1. Opera Mobile
2. Java-based e.g. Opera mini,
3. Mozilla-based browsers e.g. Firefox for mobile, MicroB
4. Internet Explorer Mobile

If you are interested in all the technicalities, be sure to read There is no WebKit on Mobile.

Today, a new mobile site, 0.facebook.com, which includes all of the key features of Facebook but is optimized for speed has been launched. It initially is available through more than 50 mobile operators in 45 countries and territories with zero data charges. That’s right; no data charges while you use this new site.

According to The Facebook blog, the new site has two main features:

It’s fast: 0.facebook.com includes all the key features of our standard mobile site m.facebook.com. Users can update their status, view their News Feed, like or comment on posts, send and reply to messages, or write on their friends’ Wall just as they do on Facebook.com. Rather than making photos viewable on 0.facebook.com, we put the photos one click away so they don’t slow down the experience. You can still view any photos on Facebook if you want but your regular data fees will apply.

It’s free: Thanks to the help of mobile operators we collaborated with, people can access 0.facebook.com without any data charges. Using 0.facebook.com is completely free. People will only pay for data charges when they view photos or when they leave 0.facebook.com to browse other mobile sites. When they click to view a photo or browse another mobile site a notification page will appear to confirm that they will be charged if they want to leave 0.facebook.com

Good news; right? Yes, but not for Nigerians. No Nigerian network operator is on the list yet. So, we’ll just have to make do with the regular Facebook mobile sites or 3rd party mobile applications.

The new site address is 0.facebook.com. You can still use it to save on data charges though, as it is reported to be lighter and faster to browse.

Okay, okay, we are sort of copying Opera here. So what’s wrong with imitating a good thing?

Anyway, we just thought it would be fun to provide a report of mobile web traffic on MobilityNigeria.com. Below is the report for April 2010.

Overview

• 31% of MobilityNigeria’s traffic is from mobile devices
• 355 devices on 299 networks from around the world
• 61.5% – regular numberpad phones
• 17.4% – QWERTY devices
• 15.6% – touchscreen devices
• 20.8% – smartphones

Brands

• 61.8% – Nokia phones
• 9.6% – Sony Ericsson
• 5.5% – Samsung
• 4.2% – Apple

Top 5 Phones

• Nokia 3110 Classic 6.7%
• Nokia 5800 4.8%
• Nokia E63 4.5%
• Nokia N70 3.5%
• Nokia 5130 Classic 3.3%

Top Networks
A total of 299 networks are used to access MobilityNigeria.com

• 43.3% – MTN Nigeria
• 10.3% – Etisalat Nigeria
• 10.3% – Zain Nigeria
• 2.9% – GloMobile Nigeria

Top Countries

• Nigeria – 66.9%
• India – 6.3%
• USA – 3.5%
• UK – 1.8%

Well, that’s it – a snapshot of mobile traffic for April 2010 for Nigeria’s number one mobility site. A few things to chew on:

- mobile web traffic is not driven by any of the new top-end smartphones or new mobile OSes
- low-end devices rule
- Nokia rules
- Symbian rules
- MTN rules (and Glo is surprisingly left in the dust)
- for all the hype about touchscreens (and even QWERTY keyboards), regular keypad devices rule
- more QWERTY devices than touchscreens make the list

Don’t forget, this is all MobilityNigeria.com traffic only, but then the above may present some fair indicators about mobile web traffic in Nigeria in general.

Since 2001 when GSM mobile services took off in Nigeria, I have owned and used more phones than I have been able to keep track of. I say that because there was a period that I was not keeping strict count and so do not have records of some more obscure devices. Even at that, my official records presently stand at 48. My current device is the Nokia N900. But I also have in active service a Nokia 3600 Slide, and a Sony Ericsson W302.

48 devices, from basic to mid-tier all the way to the princes of the smartphone world. What I was doing with all those devices? In one word, Playing.

To break it further, I am passionate about mobile technology. I consider it a leverager in many ways (I once ran my entire webhosting business on a Nokia 9500, and my smartphones still play a key role in my work), so I set out to try out every possible manifestation of GSM mobile technology.

I have used Siemens devices (if any of you remember those), Alcatel, Ericsson (no; not Sony Ericsson), NECs, Sagems, and long-gone brands such as TelMe. Of course, I have used piles of devices by the major brands too.

Okay, here is the point, I do not believe in throwing theories around. I also determined to make money from the mobile industry in some way. As such in order to become something of an authority, I decided I needed to handle as many as possible.

Understand that the mobile web and mobile data in general have been my primary area of interest. At the stage when all we had was CSD (GSM dial-up), there were myriads of possible configurations for different brands, so I set to try out as many. Then came GPRS and WAP 2.0. I set out to explore those too. On and on, as newer technologies and services showed up, the fragmentation among mobile devices meant that I needed to explore across brands and platforms.

In addition, when we started MobilityNigeria in 2008, we needed fresh content on a regular basis. Again, I made the commitment to use one stone to kill two birds. My high rate of turnover on phones would be good for an online mobile resource like MobilityNigeria.

Now, you don’t want to live like that. It is expensive and not always as convenient as people may think. For example, I had to keep transferring/syncing contacts and files again and again. It didn’t always work out right across platforms.

I burnt thousands of Naira playing with CSD back in the day. I still burn thousands on 3G/HSDPA till date, but at least now it is generating me good cash. Perhaps, I also ought to sit down and calculate the total value of all the mobile devices I have owned. Who knows?

The good thing is that my investments in mobile technology have paid off handsomely.

Talk to me
Let me do a bit of marketing here: if you run a small or medium-scale business and you are interested in how you can deploy mobile technology to give you an edge, you should be talking to me. Others – if there are any others – may throw theories at you, but I have walked the talk. I have consistently applied mobile technology to my business and have come off smiling.

Anyway, you don’t want to live out experimenting like I have done. What you want to do is piggy-back on what I have learnt and use that information to make wise decisions in purchasing the kind of mobile phones best suited to your work (and life in general), so you can get on with life. Or enhance productivity at work. Or lower your operating costs.

It will be less expensive for you, less traumatic, and you’ll get it right the first time. Give me a call.

The way forward for me
Back in March, I wrote The dilemma of a mobile enthusiast and a few associates responded that they doubted if I could use any phone for a year. Watch me. I am done with the life of high phone turnovers.

I picked the Nokia N900 that I use now because it meets my needs, and I intend to keep it. Minus a device failure or an accident, that will remain my primary device till April 2011 when I will go mobile shopping again just to stay current.

But I am done buying phones for review/test purposes. MobilityNigeria already has an agreement with one retailer for loan phones. I hope we can seal more of those kind of deals.

Another Plea for Review Phones
Here is another plea to GSM networks, phone retailers and manufacturers to make available loan phones for review. Send us a phone to use for two (2) weeks and then return to you. We can even sell it for you after the loan period and put the money in your account, if you so wish.

In return, we offer you visibility on MobilityNigeria, the largest, most vibrant and most authoritative online resource on GSM mobile phones and services in Nigeria.

Wanna play? Contact us.

PS: Did I mention that in addition to all the other practical reasons that I gave for spending so much on phones, I also do it also because I absolutely love to? I didn’t? Sheeesh.

Opera’s state of the mobile web report for the month of February 2010 is out. Nigeria is in the top 10 list again at number 7, one step behind South Africa.

Here is Opera’s snapshot of Nigeria for the month:

* Page-view growth since February 2009: 1,082.5%
* Unique-user growth since February 2009: 638.6%
* Page views per user: 393
* Data transferred per user (MB): 5
* Data transferred per page view (KB): 14
* The Grid, a mobile social-networking site, is new to the list in Nigeria.

Top 10 sites in Nigeria (unique users)

1. facebook.com
2. yahoo.com (3)
3. google.com (2)
4. bbc.co.uk
5. wikipedia.org
6. cnnmobile.com
7. sharemobile.ro
8. onthegrid.com (new)
9. goal.com (8)
10. mjoy.com

Top handsets for February 2010

1. Nokia 3110c
2. Nokia 5130 XpressMusic
3. Nokia 2700c
4. Nokia 2600c
5. Nokia N70
6. Nokia N72
7. Nokia 6300
8. Nokia 2330c
9. Sony Ericsson K750i
10. Nokia 2630

Don’t forget that the above statistics reflect only mobile web usage via Opera Mini only.

You can read and download February 2010′s State of the Mobile Web report from the Opera website.

Just on the heels of a native version of Opera Mobile for Windows Mobile now comes a native version for the Android mobile platform. Android smartphone users can now download their copy from the Android Market or from m.opera.com/next via their phone’s browser.