The smart continent.
| Author | Holmes, Beth |
The rate at which Africa has adopted mobile phones in the past decade speaks volumes about the region's economic potential. Now that well over half of the population have access to a handset, mobile connectivity has not only transformed how people communicate--it also signals a leap forward for business
The commercial opportunities presented by Africa's mobile revolution have encouraged western IT giants such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Google to establish footholds in the region from which to expand. With demand for both hardware and software services plateauing in mature economies such as the EU and the US, the vast growth market that Africa represents is also of particular interest to investors from China, India and Russia. But no two countries in this complex and diverse continent present the same challenges--particularly infrastructure constraints--for a new entrant of any size. It's fair to say that South Africa's mobile industry differs from that of Angola, for example. Yet Angola, with no cable network providing fixed broadband whatsoever, can still offer 4G connectivity. In this case, skipping a technological generation doesn't seem much of a hindrance.
"Africa is the world's fastest-growing mobile telephony market and is driving the mobile-only approach," says Andre Hugo, director of Deloitte Digital. "This is evident in the fact that the number of mobile connections has grown by 44 per cent here in the past 12 years, with 700 million active connections predicted to be in use in sub-Saharan Africa by 2016. We see mobility as a driving force that will fundamentally change the face of business and the economy in Africa."
Gustavo Fuchs, who runs Microsoft's Windows Phone business for the Middle East and Africa, concurs. He believes that there's a real desire for "new products at the right price. The market has taken an opportunistic view of Africa."
Paul Roberts, co-founder and director of ForgetMeNot Africa, which has developed technology enabling any mobile to send and receive email and messages on any carrier's network, confirms that there is a "large pent-up demand. There's a very large emerging middle class that is aware of technology services and products, but until recently has not had access to these because of political, financial and/or infrastructure constraints."
Mightier than the sword
So what will be the impact of the mobile boom and the access to the web it's enabling? The most dramatic example has been...
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