Bright Future for African Mobile Phone Applications

By Andrew Meyer on June 18, 2007

I find the recent growth of mobile phone use by low-income Africans to be fascinating. They are quickly showing us that mobiles phone, not PCs, are the computers of the future for the developing world.

The growth of mobile phone use amongst low-income Africans will be beneficial to the developing world as a whole. It will provide a laboratory for creating a sustainable relationship between technology and the developing world.

Mobile phones provide an excellent platform for meeting the needs of low-income users. They’re an excellent platform because they provide a cost-effective way for companies to bring uniquely tailored products and services to the poor via the internet.

The future for creating mobile phone applications for low-income Africans is so bright that MIT recently opened its Entrepreneurial Program for Research on Mobiles (EPROM) in coordination with University of Nairobi (Thank you Tim O'Reilly for the heads ups).

The mobile phone programming curriculum will teach both Ethiopian and Kenyan computer science students to build mobile phone applications for the African market.

I’m sure this MIT/University of Nairobi relationship will prove to be vastly successful.

Related Posts:

Cell Phone Banking Will Bring A Microfinance Revolution
Its about time cell phone banking came to the US. Before banks like Bank of America, Wachovia and Citibank jumped on recent cell phone banking...
The Big Picture With The Under $2 a Day Crowd
I think we are going to start seeing more and more companies seeing the big picture in regards to low-income users in developing nations. How?...
Google Phone: Whenever It Comes, It Will Be Great For Developing Countries
Man, it seems like every blog I’ve read over the past week or so has been buzzing about the ever-elusive Google Phone a.k.a. Gphone. Engadget...