Africans Use Mobile Phones for Roles Beyond Communicating

Africans Use Mobile Phones for Roles Beyond Communicating CIO.com: "African mobile-phone users are increasingly turning to their devices for functions beyond making calls, said speakers at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology panel discussion on Friday."

IDG News Service — African mobile-phone users are increasingly turning to their devices for functions beyond making calls, said speakers at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology panel discussion on Friday.

In a continent with limited infrastructure, phones serve as income boosters, a teaching tool and wallets, according to speakers during a session at the Africa 2.0 forum.

The predominance of pre-paid phones in Africa means that "air time is exactly equivalent to cash," said Nathan Eagle, CEO of Txt Eagle, a company he started in 2008 that aims to help mobile-phone users in developing nations earn income with their handsets.

With Africans spending 10 percent of their yearly income on air time, Eagle said the question becomes: "How can we think of the phone as a mechanism to compensate people?"

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Movies for development

The UK Guardian newspaper's development website is exploring the impact that film can play in development.

In this case it is largely focusing on films in which living standards and human rights are central to the story.

I think it can be argued that any film in which people's lives are portrayed realistically can be highly influential in shaping perceptions of the opportunities and challenges of development. A big issue, therefore, is the lack of realism in cinema, the relative lack of indigenous cinema in developing countries and the limited circulation of media between people of different cultures. Globally, the dominance of highly funded, escapist US cinema has a strong influence on perceptions of living standards and sets unrealistic aspirations for millions. This in turn fuels personal dissatisfaction, migration and related social disruption. It is a complex issue, perhaps worthy of a movie...

(Image: Osama, 2003)

Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle?

Media analyst Nielsen Co. has published interesting infographics about the US market shares of competing mobile platforms.

This is an interesting juncture, with RIM, Apple and Google's Android equal at 26-27% each. Windows almost nowhere to be seen.

Apple and RIM are notable here visually because they make their own hardware. Is Android's spread over other handset makers a strengh?

Expect this picture to change in the next 12 months as all three major platforms have new tablet computers coming, but also face a rising challenge from Nokia smartphones running Windows. Nokia has largely been absent from this race due to poor smartphone software and difficulties working with US carriers, but that looks to change.

Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle? | Nielsen Wire