In December 2011, in publishing the news of Sony taking over Sony Ericsson, I made a brief mention of the Ericsson R380 as the very first Symbian smartphone.

In this feature article, I am going down memory lane to talk about that elegant device. Being my very first smartphone, the Ericsson R380 holds a special place in my mind.

The very first time that I saw it, it was love at first sight. Gadget lust waxed strong within me and I told myself that I was getting one.

But it wasn’t just my first smartphone, it was the first smartphone ever!

Meet The Great Grandfather Smartphone

Released in 2000AD, two years after Psion became Symbian, I didn’t get my hands on one until December 2002.

The R380 was the first device to be marketed as a smartphone – PDA and phone wrapped into one, and in a nice form. As such, sentiments aside, this guy is the grand-daddy of every smartphone circulating around today. Even the first of my beloved Communicators didn’t show up until 2001 in the form of the Nokia 9210.

The R380 looked and worked like any other mobile phone of its day when closed up. But you can open the front flip to reveal the large landscape display. It weighed only 164g.

The R380′s main specs:

• WAP 1.1 browser (an improved version later shipped with WAP 1.2.1)
• Large 3.5-inch backlit monochrome STN touchscreen display (120 x 360 pixels)
• Flip cover with regular alpha-numeric keyboard for use as a regular phone
• Stylus for use with the resistive touchscreen
• POP3/IMAP Email
• Calendar & notes
• Synchronization with Microsoft® Outlook and Lotus® Notes and Organizer
• Symbian OS version 5
• Infrared port
• GSM 900/1800 dual band phone
• 2MB RAM
• 1.2 MB user-accessible storage
• Handwriting recognition
• Voice notes
• Speakerphone functionality
• Dial-up (CSD) internet connectivity
• 1 -chord (monophonic) ringtones
• Built-in Games:
• Built-in modem
• RS-232 cable for PC connectivity

Though running Symbian, the OS was “closed” at the time, as no 3rd party apps could be installed on it. But it came with pretty much what everyone used then.

Here are some screenshots:

The R380 was a delight to use back then. I subscribed to CSD (circuit Switched Data AKA dial-up internet) with MTN back then, with which I browsed and managed my emails. At that time, this was magic to almost everyone I met here in Nigeria then. Very few of us used mobile internet on mobile back then.

There were no expansion slots yet, and Bluetooth wasn’t on the table either. But infrared was king of the day for wireless connectivity.

I wish I had details of the processor (if someone can help me out with that, I’d be delighted), but the R380 performed admirably. It wasn’t a perfect smartphone. I also remember some occasional freezing up, especially when using internet connectivity (which in retrospect may have been network issues).

It is such a privilege to have been around early enough to use the very first smartphone on the planet as my first smartphone. Ladies and gentlemen, a hat tip to the stately Ericsson R380.

In the beginning, BlackBerry services on the Glo network were only for the bigger “bigger boys” – those who not only could shell out N100, 000 for a Blackberry device, but who also could afford a contract.

But time has a way of changing things. GloMobile now offers a prepaid option for its BlackBerry service, with a small range of bundle packages:

BIS Monthly costs N4, 800 and gives you 30 days validity with 10mb data inclusive. Send “bismonth” to 777 for activation.

BIS Weekly goes for N1, 500 with 7 days validity and 3mb data inclusive. To activate this, send “bisweek” to 777.

Lastly, BIS Daily goes for N400, 24 hours validity and 1mb data cap. Send “bisday” to 777 to activate.

Of course, you will need a BlackBerry device or BlackBerry-compatible smartphone.

GloMobile says that its BlackBerry service offers:

• configuration of up to 10 email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc)
• a new BlackBerry email address
• free BlackBerry Messenger
• pre-configured MMS and Glo WAP service

If you’ve been looking out for this, here’s your chance!

In february, Mobility Nigeria featured a news item on Armenia and Nigeria leading Mobile Web Growth in 2008.

In that article, our editorial team stated as follows:

But at the current growth rate that Nigeria is pushing, it shouldn’t be long before the West African country shows up on the Top 10 list – and probably climb all the way to the top. Nigeria is currently number 12 on the Top 35 countries (unique users) list.

Approximately two months later, that prediction has come to pass.

In an email update we received from Opera this morning, the company stated that “a surge of Opera Mini usage in Nigeria pushed that country into the top 10, displacing Germany“.

For years, I repeatedly stated that mobile is the future of the web. No; desktops and notebooks won’t go away, but mobile devices will become the de facto means of accessing the web. Today, more people access the web via mobile than via PCs. I am not a prophet. But I did say so – years ago.

Here’s a supporting quote from Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera:

“A mobile phone will be the device most people use to access the Web. As millions of people each month discover the Web through Opera Mini, content providers have an incredible opportunity to seize competitive advantage in this new medium. By simply ensuring their content works on any device, they will open themselves to the next generation of Web users.”

I couldn’t have put it better than that.

Related Links:
1. Mobile Data: Bridging The Internet Divide In Africa
2. A Case for Mobile Data

In June 2005, Mobile Africa published an article in which Mr. Tayo Ajakaye raised issues (and some very valid ones too) about the quality of value added services being provided by GSM network operators (see: Value Added Services: Who Uses Them?

I followed that article with a rejoinder, RE: Value Added Services: Who Uses Them?, in which I faulted Mr. Ajakaiye’s argument, though I agreed with him that quality of service needed (and gasp – still needs) improvement.

Who uses value added services? Let’s look at two popular ones: Mobile Internet and SMS.

Mobile Internet
Let’s take WAP (mobile internet): Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report for 2008 says that Nigeria was the 2nd fastest growing mobile internet community in the period under review (with 1854% growth), and is currently globally number 12 on the mobile internet usage scale.

An incredibly large number of Nigerians must be using value added services. As far back as 2006, the BBC had reported that in July of that year, 61% of its international traffic from mobile devices (a whopping 13.2 million page views in one month alone) was from Nigeria.

SMS

Let’s not go there. The SMS market is so rich today that there’s no point flogging the statistics. TV reality shows run interactive SMS campaigns, businesses and non-profit organisations use SMS notifications to reach their target audiences, and there are already interactive SMS applications deployed for instance in banking, financial, and web hosting services.

An incredibly huge amount of Nigerians have been using value added services for years.

Are these services perfect yet? Dream on. It is a long road ahead, but warts and all, value added services by GSM (and CDMA) operators have made a huge difference in the Nigeria before GSM and Nigeria after GSM.

Mobile value added services are here to stay.

Well, it looks like we missed Starcomms’ announcement of its WAP service back in December 2008. But its better late than never:

Starcomms Plc, Nigeria’s 4th largest telecommunications operator, has introduced the Starcomms WAP service. The Starcomms WAP service offers value added data applications, Ringtone, Games, Wallpaper, Truetones, MP3 tones, Animations etc to Starcomms CDMA Mobile subscribers through their WAP and data enabled handsets. With this new product, a Starcomms subscriber can access these services by launching the WAP Client in their WAP and data enabled handset, which will take the user to default WAP homepage – Starcomms WAP. This homepage will carry the link to the value added data application.

The customers will have access to a whole lot of features and functionalities like Downloads; which enables users to Download Content like Polyphonic Ringtones, Wallpapers and Games onto his Handset, Surf; which gives the customer the ability to Surf other WAP sites like Yahoo, Rediff etc. Other exciting content would be introduced from time to time.

According to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Maher Qubain, the service will be available to all Starcomms subscribers whose handsets currently support WAP, such handsets include; Haier D1200, Nokia 6275, Moto K1, Motorola W385, Coolpad C288. The Company shall launch a wider varieties of handsets in the nearest future that shall also support the WAP application. Customers who currently have any of these handsets may access the service through the WAP browser on their handset.They however have to visit the nearest Starcomms shop for registration and update of their handset in order to be able to access the WAP service.

The Marketing Director, Starcomms, Manoj Vashisht equally promised a whole lot of other exciting contents on the Starcomms WAP portal. These includes special categories of contents ranging from Wallpapers, Animations, True tones, MP3 tones, Polytones, Video, Games, Cartoons, News, Themes, Monotones, Picture Message, Religious Content etc. The prices for the downloadable contents are expected to be highly competitive and affordable to all.

As introductory offer during the launch period, Starcomms intends to offer customers Free downloads on the Free Zone category. This will enable customers to understand the new application, and enjoy the new service.

Mr. Vashisht added that customers would be notified of the applicable charges whilst downloading the content to enable customers decide their choice of downloads. On the quality of content, efforts have been made to ensure that there are adequate local contents by creating special categories such as Nigerian Zone, African zone that incorporates contents such as Wallpapers, Truetones, Polytones etc. There are other categories like Hollywood, Soccer and Racing Zone, that also contain the top downloads.

You can download the complete press release (in PDF format): Starcomms Launches WAP

It is amazing that in the year 2009 (not 1989) some of our local GSM service providers still ask customers to come to their offices or to place telephone calls to request for their lines to be provisioned in order to have access to the network’s data (or value added) services.

While deploying a data service is well appreciated, the networks should go a step further to make it convenient for subscribers to have access to these services.

For example, there’s no valid reason why the networks cannot provide their SIMs already provisioned for internet. It is a fact that at least MTN and Etisalat are doing it right in this regard. Etisalat especially is to be commended, for though being a new player in the Nigerian telecoms ecosystem, they are more forward looking in terms of user-friendly data provisioning than the older boys like Zain and GloMobile.

Surely, it cannot be so difficult for network operators to deploy over-the-air (OTA) configuration such that soon after inserting your SIM into a GPRS or 3G-enabled phone, the data settings are pushed automatically to the phone and the subscriber can simply launch his phone browser and start surfing the web away.

Both MTN and Etisalat are again the leaders in this department. And once again, Etisalat are getting two thumbs up from me for implementing this from the word go.

My experience with Etisalat is one I remember with fondness. I popped in my SIM into a phone, the settings were pushed to me via SMS, and within minutes I was browsing without having to go to their office, call for my line to be provisioned, or manually input any settings. I said to myself, “This is the way it should be“.

Network operators need to remember that the average phone user is not a geek, does not care to go beyond the basic menu of his phone, and would rather not be bothered with the extra hassles of getting value added services setup.

The average subscriber wants these services to work out-fo-the-box, and the networks that respond appropriately to this fact will have subscribers eating out of their hands. Mobile Data will become more mainstream when the hassles of data configuration are eliminated.

I am not sure why, but articles on Zain Mobile Internet are extremely popular on Mobility Nigeria. As a matter of fact, the top two items in terms of page views on this site are about Zain Mobile Internet.

Perhaps, part of the reason for their popularity can be attributed to the elusiveness of full internet service on prepaid lines. For quite a while, Zain Nigeria’s official policy is that only WAP is available to prepaid subscribers. This means POP3/IMAP mail cannot be used, and instant messaging apps won’t work, among others. See: From Celtel to Zain; GPRS further restricted, published in August last year.

Earlier this year, I demonstrated that with minimal tweaking, email (POP/IMAP) indeed works on the Zain network (Zain Data works on Phones for Web and Email). But IM apps didn’t.

Last Saturday, however, I receeived an SMS from Zain stating in part:

New from Zain! Internet Browsing, MMS & downloads now possible on your handset!

That sounded to me like Zain had done a rethink of their rather backward policy of limiting prepaid lines to WAP access only. I had some spare time yesterday and dashed over to the nearest Zain outlet, where I requested for full internet provisioning.

I was told that the system was problematic, but the guy I spoke with took down my details anyway. I got home around 5p.m. today and a few minutes later, I received an SMS configuration on my device. I saved it, took a peek and saw full internet settings.

In a few minutes, I was chatting on Yahoo Messenger via Slick, checking my mails, and doing all sorts of stuff. No tweaks. Just straight out-of-the-box.

There’s still neither EDGE nor 3G at my location. Yes; its gross. This is Lagos, where every other 3G-enabled network has almost seamless coverage.

So, it is official. Full internet is now available for prepaid subscribers on the Zain network. By the way, I got another SMS announcing that Blackberry service is also now available for prepaid subscribers.

Hop over to a Zain centre and specify that you want full internet service activated on your line. Then you can forget about using proxies in order to be able to browse on your PC. Alternatively, send SMS in the format, “internet sonyericsson P910i”, to 232 to get activated. If it doesn’t work, keep trying.

For those who may find the Zain internet configuration settings useful, here they are:

APN: internet.ng.zain.com
Username: internet
Password: internet
IP/Proxy: None

Well done, Zain. You are late, but hey, we’ll still throw a welcome party! And while we are at it, please extend EDGE and 3G coverage some more please.

Update: Official Zain Internet Provisioning: An Update

The Punch newspaper has launched its mobile site along with a paid mobile news service. According to the official statement from The Punch, paid subscribers to the mobile site will also enjoy “the exact digital version” of the Punch’s printed daily.

The subscription fee is N600 monthly (amounting roughly to N20 daily), and payments can be made by cash, ATM cards or Visa cards.

The monthly fee is moderate, in my opinion, but I am not sure that people will take up this service en masse. Why? Other sites offer basically the same news item for free.

Anyway, I visited the Punch mobile site at http://mobile.punchng.com, and the layout is clean, simple, and usable on mobile. The Punch is offering a free 7-day trial, and I tried to subscribe but hit an error page along the line. Find screenshots and captions below.

Punch mobile homepage

Clicking on the Top Stories link on the homepage led to this page listing the top stories of the day

Clicking on a link on the top stories page results in a prompt to login. Below the login form is a link that says, Free Trial

On this page, I am asked for my phone number in order to subscribe for the 7-day free trial

When I proceeded to subscribe for the free trial, I was aksed for my phone number, which I entered, but got an error page repeatedly each time I hit the submit button

Opera’s State of the Mobile Web presents the statistics for mobile web usage from January 2008 to January 2009 – and the fastest growing mobile web countries are Armenia (with over 2800% growth), followed by Nigeria (with 1854% growth).

According to the report, which is based on usage of the extremely popular Opera Mini browser for mobile phones, other notable countries include: Egypt (1391%), Philippines (570%) and Kazakhstan (419%).

Nigeria is still not in the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (ranked by # of unique users). Here’s that list:

1. Russia
2. Indonesia
3. Ukraine
4. China
5. India
6. South Africa
7. United States
8. United Kingdom
9. Poland
10. Germany

But at the current growth rate that Nigeria is pushing, it shouldn’t be long before the West African country shows up on the Top 10 list – and probably climb all the way to the top. Nigeria is currently number 12 on the Top 35 countries (unique users) list.

With a huge chunk of the country’s geographical mass now being covered by fast-growing GSM networks, internet access has reached many hitherto unreachable places for the first time in Nigeria.

And with more people owning and/or having access to mobile phones than PCs, the mobile internet is set to be the next big thing in the country. Nigeria has a population of over 150 million people, most of whom have no access yet to the internet.

The full report is available at: Opera: State of the Mobile Web report.