iconnect (september2013)
DESCRIPTION
IT news, views and reviews on AfricaTRANSCRIPT
BEST
PHOTO APPS:
iPAD
iPHONE
ANDROID
Bayo Puddicombe
Co-Founder, Pledge 51
Steven Evans
CEO, Etisalat Nigeria
Obi Asika
CEO, Storm 360 Elinor Shields
Development Editor, BBC
iConnect September 2013
IT news . reviews . interviews
MAXIMISING
MOBILE
FOR
DEVELOPMENT
PG. 3 PG. 5 PG. 7 PG. 9
PG. 4
PGs. 6 & 8
I N T E R V I E W S
2 iConnect | September 2013
How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services impact-
ing mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria? Smart phone penetration is currently low possibly approaching
10% penetration, maybe less. However, most of these devices
readily connect to the internet via mobile operator data net-
works and are quite data hungry. As smart phone users gained
access to higher capacity mobile data networks (3G), some
have actually discarded their primary internet service providers
as data speeds from the mobile networks are beginning to com-
pare reasonably to what can be obtained from ISPs. This trend will possibly continue as more people adopt smart
phones as their primary mobile device.
In your opinion, which companies are spearheading in-
novation in the region and what can be learnt from
them?
Firstly, I would like to put things in context by saying that
innovation is relative. What is considered mundane in
developed markets could actually be quite innovative in another
context. My definition of innovation is combining technology/
tools from disparate fields and combining them in a way that
solves significant problems. With that said, I think Sproxils is doing some fantastic things
with SMS based technologies in providing drug verification
services.
Who are you most looking forward to meeting/hearing
from and what do you hope to achieve from taking part
in NigeriaCom?
I think just being at NigeriaCom would give us a fantastic
opportunity to meet with stakeholders across the mobile/digital
landscape.
www.pledge51.com
Com World Series: How is your company positioned in Nige-
ria and what are its future objectives?
Bayo Puddicombe: We are one of the pioneer mobile game/app
development companies operating in the Nigerian space. We
recently launched our mobile gaming community, Chopup, which
integrates all of our portfolio games and allows users to trade
achievements and points between content items. Our primary objective is to unleash the potential of African content
in the mobile gaming space.
What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affect-
ing your business in the region in 2013? In no particular order, I would say that these are the top three
trends affecting the region; Faster data networks; Smart phone
penetration; Mobile payment systems
Although, we are already seeing the emergence of fast data net-
works, there’s still quite a way to go in getting the most out of our
data infrastructure. It would really go a long way in improving user
experience for data hungry games and applications.
Research shows that in most African countries, 2G networks will
have to be supported for quite a while due to a mobile device
distribution tilted more towards feature devices and dumb phones.
We do know that smart phones can take full advantage of the
possibilities offered by higher capacity data pipes, so as their
penetration increases there will be increased consumer demand for
high bandwidth and data capabilities.
Mobile payments is also a key link in the value chain and we expect
that in a before long, some of the mobile money providers will
finally unlock the magic formula for enabling m-commerce in
Nigeria. This could easily spurn the emergence of several
innovations in the local technology space.
What are the remaining challenges in terms of connectivity
and quality of services in the region and which technologies
are most likely to resolve these issues? Connectivity and quality of service has always been a major
challenge in Nigeria. The emergence of wireless data plans from
mobile operators made significant impact in bridging some service
to the region. However, it’s obvious that this is not sufficient to
address the data needs of an emerging market of this size.
What we really need is high-speed fibre-based connectivity straight
to homes, offices, businesses, etc in all major cities across the
country. Until then, we cannot have the right kind of infrastructure
to support this market.
Bayo Puddicombe
Co-Founder, Pledge 51
INTERVIEW 1
Welcome to the September 2013 edition of
iConnect. A major event for the month is the Nigeria
Com conference & exhibition , which takes
place at the Lagos Oriental Hotel [Nigeria],
17-18 September, 2013. We feature four interviews in which the Com
World Series team catches up with Nigeria
Com delegates to find out about their busi-
ness experiences, and expectations for the
country’s leading telecoms event.
As the economics of mobile markets shift, we see that
data is taking over voice as a highly commoditised
source of revenue. Mobile Network Operators [MNOs] desperately want to
avoid becoming so-called ‘dumb pipes’, as opposed to
‘smart pipes’ [offering unique services and content
beyond just bandwidth and network speed]. Mobile content providers, too, realise that the next killer
app is what consumers are after.
Enjoy the read.
Anne Agbakoba Editor
3 iConnect | September 2013
6 Best Photo Apps: iPhone, iPad & Android
01: Handy Photo: http://bit.ly/13ZXOvL 02: Frametastic: http://imaginaryfeet.com/frametastic/
03: Camera+: http://bit.ly/OUb12n
04: Factune: www.facetuneapp.com
05: Gélo: http://bit.ly/1e3Onz3 06: PhotoshopTouch: http://bit.ly/ZZGbq7
Here is the definitive guide to the best photo apps around, covering iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android apps.
Some you won't have heard of, others you will be more familiar with. None are going to replace a DSLR and a
few hours with Photoshop CC, but they are all great at what they do...
4 iConnect | September 2013
Com World Series: How is your company positioned in
Nigeria and what are its future objectives?
Steven Evans: When we launched commercial operations in
2008, we had one goal in mind – to turn around the telecoms
industry, exceeding every Nigerian’s expectation of what a
telecom organization should be. We went ahead to develop
Etisalat’ s business strategy based on four strategic elements –
Innovation, Quality of Service, Customer Focus and Efficiency/
Value for Money.
With these core pillars The Etisalat team operate on a daily basis
with an outstanding sense of Customer Centricity – this along
with Innovation (in products & services) has become the major
positioning of the brand.
The Etisalat brand has also enjoyed an amazing affinity with the
youth market to date and has a phenomenal percentage of its
base between the ages of 18 – 24. Moving forward, we intend to
continue to push this affinity with innovative products and
services that speak directly to our customers.
What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are
affecting your business in the region in 2013?
The top 3 trends here can only be summarised with the phrase
“Data, Data and more Data”!
As voice revenues level out, data, over well designed, well
deployed, well managed 3G networks, is the next frontier for
telecoms in Nigeria. Market growth in this 3G era is a major
focus with over 55% (nearly 8 Million) of our subscriber base
being data users.
This evolving behavior means the market, our customers need
data-driven propositions, tariffs, content and Apps that provide a
new and exciting communications experience. Recent launches
like our very popular EasyFlex tariff, an exclusive partnership
with award winning music App Spinlet and collaborations with
major device manufacturers for low cost smartphones all tick our
brand values of Innovation & Customer Focus ensuring improved
data usage on the network.
The quality of our network, and therefore our service, is the key
to unlocking the potential of our base and so we have a very
aggressive focus on utilising the best possible network solutions
to lead in this market.
How are Smartphones/tablets and cloud services impact-
ing mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?
In comparison to markets in the West, Smartphone penetration
in Nigeria is relatively low at around 15%.
Key to driving the goals mentioned above will be the right device
choices for our customers. We recently launched a new, low-cost
Android Smartphone with Chinese device manufacturer, Techno.
This move puts more and more data-enabled devices in the
hands of the Nigerian Subscriber, driving our market
forward.
What are the remaining challenges in terms of
connectivity and quality of service in the region
and which technologies are most likely to
resolve these issues?
Power is the most disruptive issue for all mobile
operators in the region. The lack of a viable, existing
structure for power and fixed-line telecommunications
presents a huge challenge to network expansion and
improvement. Moving forward, efforts must focus on
feasible solutions to extend networks and
manage traffic in the absence of these basic
structures. Fibre, Wi-Fi and LTE will be key to
reaching the market’s full potential.
Who are you most looking forward to meeting/
hearing from and what do you hope to achieve
from taking part in NigeriaCom?
The concept of the event itself, bringing together the
ecosystem of the Nigerian telecommunications market
is an exciting one. Well done Informa! I’d have to say
I am certainly looking forward to hearing from our
Minister of Communications and the Regulator on how
they will continue to successfully collaborate on
driving this great success story. Inevitably, contribu-
tions from my operator peers will be insightful as we
increasingly team-up to face some of our shared
challenges. Finally, as this ecosystem expands, I’m
excited to understand how we can better serve our
client base with innovative partnerships on content
and mobile functionality.
www.etisalat.com.ng
INTERVIEW 2
Steven Evans
CEO, Etisalat Nigeria
5 iConnect | September 2013
6 iConnect | September 2013
Com World Series: How is your company positioned in
Nigeria and what are its future objectives?
Obi Asika: I am focused on content and the ability of mobile
to deliver across many segments, from education to music,
from movies to comedy and sports.
We have been in the forefront of validating authentic and
original Nigerian content and we want to be in the forefront of
monetising it, mobile is disrupting all the media industries
and in Nigeria we want to be amongst those early players
who are able to ride the changes and take advantage.
In this regard the importance of social media is key and one
will share insights from the inaugural Social Media Week
Lagos held in Feb 2013 and i believe that the advent of
e-commerce 2012-2 in Nigeria and the growth of cashless
banking and retail are all moving us forward to even more
reliance on mobile devices.
What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are
affecting your business in the region in 2013?
I think everybody is beginning to understand the importance
of local and relevant content, no point having 110m devices if
you cannot offer them unique experiences.
The increased speed of broadband is critical and one is
watching the advance of LTE, and firms such as Binu and
others who are focusing on the feature phones.
In Africa and Nigeria one must not get too carried away with
smart phones when 80% of the market is feature phones, but
must be prepared for this to turn around massively over the
next 18months
What are the remaining challenges in terms of connec-
tivity and quality of services in the region and which
technologies are most likely to resolve these issues?
Again as above the key issue now would be network capacity
and quality for the mno’s and then broadband access and
speed for consumers, it will be very interesting to see how
LTE plays out in Nigeria and of course as mentioned some of
the companies working on compression technology to enable
content be experienced on feature phones as well. We are
clearly moving into the era when Data will dominate all con-
versations and Nigeria is clearly in massive need of data ser-
vices and content.
How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services
impacting mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?
At the elite level there is enormous adoption but these
numbers will still be small compared to the entire market.
However these tools are in the hands of managers,
entrepreneurs, and companies.
Soon i expect public institutions to become more automated.
It is interesting to see what states like Ekiti are doing with
their OPON_IMO educational project where they are providing
tablets to secondary school students, i think we will see a lot
happening with these devices and education and health
services delivery in Nigeria. I think this is a space everyone
needs to watch especially all the developers working on local
tablets but the key will be their ability to scale and move
forward to meet mass demand and perhaps challenge
established models.
In your opinion, which companies are spearheading
innovation in the region and what can be learnt from
them?
I think Etisalat, Samsung, Techno, Huawei, are amongst the
leaders in this regard and i think its about mindset and how
they penetrate and work with the local community and focus
on the needs and aspirations of their consumers and target
markets locally, those who make the effort to differentiate
their offerings for the local consumer is always likely to win in
any market.
I think brands such as mi-fone who are launching their
devices into this market should serve as a lesson for local
entreupeuners, they build their own brand and are now com-
peting, we cannot always be receivers of product surely.
In terms of content and services one must continue to watch
the various hubs especially CC Hub and some of the
outcomes.
I must mention Tony Elumelu Foundation and also Nokia who
supported the release of the Efiko app and again this is both
disruptive and innovative.
Who are you most looking forward to meeting/hearing
from and what do you hope to achieve from taking part
in NigeriaCom?
I think my primary interest is to engage and dig further into
the ecosystem to see how we can create better, stronger,
multi-purpose content that works on mobile and is relevant
for our primary audience, how we can do this and monetise it
and make it first national, then continental and finally global,
these are my primary objectives and i am keen to engage
and hear from all who have done this already and those who
are interested in the power of our content and by this i focus
on Nigerian content (from music to movies, from sports to
comedy, from motivational to religious, there is a huge
opportunity beckoning and i believe there are new models to
drive further investment and revenue opportunities for all the
stakeholders in the ecosystem.
INTERVIEW 3
Obi Asika
CEO, Storm 360
7 7 iConnect | September 2013
8 iConnect | September 2013
8 iConnect | September 2013
Com World Series: How is your com-
pany positioned in Nigeria and what
are its future objectives?
Elinor Shields: The BBC is the most
trusted and established international
public service broadcaster in Africa,
providing live radio, television and digital
services.
Some 96 million people in Africa
choose the BBC for news every week,
and we are strongly positioned to move
forward, as a leading digital news pro-
vider.
Our objective now and in the future is to
continue to provide independent and im-
partial journalism that people can find
and enjoy on their preferred choice of
platforms and devices.
What do you think are the top 3
major trends that are affecting your
business in the region in 2013?
The mobile opportunity in Nigeria is
significant for the BBC, given the
country’s mobile appetite and its position
in Africa, and with BBC Hausa a key
mobile-first digital market.
So the first major trend for us is that
more Nigerians than ever can consume
audio and video-rich content online,
thanks to the growth of digital data and
availability of enhanced devices.
However, increased competition in televi-
sion and radio makes it harder for audi-
ences to navigate the vast number of
a v a i l a b l e s e r v i c e s .
So in complex, fragmented markets,
audiences increasingly seek out the
brands they trust. Broadcasters in West
Africa are keener than ever to broadcast
BBC programmes on their channels and
stations.
What are the remaining challenges
in terms of connectivity and quality
of services in the region and which
technologies are most likely to
resolve these issues?
The incomplete roll-out of reliable mobile
data connectivity is still a big challenge.
Network congestion can result in a poor
user experience for video, audio and
other forms of enriched content, because
of the cost and length of download times.
At the BBC, we aim to optimise our
mobile offering to fit real-world condi-
tions, based on what our audiences tell
us. We are doing this through responsive
design that is adapted for features
phones up, and we are creating content
and embracing working practices which
work for the devices.
How are smartphones/tablets and
cloud services impacting mobile/
internet service providers in Nigeria?
Audience research tells us that feature
phones are still the dominant mobile
entry point in Nigeria, with a variety of
simpler handsets accounting for four-
fifths of current consumption.
So we need to ensure that both subscrib-
ers with feature phones and the increas-
ing pool of smartphone users can benefit
from our proposed enhancements. Our
responsive design strategy is built to
serve these complex realities.
In your opinion, which companies
are spearheading innovation in the
region and what can be learnt
from them?
It is a truism of entrepreneurship that
the best ideas often burst out from
groups combining a diverse range of
skills and expertise.
NigeriaCom is a great opportunity to
see that in action, with content and
service providers coming face to face
with network operators and manufac-
turers.
Who are you most looking for-
ward to meeting/hearing from
and what do you hope to achieve
from taking part in NigeriaCom?
As I mentioned above, it’s a terrific
opportunity to connect with every
dimension of mobile life in Africa,
which is why I’m so excited to be
making my first trip to Nigeria. I’m
looking forward to meeting represen-
tatives from every area, with my
African colleagues.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio
A NUMERIS-MEDIA Publication
Editor Editorial Assistants
Anne N. Agbakoba Elizabeth Okereke, Bukola Allison, Olusola DaCosta
Production Administration
Jean-Luc Atelier Michelle Bezomo
www.numeris-media.com | [email protected] | @numerismedia | +234 705 300 8894
INTERVIEW 4
Elinor Shields
Development Editor
BBC World Service
9 iConnect | September 2013