Emerging Mobile Technology Opportunities

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to come across an email from an event organizer for Microsoft inviting me to attend a conference that was to be held at the Stanley Hotel Yesterday unfortunately i read it a day late!next is an invitation by Ecomm (Emerging Communications Conference)to consider attending their second Emerging Communications conference (eComm), which will be held on March 3-5, 2009 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View USA.

The invitation follows a number of articles that i have written nine about the ICT industry in Kenya and Africa generally and have been featured in various websites.It is insightful to note that the mobile ICT industry is the sector to watch in this communication and technology era. Consider the following facts why all investors should gear their thoughts towards this area:

• There is an estimated 3.5 billion mobile phones worldwide as compared to 1.5 billion Television sets,1.2 billion Personal Computers....talk about market reach.With Apple I-phone and Google Android open software platforms ,the mobile industry is about to be rilled in a way not seen before.The barriers to innovation are slowly being lifted and this has manifested itself in various mashups.With goophone soon to be launched,this is a space to watch!
  
• Mobile phones and other gadgets of such nature are relatively cheap,accessible, easy to handle,ship and transport in bulk,relatively easy to operate.They are highly interactive(interoperability) without need for cabling and other things of the sort!
• Emerging new technologies to wit: VoIP3G, WiMAX, LTE, WiFi mesh, 4G, UWB, SDR and wireless grid technologies represent massive opportunities for the multi - trillion dollar telecommunications industry.

While most certainly im unable to enumerate in details all the benefits and opportunities that emerging technologies portend for the mobile telecommunication industry in this short post most certainly i believe the mobile phone sector is Africa's next flagship to neo-development !The Governments need to enhance the infrastructure to tap this new developments,provide investor incentives and at the same time encourage more of their Citizenry to become and or remain relevant and technological savvy if indeed Africa is to benefit.

The Ecomm Conference 2009 ofers the attendees an opportunity to continue re-thinking and re startegizing on how to enhance and tap into the opportunities that emerging global communications industry continues to offer.

Last years sponsors featured tech giants including but not limited to the following:



The list actually features who is who in the industry and all the major tech companies: i.e Gogle, Yahoo,vodafone,Motorolla,Netflix etc were adequately represented! I just wish the local guys could make a habit of convening together to startegize, re- think, share ideas, encourage start ups and showcase their innovation with the general public !...Kenya Data Networks, Ushahidi, Safaricom,Zain Kenya Gogle Kenya, Econet Wireless,Telkom Kenya,Yahoo, Microsoft East Africa,Africa Online, Wananchi online etc....hope you guys get the drift. The silence among local players is almost deafening!




Off the cuff i take this opportunity to congratulate Pamoja Media for launching an African Online Ad Network that will serve as the link between advertisers and webmaster/publishers in Africa and ensuring that more local(African) content adverts are displayed on African Websites whle providing Advertisers an easy interface platform to the publishers. But Joshua lets be real on the qualifying factor for African website affiliates for your site,just thinking how many African websites out there get more than 100,000 website visits a month from locals?I hardly think so. Many boast about such number of unique new visits but the truth isnt really so! At the same time most African websites tend to have more visits from foreign Countries (mine is evidence of this fact see the geocounter)away from the conteninent! Hence visits may not just be the basis but local popularity,site quality and geographic content should be a key indicator!You just will have to manually review the sites or come up with an ingenous algorithm for that task.
Kudos for local startups!