Up on first inspection, there are two notable details that stand out completely. First, is its beautiful, thin, uni-body as well as wafterproof design and secondly, its breathtaking specifications. Let’s take a closer look.

The Design

The iphone was the first phone to introduce the concept of unibody design to mobile phones. Sony took it a step further by introducing the water resistant feature. This means that people will no longer have to worry about water damage accidents.

The Specifications

The Xperia Z has a ridiculous 1.5 ghz Qualcomm quad-core processor with 2gb of ram, a 16 GB internal storage with up to 64 gig expandable sd card and a beautiful 5 inch display. Moreover, the xperia z also has a 13 megapixel camera at the back as well as, a 2 MP front facing camera. Most shockingly however, is its weight. It is unbelievably very light than it looks, probably lighter than any of its competitors in the same category.

Furthermore, this device also boasts the most standard features expected to be found in any modern high end smart phone. Things like Near Field Communication (NFC), an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass … are all included.

However, one little hiccup I experienced with this device is the positioning of the speaker. For right handed users, this will turn out to be problematic because the speaker will be blocked/covered by the palm when holding the phone vertically. This shouldn’t be an issue for the left handed users.

The performance

Sony did a great job to optimize Android 4.1.2 to really run smoothly on the Z; this manifests its self in the improved performance of this device, especially when multitasking and when running applications that require a lot of resources like graphic intense games. The performance remains consistent and there aren’t any issues of crashing or freezing whatsoever.

In Conclusion …

After the long publicised split with Ericsson there was a misconception that Sony had lost its magic touch in the mobile phone market. But this misconception is now totally disproved by the Sony Xperia Z.

The Xperia Z is no doubt, one of the best, if not the best, mobile phones on the market right now. One good reason why you should seriously consider getting it if you are due for an upgrade soon, is the pricing. At R369/pm on MTN contract, it is the cheapest in comparison with the HTC one, the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5.

It is still very early to speculate, but the Xperia Z is really not that far from emulating the successes of the iphone and the Samsung galaxy brand (GS3 and GS4) – Actually, with the xperia Z, I firmly believe Sony is in a very good position to challenge its closest competitors for market share and (ultimately) dominance.

At the present time, the video messaging space is greatly dominated by Skype and Google — However in an interview with the Wallstreet journal, Viber CEO Talmon Marco emphasized that Viber is not afraid to compete with the likes of google, Skype and other video messaging platform given their growth in recent months. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how they plan to position themselves in this space.

Perhaps, one differentiating factor by Viber desktop is that, unlike most video calling apps,  Viber allows the seamless porting of phone calls or texting started on the Viber mobile app immediately through to your desktop or laptop computer to continue with the same phone call and texting or vice versa. Google does this with texting on gtalk, but not with video calls, and it is also  exclusively limited to the Android platform. Yet, Viber provides the above mentioned feature on all the current leading platforms (i.e Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry 10).

Below is a brief video that explains how Viber Desktop works. You can download Viber for desktop/Laptop here, ( i have just downloaded the mac version), but as expected with a new piece of software, a few minor bugs should be experienced with the app at the moment.

image source : INC.com

There are clear signs of prosperity whenever a system, a platform or a piece of technology has reached its maturity level. Mobile advertising is officially the fastest growing domain at the moment — An important reality that needs serious consideration. Facebook (admittedly) woke up a little late when they realised the mobile advertising train had already left the station. Zuckerberg et al., couldn’t any longer afford to ignore the mobile space — They simply had to get onto mobile bandwagon. They eventually did (albeit late).

Today, the results speak for themselves — For instance, In the fourth quarter of 2012 alone, Facebook’s 23% of its 1.3 billion in ad revenue all came from mobile. More interestingly, analysts predictions expect this number to continue growing exponentially for the next 5 years or so before any signs for slowing growth can begin to appear.

Let’s put things into perspective.

This year alone, global mobile advertising grew from 6.4 billion dollars last year (2012) and just 4.2 billion the previous year (2011) to approximately 9.7 billion this year 2013. However, it doesn’t end there. According to research firm eMarketer, Mobile advertising is expected to continue this exponential growth, to approximately 20 billion in 2015 and a staggering 23 billion in 2016.

Recently, The Guardian reported that, in 2009 mobile accounted for just 1% of the total UK digital advertising market. Yet, three years later, in 2012 that figure rose to 10%.

Another astounding piece of statistic reported by the guardian, is that in the UK, Mobile display and video advertising grew 121% to £150m in 2012, with mobile search soaring by 164% to £365m. Mobile search accounts for 69% of total mobile ad spend.

The two biggest mobile advertising mediums right now are Facebook and Twitter. But all this could all change soon with the entry of Tumblr. Tumblr recently realised they were missing out on the action — they recently announced that they’ll be introducing mobile ads. Nevertheless,  Facebook and Twitter are expected to continue to dominate in this space. Facebook is expected to earn about $1 billion from its mobile advertising platform, while twitter is expected to earn 500 million.

Which begs the question — are you on that mobile advertising bandwagon yet? if not, what are you still waiting for?

In South Africa, more than 90% of the population have a mobile phone, a source of opportunity for mobile advertisers and providers alike. This implies that organisations that positioned well in the mobile space are poised to take advantage and generate some serious cash for themselves and for their investors.

Below is a  short video that explains how a big global brand in Adidas leveraged the mobile advertising plaftorm to engage its customers — generating a staggering 680% ROI in the process.

]]> http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/26/the-mobile-advertising-bandwagon/feed/ 0 http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/26/the-mobile-advertising-bandwagon/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AGroupOfWebAddicts/~3/rqyOCDX8LFY/ http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/18/one-million-rand-up-for-grabs-for-disruptive-tech-ideas/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:42:30 +0000 Yasser Buchana http://www.webaddict.co.za/?p=6016 Seed Engine — an initiative by venture capital firm Redwood Capital — is accepting applications for its second Business Accelerator programme of which R100 000 is being offered for up to 10 disruptive tech ideas  — That is a million rand in total. Moreover, to help promising entrepreneurs accelerate their ideas into full scale commercial realities, Seed Engine is also offering a 13 week boot camp programme which offers coaching, business mentoring, workspace as well as a chance to engage with investors on its demo day.

The first demo day will take place on the 3rd of May in Sandton, (Johannesburg), with more than R2 million per venture can be raised for second round funding. There are 6 startups which have already been selected from more than 300 applications to take part in the 13 week business accelerator bootcamp. Some of the startups already selected are also in the running for international startup contest. These are the following:

IntelliCred.com
Founder: Shana Kayis
Profile: IntelliCred an online brand protection and authentication business that enables businesses to protect their brands, control their members and affiliates and increase their revenues through secure and trackable channels and trust seals.

ChowHub
Founders: Ismail Dhorat, Alireza Sadeghi
Profile: ChowHub is an online restaurant discovery and order platform built to satisfy its customers. The team have developed a user-friendly system that will ultimately be the destination food platform for all restaurants and customers.

Cirqls.com
Founders: Mark Karimov (CEO), Donovan Solms (CTO)
Profile: Cirqls is an online shopping site that brings trust into the online shopping experience by connecting buyers and sellers via their social circles, creating a new channel of e-commerce.

After-Class.co.za
Founder: Bryan Vlok
Profile: After-Class.co.za is a social education network which offers peer-to-peer support for students and teachers across school borders, allowing users to share relevant curriculum based content and updates with their communities.

Zehoo.me
Founders: Robin Bayhack (CEO), Adrian Sandu (CTO)
Profile: Zehoo.me is a mobile document aggregator that grabs, filters and organises users’ documents from multiple sources, in a simple and easy to use manner. The app is geared to enhance the user experience – they currently grapple with the problem of having multiple boxes of information.

OnQ
Founder: Dimitri Mallis (CEO)
Profile: OnQ is a services that optimises restaurant processes, making them more efficient throughout the dining and retail experience.

If you are a promising enterpreneur and would like to enter your start up in the Seed Engine challenge — you complete the application process by logging onto www.seedengine.co.za

here’s what makes The Seed Engine model unique:

1. A highly competitive application process
2. Seed capital in exchange for equity
3. Focus on small teams, not necessarily one founder
4. Intensive mentoring and coaching and a fixed calendar of events
5. Ten ventures per accelerator programme
6. Introduction to investors for further funding
7. International exposure.

Seed Engine’s next programme begins in June, 2013

Part of this capacity building, is a business plan competition of which more than 250 companies have entered from all around the world. For the South African leg of the competition, 20 companies were selected as finalist. These are the following:

Chowhub  /@sadeghisa

Cirqls  /@cirqlsdotcom

Cyclocor  /@cyclocor

Dream Mobile  /@rezalife

Easy 2 Map  /@jessello

Nabidi Power Company

IntelliCred  /@shanak

Iono.fm  /@ionofm

Medical Diagnostic  /@ashleyTUys

MiJSPorts  /@charlehoffman

Mimiboard Umuntu  /@Johan12

Mobiflock  /@mobiflock

Perk  /@jessello

Real Time Wine  /@realtimewine

SpringLeap  /@springleap

Tastewise 

Teach Me 2

Tr3dent  /@tr3dent

Valuation Up  /@garethochse

Wabona  /@wabonaonline

The 20 chosen finalists will then compete against one another for the 6 places up for grabs to represent South Africa at the U-Start BLOOM international event.  The South African leg of the business plan competition will be held at the Bandwidth Barn ( 66 Albert road, Woodstock ) on the 11th April 2013.

The 6 finalists will represent South Africa in the final at the Ustart international event which will be held in Milan (Italy) from 11 to 13 May.

The 6 local winners will win:

1. Flights and Accommodation for 2 nights in Milan, Italy
2. Mentorship, incubation, training, one-on-one introductions to a wide network of pan-European investors
3. Market linkage opportunities through client and supplier introductions, a network of mentors and industry experts.
4. Being pre-selected for the Cape Town chapter of Seedstars World.

For more information about the South African leg of the U-Start BLOOM business plan competition, you can send an email to info.za@u-start.biz

PriceCheck mobile app — an African price comparison service orperational in South Africa and Nigeria— was chosen as one three finalists along side The Hoyts Cine app and the Cooklet app for Blackberry’s international App of the Year contest. The contest is run by Blackberry, whereby blackBerry worldwide users are given a chance to vote for the winning app.

Pricecheck’s app for the Blackberry 10 plaftorm allows users to check and compare product prices from a multitude of online and offline stores as well as access to user reviews. Moreover, the app also features a barcode scanner which makes it easier for users to check for prices. It is built on HTML5 and JavaScript.

Pricecheck’s mobile app is also available on other platforms such as iOS, Windows Phone 7/8 and Android. PriceCheck’s success is owed to the rapid growth of online and mobile shopping in South Africa in recent years. PriceCheck claims that it processes through its application, a new barcode every 10 to 20 seconds. That’s remarkable milestone.

If you are a regular PriceCheck user and would like to see PriceChecks’ winning, the contest runs until Monday, April 15 at 5:00 PM ET (10:00 PM GMT +1), you can cast your vote here . The winners will be announced at BlackBerry Live event which takes place from the 14 to the 16 of May .

]]> http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/05/pricecheck-mobile-app-chosen-finalist-at-international-mobile-app-of-the-year/feed/ 0 http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/05/pricecheck-mobile-app-chosen-finalist-at-international-mobile-app-of-the-year/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AGroupOfWebAddicts/~3/ULLo3vT0x6Q/ http://www.webaddict.co.za/2013/04/04/reflections-from-the-business-of-music-music-exchange-2013/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:05:47 +0000 guest http://www.webaddict.co.za/?p=5936 Cape Town City Hall was jam packed at this year’s 3rd Music Exchange. The highlight of the conference certainly was when Trevor Jones addressed the crowd. He shared his incredible life story, his love for music and film. After being introduced, Jones received a standing ovation from the crowd — his emotions could not be contained from the overwhelming warm response that welcomed him home.

The conference was opened by SAMRO’s CEO: Nick Motsatse. Nick gave an introduction about what SAMRO is all about. Pfana Lishiva also of SAMRO, brought up the issue of ‘needle time’ — which makes the case for artists to collect royalties every time their songs are played on radio. Pfana stated that millions of rands are in needle time and that the government should change the laws to allow artists to benefit from their music. Pfana got quite excited and serious on this subject and also said that “if government doesn’t change these laws, we should stand together and not vote for them”.

Moenieba Abrahams from Musica addressed the issue of music retail and why it is important that artists cds/dvds should be in music stores. Moenieba argued that digital downloads is still not a feasible format to make money for both retail stores and the artists in South Africa.

However, a new model needs to be formulated which will find a solution to make this a feasible format for selling music since digital sales are strongly increasing in SA. Despite the growth of digital downloads, physical format remain the best selling in South Africa.

Moeniba then gave an example of new comer, Zahara who was relatively unknown two years ago. Music consumers got a taste of her music and a huge number of requests for her cd was coming into Musica. During that time Zahara’s cd was not available in stores. She had a very small record deal and the distribution was weak. Moenieba soon realised opportunity and then contacted Zahara with her record company. Moeniba told Zahara (and her record company) that if she Zahara could make appearances in to Musica’s different stores to sign cds Musica would distribute Zahara cds in their stores. As a result, Zahara was South Africa’s number one selling artist in 2012, only Adele’s 21 album sold more cds then her.

Gillian Ezra of Simfy — a music catalogue streaming service, which lets you choose from a variety of music and you pay for the time period you purchased — brought attention to the fact that listeners want a wide variety choice of music, and if music consumers are given what they want, they will pay. Gillan also argued that music streaming is a new trend and users seem to prefer listening to music this way, rather than downloading. Simfy is fast growing in South Africa and worldwide (with other streaming outlets like Pandora and Spotify). Listening to streaming audio is growing fast and this model might be the way forward and not music downloads. Online radio is also showing hype in popularity. Gillian further pointed out that listeners are now choosing what they want to listen to given that traditional radio has lost some of its power. Today, listeners create the track lists on radio and not the other way around as it used to be.

Rolling Stone’s editor and Chief Miles Keylock emphasized that Content is King. And that users will only respond to good content and that’s what makes rolling Stone SA magazine such a good seller. They are giving their readers what they want from month to month.

Further music greats like Vicky Sampson, Mynie Grove and Sipho “Hotstix’ Mabuse also addressed the audience. New comers Chad Simon, RJ Benjamin and many other also filled the room with their musical presence.

It is clear that this event is needed for the South African music scene and that artist (also up and coming) can only benefit from an event like this. Music Exchange will only get bigger and better in the future, I can’t wait for next year’s event.

Apple, at the moment it seems, has greater attraction power, with high revenue potential, app discoverability and relatively less development costs in comparison to its competitors. While Google’s Android has recently officially become number one mobile platform, in terms of users and device activations, however, it still falls behind Apple in attracting developers.

So, why exactly are more developers fond of iOS as their preferred platform ahead of the others?

According Business Insider’s the ‘Future of Mobile’, — which is a result of several studies conducted by Business Insider and its various partners — there are three reasons which explains this phenomenon.

(1) Android has a fragmentation problems

(2) iOS is where the money lies, and

(3) Apple has wealthy users (who don’t mind paying for apps)

The following slides, are extracts from the Future of Mobile according to Business Insider, tries to put things into perspective.

Obviously, these alone are not the only reasons why developers seem to prefer iOS to android. But if one analyses these slides, one gets a picture, although not entirely complete picture, but satisfactory enough to justify developer’s fondness of iOS over android. Meanwhile, Google has been working hard to bring some consistency to android apps development by simplifying the development process and addressing some of the fragmentation challenges in hope to attract more devs and to make android their preferred platform. iOS maybe dominating the game at the moment, but I get the feeling that, Android will (in the not so distant future) — if they can sort out these minor issues — win developer’s hearts and souls.

The music business model has changes drastically over the last decade and with new technology; the change is accelerating at even a faster pace. Social media has influenced the way music is distributed and marketed. What does this hold in for the South African music market and its artists?  Music Exchange is a 2 day music conference whereby some of the leading South African music industry professionals come together to share their knowledge. This year the independent conference takes place on the 21 to 23 March 2010 in Cape Town at the Cape Town City Hall. To get the full scope of music in South Africa, join the event on the above listed dates.

Eve Williams, Managing director of Cedar Communications describe content marketing as

“Branded content is no longer about simply selling the brand. It’s now about providing relevant services and advise to the consumer”.

She mentioned how they helped a big brand, Tesco on content marketing by distributing a free weekly newspaper on food to educate the consumer bout healthy tips and recipes. This experience was enhanced by creating a blog on which clients can share and exchange knowledge. For me this was a good strategy in marketing and to build a trusting relationship with the client.

Blogging has become an integral part of of marketing and content marketing. Sam Wilson, Digital Editor at Woolworths said that editors are moving into retail to write, edit and maintains these blogs and to manage content on websites. Sam also said that major clients should be professional on these blogs and not to say anything personal or harmful to the public, which might be harmful to the companies’ image. This is sometimes hard to do as some people can become personal on platforms like these and you need to distinguish, which is a customer concern/query and which are just total time wasters.

Julia Hutchinson pointed out that

“One of the biggest challenges of all for marketers is understanding that content is not just “stuff”, and if you want to really engage your target audience, your focus has to be on quality”.

Applications on mobile phones and tablets have also come under the spotlight in content marketing. Apps can be very useful on a compact device such as a cell phone to keep the user updated with new info and he or she can also give feedback on that particular info.

Apps are definitely going to play a big part in building content marketing and maintaining your customer audience. The event was well organised and very well presented.

Leon Lategan’s input on e-mail marketing was very useful. He pointed out that e-mail marketing is still an effective and relatively cheap way of marketing your product and to keep in touch with your client base. He further emphasized that email marketing needs to be useful to your product and say what you want to communicate. It also should not spam the reader (client), otherwise people will lose interest and you will lose customers this way.

E-mail news letters should be broken up, maybe in two different emails with the same message. This way you can try and see what works and what not. You should also play around with different buttons and descriptions to test if people respond to your ad. An e-mail newsletter should be monitored to see how many people actually reads it and if does what you want it to do. The subject line should be Useful, Ultra Specific, Unique and Urgent.

 Juan Karstel demonstrated that it is not necessary to be on all social media channels. Rather be on the top two or three and utilize them then to be on every social platform and not make fully use of them or to bored people with the same content over and over on other channels of social media. He also mentioned not to update the your different social media platforms at the same time, but rather to do it a few days later or to change the story a bit and to see on which channel the news/message gets through the most.

In conclusion, Social Media plays and integral part in marketing and internet marketing is really the way forward as it can be applied more affectively, timely and it’s more conveniently and cheaply than traditional marketing.

Part of the problem is that, despite price plans like per second billing, phone calls are still incredibly expensive in comparison to other places in the world. International calls need not be mentioned, they are even much worse. Nevertheless, users that are still paying too much, may soon be saved from the misery of paying a little too much than required for making phone calls.

They say the best things in life are free, so why pay for calls when you call for free? Yes, that’s correct; Viber is cross platform mobile application that allows for free local or international calls on your mobile phones, saving you enormous amount of cash in the process .

It works in 3 simple steps,

(1) Download and install the app

(2) Run the app, then automatically get a confirmation sms,

and

(3) Make free calls to friends who also have Viber installed on their mobile phones.

Viber works much like whatsapp, but with clear full voice capabilities. It also has texting feature, which allows sending images and videos for free. Moreover, It works on all the major platforms, namely, IOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Blackberry. However, the voice feature doesn’t work with Blackberry in South Africa, because of BIS issues. Nonetheless, with the new Blackberry 10, the voice feature should work impeccably when the app is announced.

This app is quite popular in Europe, where it has its largest user base, but to my surprise, Viber hasn’t really taken off that much in South Africa yet. I suspect that may soon change.

Viber is a real game changer, and I can already predict that, very soon mobile network providers will be ‘up in arms’ and will probably petition to get this app blocked in South Africa — because this app radically challenges and threatens the old fashioned carriers business models. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen (for now). Meanwhile, enjoy making free calls.

Nirvana is a web based task management app which is based upon Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology of staying organized. Getting things done is a concept which calls for writing down the intended tasks and projects, and then breaking them into smaller manageable tasks. Nirvana is both available on a free and paid options. The free option allows for unlimited actions, 5 Projects, up to 3 Reference Lists and a Secure SSL Connection. The paid option allows for access to unlimited features as well as a secure SSL connection. In terms of usability, Niravana is as good as it gets. Users can create Projects, Tasks and Reference lists. The only down side however, is that it doesn’t have mobile support.

DoIt.im is another wonderful web based task management app. It works in four simple steps. 1) Collect — which allows you to create tasks, 2) Manage and organize tasks, 3) review – which allows you to review tasks and finally 4) Pick next action and To-Do – which allows follow up with the next task. If you happen to be a ‘minimalism freak’, this app might just be the right app for you.

Wunderlist is a web app that allows for a seamless management of tasks as well as integration with the two leading mobile platforms (Android and iOS), and most importantly it is ‘free’ to use. It allows to the management of to-do lists as well as sharing of tasks with people in your circles, ( (ie. Family members or co-workers). What sets this application apart from the rest is that, regardless of which device you decide to use, it keeps all your tasks in sync and updated. In terms of aesthetics, design and functionality it is probably one of the very best out there.

Google Tasks is Google’s attempt to Task management. What sets it apart is that it is underpinned by Google’s integration with Gmail and other Google products like Google Calendar. If most of your online activities revolve around Gmail, it may be wise to give it a try. When you create tasks in Gmail, it gives you the option of sending the created tasks to people   — and if you have synced your cellphone number with Google Calender, it automatically sends you sms reminders for your tasks.

DropTask is a new web app that allows you to view projects and tasks by visually mapping them. If you intend to work with other people on projects, then this is probably the best application for that. What differentiates it from other task management applications, is its ability to manage responsibilities by assigning tasks or groups of tasks to different people on a project. The video below probably explains it better.

Then you’ve come to the right place. Every year Web AddiCT travels half way around the world, physically on a plane, to find out about the latest and most cutting edge techniques and best practices in digtal marketing. The common theme (or is it meme) at every marketing conference I’ve ever attended was that Content is King and we all have to get it right. No matter what type of business you are in, if anything about you or products and/or services can be read anywhere, you need a solid content strategy.

Since the Content Strategy Forum at Spier last year more and more international speakers are coming to Cape Town and sharing their wisdom.

• Are you ready for cross-discipline creating?
• Can you pinpoint your different audience segments?
• Do you know what resources you can draw on?
• What about ensuring consistent messaging across multiple teams and development cycles?

In an increasingly complex content ecosystem, we need to be able to collaborate, communicate and – dammit – convince our clients to take a leap of faith, putting money into focused customer relationships and not blindly advertising into the abyss. How do we do this? We build on solid foundations.

What are those solid foundations exactly? Find out at the Content 2013 Conference.

Once upon a time, life was simple. Retailers developed products. Advertising agencies made ads. Publishers and broadcasters owned media channels. And consumers sat at the end of the process, devouring said products without having much say in the matter. But along came “digital” and in true plot-thickening fashion, the wwworld changed forever. And not everyone lived happily ever after. The digital era brought forward new roles and new characters: retailers as media owners; publishers as retailers; brands as content creators; agencies as content marketers… Most importantly, everyone had a voice – and most notably the consumers. Want to know the whole story?

The line-up looks great with local speakers like Sam Wilson, Mike Sharman and Alistair King. Throw in some international heavyweights from the content strategy industry into the mix and it sure looks like it will be an awesome event. If time allowed I’d be there but unfortunately I’m in the middle of the biggest project of my life. I am sending someone to learn and report back though as the world of SEO, Social Media, Blogging and even more so mobile revolves around telling a good story with the content your create or curate.

I know you have some budget to spare seeing that we’re nearing the end of the financial year in South Africa. I’d advise you to invest that leftover budget in yourself, your employees or colleagues and let them attend Content 2013 Conference. Tickets are only R4850.

If you’re budget is a little tight, have no fear, use “webaddict” as the reference when booking here and receive a 20% discoount.

Easy as that.

Meanwhile, from a mobile operating systems perspective, it’s official — Android and Apple’s iOS are now the two market leaders. According to IDC, they both now control more than 90% the mobile OS.

The following chart explains it better.

Source: IDC

However, as the mobile phone ecosystem continues its worldwide exponential growth, I was particularly interested to explore how the two giants (Samsung vs Apple) stack up against one another in emerging markets.

It maybe said that, in terms of mobile innovation, the maturity threshold is fast approaching. Most consumers now days base their purchasing decision primarily on either sophistication or added value offerings — such as free cloud storage, or free access to third party services. However, in emerging markets, factors affecting consumer-purchasing decisions are very different in comparison to mature markets. In Emerging markets, Pricing is the name of the game.

In all probability, the number one reason that has driven a rapid adoption and growth of Android in emerging markets is its ability to run on lower end, low cost smartphones. Samsung has profited immensely from this, given that Nokia’s market share has been on a downward trajectory. Last year alone, Samsung released a total of 37 different phones, most of them being low and middle tier phones. Apple released just one. But Apple’s strategy for producing high-end smartphones works well for them. They sold 125 million iPhones last year, with many more sales expected this year in mature markets.

The one market they can no longer afford to ignore, however, is the emerging markets. According to IDC, the rate of growth in emerging markets is twice as that of mature markets. Thus, for the next 5 years, most growth is expected to come from emerging markets. Its been highly publicized in the media that Apple is working on a cheaper iphone model, to possibly seize a chunk of this market. But whether the idea of a cheaper iphone materializes, it remains a mystery (for now at least). Nonetheless, Samsung is expected to unleash many more cheaper phones on the market, which will in turn probably put it in the driving seat as the number one manufacturer in emerging markets.

Mxit users can download the movie using the newly-launched Cinemo app. Lucky Man has been broken into 18 four-minute episodes. A new episode will be uploaded every weekday at 10am from 18 February 2013. Cinemo is an app within the Mxit Reach ecosystem, the platform for social good within Mxit. Marlon Parker, VP of Mxit Reach says, “We know the power of video and want to use this to encourage conversations about social issues such as drug abuse, HIV/Aids and gangsterism. Cinemo has three content streams. It has movies, of which A Lucky Man is the first, public service announcements on issues such as condom use, and music videos like Freshly Ground’s popular, ‘Take me to the dance’.”

Since Cinemo’s launch in January, the app has attracted over 90 000 subscribers. “Most importantly we have seen great conversations happen around the social issues raised. These chats are used to raise awareness of and direct users to Mxit communities and services where they can get help should they need it. With one click a user can go from a conversation about drug abuse to the Angel Network, our anonymous drug counseling service,” says Parker.

“A Lucky Man reflects many of the incredibly difficult social issues South Africans face. I am looking forward to the conversations these episodes inspire,” says Parker. Written and directed by Gordon Clarke, A Lucky Man follows Ernie ‘Lastig’ Solomons on his search for identity and belonging in a society smothered by crime, violence and abuse. The movie raises questions of identity, destiny, self-preservation and how in the end all of us are our choices.

Mxit’s Cinemo app has been specifically designed for feature phones and is compatible with over 3000 handsets. The files are compressed for the feature phone market and are never larger than 2mb. Many of the public service announcement videos are smaller, often only a few kb. “Cinemo combines education, entertainment, counseling support and information into one application. We are keen to see our community’s response to A Lucky Man,” concludes Parker.

To add Cinemo as an contact please go to Mxit > Tradepost > Mxit Reach > Edutainment > Cinemo

A Lucky Man will be released in cinemas country wide on the 29th March 2013.

Mobile commerce may have taken some time to take off, but some of that hindrance may be attributed to a number of issues that previously affected ecommerce back in the days of its infancy. Consumers were previously hesitant to make online transactions because of issues of trust, privacy, security, etc …

However, over time, as the ecommerce platform grew more stable and secure, consumers learned to trust it and gradually became more confident in using the platform. As a result, today ecommerce is responsible for transactions worth billions of dollars.

Now, with the emergence of the mobile revolution, the tables have turned — some of the same issues that previously surrounded ecommerce are now surrounding mobile commerce. Yet, unlike in the past, the majority of mobile users already are comfortable with the technology. Although, issues of trust and security are still affecting the rapid adoption of m-commerce, a significant number of users have already jumped onto the m-commerce bandwagon. In fact, a recent IDC research report predicts that the worldwide mobile commerce industry will surpass $1 trillion by 2017.

For organisations looking to grow their businesses, mobile commerce is potential a gold mine. More over, it provides the opportunity to keep customers engaged. How? The following video will give you an idea of how a South Korean company called HousePlus became the number one online/m-commerce retailer in Korea by leveraging the mobile commerce platform.

Here are 3 simple strategies to help keep customers engaged through mobile commerce:

1) Know and understand your customers:

Customers are the most important assets to the business — thus knowing and understanding them, will help paint a clear picture their needs, wants, concerns and expectations. This will in turn help to create a rich customer experience strategy.

2) Evaluate products or services to offer through M-Commerce.

Mobile commerce is not the only solution to your customers’s needs — therefore, certain products or services will not necessarily suit the m-commerce platform. it is  therefore imperative to identifying the products or services to offer tailored specifically for the needs of the mobile user. In many instances, companies can find the solution to this, by tracking their user’s purchasing behaviour.

3) Be flexible, Support numerous mobile platforms:

For obvious reasons, supporting numerous platforms will give you a competitive edge to tap into your various customers’ demographics. At the present time, with respect to tablets and mobile phones, Android and iOS seem to be the two leading platforms — but it would be unwise to ignore the resurgent blackberry and Windows Phone platforms.

One thing that came to my surprise is that, during 2012 a 4G connection generated about 19 times more traffic on average than a non-4G connection. Interestingly enough, 4G connections only represent 0.9 % of mobile connections today, and already account for 14 % of mobile data traffic. That’s very remarkable, given that 4G is still not widely adopted in most countries in the world.

Global Heatmap by Year of LTE Deployment (Cisco, 2013)

Moreover, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase immensely between 2012 and 2017 and Africa is where the most of the growth will be expected to take place, as the report points out that, Africa and The Middle East will have the most mobile data traffic growth at 77% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

According to Cisco, here is what will take place with respect to mobile traffic within the next 5 years.

• Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes in 2017.

• The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2013.

• The average mobile connection speed will surpass 1 Mbps in 2014.

• Due to increased usage on smartphones, handsets will exceed 50 percent of mobile data traffic in 2013.

• Monthly mobile tablet traffic will surpass 1 exabyte per month in 2017.

• Tablets will exceed 10 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2015.

The predictions in the report reaffirms (yet again) that mobile is the future lest you still have any doubt. For a much more comprehensive outlook, you can download the report here for free.

Over the last few years, Mxit has enjoyed unparalleled success in South Africa as the leading IM provider on mobile phones. Meanwhile its biggest competitor 2Go has been getting significant traction across west Africa, particularly in Nigeria where it has its largest user base. It’s only until quite recently that Whatsapp entered the African market, despite it’s privacy issues, it was able to disrupt the status quo, and immediately grab a very large chunk of users.

In such a rapid growing industry, where the number of users is a direct reflection of innovative products or services, users are unforgiving for not staying innovative. People will seek better services elsewhere. That being said, I was interested in getting a sense of the state of the consumer web search interest between the three leading mobile chat providers (2Go, Mxit and Whatsapp).

So, how do they stack up against one another. Google trends is a brilliant tool that allows to perform such an analysis.

The results paint a very interesting picture.

The above graph is a result of Web Search interest between Mxit, 2go and Whatsapp in South Africa for the past 12 months. What is interesting to note is that Whatsapp only eclipsed Mxit around August last year (2012). There also seem to be an inverse relationship between Mxit and Whatsapp interms of the search interest.

The following is for Nigeria.

and finally, i did the same for Kenya.

It’s true that users in Africa are hungry for innovative mobile services. there seem to be something about new mobile technology market entrants that captures the imagination of thousands. The only problem is sustaining the feel good factor by staying innovative. In Whatsapp’s case, it’s obvious that the trend is that it will continue its growth around the Africa over the next few years.

Come to decide that the things that I tried
Were in my life just to get high on
First I sat alone, become a little known
But we need more than ourselves this time

Step from the blog to the tweet to the skype
And I do believe it, we rely on
When I lay it on come get to play it on
To Googlebot we sacrifice

Hey oh, listen what I say oh, I got your
Hey oh, now listen what I say oh

When will we know that we really can’t go
Analytics more time to decide on
When it’s killing me, (not provided) really see
All that I need to look in SERPs?

Come to believe that I better not leave
Before I get my chance to rank
When it’s killing me, rank checks, really need?
All that I need to look inside

Hey oh, listen what I say oh, ping back and
Hey oh, look at what I say oh

The more I see the less I know
The more I like to let it go
Hey oh, whoa

Deep beneath the cover of another Google patent
This is no longer SEO
All this (not provided) by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go

In between the cover of another Google patent
it’s much more than SEO
Scrolling through the stream
Where all my tracks won’t be concealed
And there’s nowhere to go, ho!

When to descend to amend for a friend
diversify channels that have broken down
Now we bring it up, I’m gonna ring it up
Just to see you tweet & plus.

Step from the blog to the tweet to the skype
And I do believe it, we rely on
When I lay it on come get to play it on
To Googlebot we sacrifice

Hey oh, listen what I say oh, I got your
Hey oh, listen what I say oh

The more I see the less I know
The more I’d like to let it go
Hey oh, whoa

In between the cover of another Google patent
it’s much more than SEO
Scrolling through the stream
Where all my tracks won’t be concealed
And there’s nowhere to go, ho!

In between the cover of another Google patent
it’s much more than SEO
Scrolling through the stream
Where all my tracks won’t be concealed
And there’s nowhere to go

I said hey hey yeah, oh yeah
Web we love now
Hey hey yeah, oh yeah
Web we love now

Deep beneath the cover of another Google patent
This is no longer SEO
All this (not provided) by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go

In between the cover of another Google patent
it’s much more than SEO
Scrolling through the stream
Where all my tracks won’t be concealed
And there’s nowhere to go

I said hey oh yeah, oh yeah
wwworld we love now
Hey hey yeah, oh yeah

If none of the lyrics made any sense to you I’d suggest watching the video of the event yourself

Take a look at the following chart

The following chat is a result of a survey done by ChangeWave Research, of which 4061 people were surveyed. Astoundingly, 71% of iOS users reported to be very satisfied with their mobile OS, compared to just 48% of Android users who felt very satisfied with their mobile OS. Interestingly enough, more than half (53% to be exact) of Windows Phone users felt very satisfied with their mobile OS.

if this was a popularity contest, Android would surely be at forefront, with more Android activations than the number of babies being born, but unfortunately for Android, popularity and satisfaction are two different factors.

It also seems like larger smart phone screens are in demand. According to the same research, 52% of respondents were interested in buying phones with screens between 4 to 4.9 inch screens, while 27% were interested in 5inch and above.

In conclusion,

While it occurs regularly that most reviewers in the media seem to have their own unofficial decree about which mobile OS is the best, quite often it is largely a result of their personal sentiments — However, the data tend to paint a totally different picture.

For a comprehensive analysis of the results  of the Changewave research, find out more here, but before that, let’s run our own mini Web AddiCT’s poll. Tell us in the comment section, which mobile OS are you running,  and if you are ‘very satisfied’ with it?

Competition in the mobile social network space is a good thing. Hot off the heals of the new 2go version, a new MXit android app has just been released. MXit version 6.4.0.1946 runs on almost every Android version from 2.0 Eclair to the latest and greatest Android Jelly Bean 4.2.

12 new features of version 6.4 of MXit for Android:

1. Improved screen layout
2. Improved quality of photo sending and visiuals.
3. Improved search screen layout
4. Improved start-up speed.
5. MXit speed dial (I’ll find out more about this for you next week)
6. You can now ‘Cut & paste’
7. Simpler invites that a more social
8. Improved memory handling
9. Swipeable screens
10. Pin your favourites to your home screen. (Not to be consufused with forgetting your MXit pin.
11. A new home screen
12. Larger profile pics
13. Decreased data useage

With the new CMO and a few other smart moves it appears 2013 is going to be an exciting year in the wwworld of Africa’s biggest Social network. Open the Android Makret or Google Play store and download the new version today.

You can now read Web AddiCt(s); on MXit by adding ‘webaddicts’ or ‘rafiq’ as MXit App. Join over 3000 other daily readers.

Mxit is a free online social network and mobile instant messenger.
Highlights of this release are decreased data usage; larger profile pics; improved memory handling; simpler, more social invitations, cut-n-paste functionality and the Mxit speed dial.
Connecting you to millions of users to chat, play and trade. You can download and share photographs and video, view galleries and meet new people in the themed chat zones as well as escape from reality and win prizes with our multi-player and single-player games.
Using their virtual currency, Moola, you can purchase a huge selection of wallpapers, skins, ringtones, emoticons and avatars to personalise your handset.

It works on almost 3,000 different handsets and various platforms, including BlackBerry, Android, iOS, J2ME and Windows. This latest release runs on a wide range of Android versions from Android 2.0 Eclair, right through to the latest release, Android 4.2 Jellybean.
With the fresh, new look and enhanced navigation and contact add, Mxit is ready for you to start chatting today.

New 2go version 3.5 released!

They have released a new version of 2go which has many small fixes and enhancements. We have listened to our users and will be rolling out many new features over the next few months.

Download it at http://wap.2go.im on your phone

Enjoy the new version and let us know your comments and suggestions!

Here is the low-down on 2go if you’ve never heard of the 2nd biggest South African mobile messenger.

When exploring your self-hosted blog, the next question people tend ask is “What plugins do I use for my blog?”…The answer to that is it all depends on the blog you have since different plugins serve different needs. Since there are many plugins to choose from, below is a list of “must have” plugins to kickstart and grow your blog with:

Photo by yoppy http://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/164145237/

10 Must have WordPress plugins to GROW your blog:

1. Akismet: This is a default plugin that comes with your self-hosted blog and protects your blog from spam comments. Very useful plugin that could save you hours of checking spam mail.
2.  Wordpress SEO by Yoast: Earn your way to the top of Google’s search ranking with a bit of SEO with a plugin such as WordPress SEO.
3. Social: Social is a good tool to use for broadcasting posts to social networks by a click of a button.
4. Digg Digg: If your content is good, people will want to share it. Digg Digg is a good plugin to add vertical/horizontal share buttons to your posts/pages.
5. Google Analytics for WordPress: Part of the fun of having a self-hosted blog is being able to see who and where your blog is reaching. A perfect tool for it is Google Analytics for WordPress.
6. No Self Pings: Internal backlinks on your blog results in trackback comments which could lead to being penalised by Google. The best way to avoid this is to install the No Self Pings plugin.
7. BackWPup: After enjoying the fun of blogging, the worst thing that could happen to a blogger is for your blog to be hacked! Make sure your content is secured and backed-up with BackWPup.
8. mxPress: If you want to increase your reach and also make your blog accessible to the mobile audience on MXit, then this would be the plugin to for you.
9. LinkWithin: When stumbling upon a post on your site, the chances are most likely that a reader would more content related to the topic. Best way to do this is to install a plugin such as LinkWithin, showcasing related posts beneath your articles.
10. W3 Total Cache: With the excitement of exploring and installing too many plugins, you could end up with a slow blog site. Increase the speed of your site with a cache plugin such as W3 Total Cache.

For additional plugins, always remember to check the ratings, amount of downloads and what people are saying about it. Happy Blogging!

We now have all of those attributes of a culture that’ll tolerate. But they’re not tolerating that weird guy or that weird woman that will work seven days a week, obsessed with flying or building a rocket.

We now use that same metric and what we want is people that are extreme at sports in which the goal is literally to knock somebody unconscious.

It’s now, I understand, the fastest growing sport out there. We put on the pedestal the people that are the most unusual in terms of bounce, bounce, bounce, and throw.

Facebook seems to think otherwise. In fact they believe Web Search and Graph search are completely different, claiming that they serve a different purpose:

” … Graph Search and web search are very different. Web search is designed to take a set of keywords (for example: “hip hop”) and provide the best possible results that match those keywords. With Graph Search you combine phrases (for example: “my friends in New York who like Jay-Z”) to get that set of people, places, photos or other content that’s been shared on Facebook. We believe they have very different uses.

Another big difference from web search is that every piece of content on Facebook has its own audience, and most content isn’t public…”

Yeah right! Okay, we believe you facebook.

Web search might be ‘different’ from Graph search in the eyes of Zuckerberg and his team, and although most content isn’t public, but that’s only for now. It only takes a few tweaks in the algorithm as well as the terms of use, to make it an entirely different ball game.

Web search giants, Google and Bing might have dominated the game for while, but in the not so distant future, facebook’s graph search will surely disturb and disrupt that dominance. However, ‘Graph search‘ might not necessarily compete immediately on the same scale, but all the ingredients are there to suggest their long-term outlook for this product is to be the ultimate go to place for search on the web. Think about it, can you possibly imagine any website, at the present time, without a facebook ‘Like’ or ‘facebook share’ button?

Here’s a short video of Zuckerberg and his facebook team explaining what facebook graph search is all about — it should at least, give you an idea of what and where they are aiming with this product.

Nonetheless, there are many characteristics to an open government. Perhaps the most fundamental one is that – an open government is expected to have at least some kind of API and hope that, the API would induce collaborative relationships between the government and its people — to create unique solutions that appeal to its citizens’ problems as well as their respective communities.

I recently came across a very thought-provoking TED talk by Beth Noveck, the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the white house, which emphasises the importance of an open-source government.

Beth Noveck argues that “We live in a Cambrian era of big data, social networks, and we have the opportunity to redesign these institutions…”

She further articulates, “… if we want to see the kinds of innovations, the exciting and hopeful innovations … if we want to see them adapted/adopted, if we want see them scale, if we want them to become the governance of tomorrow, then we must all participate. We must all get involved. We must open up our institutions … ”

Finally, she makes two very bold predictions about the open government revolution that we are hopefully going to be seeing developing:

The first phase of open government revolution is, delivering better information from the crowd, into the center.

The second phase is getting decision-making power out (to the people).

Last year, it was around this time when I published a post about the need for a government API in South Africa. It appeared that (at least) the provincial government had taken note. Whether or not something was done about it, it remains to be seen. But one thing remains certain, sooner rather than later, our government, both Nationally and Provincially will have to act swiftly in making APIs available to the public or face the embarrassment of being deemed incompetent by its own (digital) citizens that are keen to make a difference.

SEOmoz is a Seattle based company that creates some of the world’s best SEO software. They are visiting Cape Town in January 2013 to meet the Cape Town SEO community.

Each year SEOmoz goes on a vacation to destinations near and far from their head-office to meet SEOs from other parts of the world, to share their love of SEO and to have a holiday away from the Mozplex.

SEOmoz selects MozCation destinations, based on nominations from their community of more than 250,000 members.

In July 2012, Andre Van Kets and Allen Jaffe — members SEOmoz and South Africa’s White Hatter’s community — compiledthis video and infographic, which resulted in Rand Fishkin announcing Cape Town as one of three MozCation destinations for 2012/2013.

Here’s the initial Mozcation Cape Town announcement… To our American friends coming to our beautiful city, Cape Town is not spelt Capetown. It is 2 words. Web AddiCT looks forward to seeing you there.

However, some cynics may insist, that there is no need for yet another mobile platform, but from what Ubuntu promises to deliver with its new fresh ‘iconoclastic’ phone, another mobile platform revolution might very well be on the cards. Nonetheless, competition breeds innovation and in the end, the consumer is always the ultimate winner.

Do you see yourself using the Ubuntu phone in the near future? We would like to know, what are your thoughts on the Ubuntu Phone?

See the video below for more details on the new ubuntu phone.

Dave Duarte‘s talk at TEDxUCT. No more posts until 2013 unless something happens that’ll change the wwworld. Enjoy the longest day of the year Southern Hemisphere.

Presented at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference – Jan 25th 2012- London (LWF 12)

Last week, Yahoo, which owns photosharing service flickr, released its completely overhauled iphone app. A bold move in an attempt to bring back the ‘coolness’ in flickr, which had largely been neglected for quite some time by its parent company. Given the positive reviews the app has been receiving across the web, this could perhaps be the perfect opportunity to re-position flickr not as an alternative to instagram, but as the ultimate preferred photo sharing service anywhere on the internet.

Now, Instagram, which has been enjoying an unprecedented popularity since it’s inception, decided to update their Terms & condition — giving them the authority to sell its users’ photos without their consent; Big mistake. Some professional photographers using the service felt undermined, causing an outrage which was followed by a mass exodus. Meanwhile, instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom, yesterday decided to take matters in his own hands to ‘clear the air’ of confusion. This is what he had to say in a blogpost:

“… I’m writing this today to let you know we’re listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion. As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we’re going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos…”

Yet again, much like when facebook changed it’s privacy terms a few years ago, angering millions of its users, also prompting Zuckerberg to do some damage control — couple of years later, the same question still remains: Is there really such a thing as a ’100% free service’ without any catch?

Nonetheless, in the tech industry, they say timing is a very important ingredient, especially when it comes to product release . In Flickr’s case, however, the timing of the release of their app coinciding with instagram’s mass exodus, could result in an opportunity they would gladly relish; ie: to capitalize on instagram’s mistakes. Amid all the scramble for users, Flickr could easily turn out to be the eventual winner —That’s if they can deliver at least an android version of their iphone app.

Meanwhile, if you’re still upset about what instagram does with your photos, freethephotos.com is really awesome ‘free’ service that allows you to migrate your instagram photos to flickr.

The public vote phase has just begun and will run from 19 Dec 2012 until 28 Dec 2012 at 23:59.

If you received an email yesterday, that means your blog has been nominated or you nominated yourself. That embed code will automatically place a VOTE badge on your blog.

When your readers click on the VOTE badge, they will be directed to the SA Blog Awards website. Their vote for your blog will automatically be entered. Should your blog be in more than one category, the VOTER may choose to vote for you in both categories.

Voters will be sent a confirmation email, which they will have to respond to in order to confirm their vote. The process allows them to vote for only one blog per category. Should your voter decide to vote for another blog in the same category you will lose the original vote, as their new vote will override the initial vote.

It’s empty promise time from many South African bloggers again pimping for votes. I wonder, if winning an SA Blog Award has improved any of the winner’s blogging. I’m going to stick on the vote for me badge and see what happens.

There are many lessons to draw from his success story; but perhaps, the two most important are: how he keeps his customers engaged and ‘happy’ in a fiercely competitive environment.

So, how does Amazon keep its customers engaged and what can we learn from it?

Lesson 1: Build a Customer-Centric Organisation.

According to Bezos, Amazon’s model of innovation begins with the customer and then works backwards. The real ‘meaning’ here is, building a customer centric organization. To most companies, this is not the case and quite often, this is confused with PR or marketing departments that are usually tasked to only gather feedback information about different services or products they offer, in order to find out how they can be improved — yet, they end up not learning anything about their customers.

What does it mean to build a customer centric organisation?

HBR argues that building a customer centric organisation is all about building a company “… through the lens of the customer rather than the producer…”. Although it may also be argued that, from time to time, some customers may not know exactly what they want, however, the underlying idea is, getting to learn and understand what challenges customers face in their lives and then “providing mutually advantageous solutions”.

Keeping customers happy?

Lesson 2: Provide Lowest Possible Prices.

Now days, regardless of the industry, keeping customers happy and sustaining it, are probably  two of the most challenging tasks for any company to accomplish. Given that consumers have way too many choices and very little time — inevitably, this causes ‘pricing’ to become a very important factor. Customers are always hunting for bargains wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. But providing low prices simply does not automatically turn customers into happy species. Instead it’s sustaining it — in such a way that — customers/users will always have your company as their preferred destination for their needs.

To keep customers happy, Amazon is always looking to offer lower prices in comparison to its competitors. Obviously, in order to accomodate this, there are certain internal tradeoffs and sacrifices they have had to make —  like  cutting down on the free food for their employees.  These sacrifices may translate (in one way or another) to cost cutting in order to provide cheaper prices for their customers.

Finally, To be successful at keeping the wheels of innovation turning for the long term, there are many factors companies have to take into consideration, and will usually be different with every organisation. Yet, in these ‘hard’ economic times, there seem to exist a common denominator with the most successful of companies like Amazon, Google and Apple — that is by doing two things well: (a) creating the best experience for the users/customers, (b) making sure users/customers are always happy (by all means necessary).

Hi Rafiq,

Did you know that Ford has technology that can help you drive safely by limiting distractions? I know automotive news and trends aren’t normally what inspire you to write, but that’s why I think you’ll be interested in this invitation. Ford wants to share their story of innovation, technology and design with you during their Digital Summit at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this January in Detroit, Michigan. Your dedication to safe driving and your tech savvy nature makes you a great candidate for this experience.

Ford’s NAIAS Digital Summit offers behind-the-scenes access to the inner workings of Ford. Here is a snapshot of some of the events we are offering:

• Welcome dinner at the famous Henry Ford Museum, featuring exhibits like LEGO Architecture, Presidential Limousines, the bus Rosa Parks famously rode in, and more. The Ford program will kick off with remarks from Global Social Media lead, Scott Monty, and Chief Creative Officer, J. Mays.
• Test drive Ford’s newest and best vehicles while learning about our dedication to safety;
• Visit Detroit’s Tech Shop, which offers the creative community tools, software and space to “build their dreams”. Ford executives will discuss AppLink, Ford’s program that opens up Ford technology to developer ideas;

Our program is from Sunday, January 13 to Tuesday, January 15. Ford handles transportation costs to and around Detroit, meals, and accommodations. We’d be delighted to have you as our guest in Detroit! If you’re interested, please get back to me by December 12. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have, and we’ll work with you on confirming your flights, your hotel, and securing your schedule for this exciting opportunity.

What is a Web AddiCT to do? How should I respond to Ford’s invite? Comment below and let me know…

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. It is a social bookmarking site that allows the user to collect and share photos of just about EVERYTHING. Launched in 2010, it already boasts more than 10 million monthly users. It is the fastest growing social network online and is the third largest such network just behind Facebook and Twitter respectively. It allows the user to create a pinboard and express their likes and dislikes. In a world where your online popularity is of utmost importance, Pinterest is the almost visual version of Twitter in that other users can follow you and re-pin your images to their followers . This site is a huge hit with women. Some refer to it as Facebook For Girls and, with 70 per cent of it’s users being of the fairer sex and countless pins of scantily clad menand cute kittens, this statement is easily justified. Users are encouraged to use their pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes and share recipes. Some have been known to refer to Pinterest first thing in the morning get tips on how style certain items of their clothing in the trendiest ways.

Being an avid reader, I found the thought-provoking pins most interesting. This hugely reduces my reading time as I can now spend up to hours browsing the pins of other users and re-pinning images that I like. I mainly use Pinterest for personal amusement but it can also be used in a more professional capacity as it allows the business owner to build an online community, upload and share rich visuals of their products and/or services. They can also engage with their online audience in a safe and cost-effective manner. Pinterest makes it easy for other users to find and share your visuals.

The person who sent the message was Neil Papworth. We’ve rather appropriately conducted an interview with him via SMS (160 character limit per message):

What was the idea behind trying to send a text message that day?
Neil> We were demonstrating that txt msging worked outside the lab.

Why were you picked to send the message?
Neil> I was one of a number of ppl testing and had done much of the installation & integration on the customer site.

How did you check the message was delivered, where was the receiving party?
Neil> Richard Jarvis was @ the Vdf [Vodafone] Christmas party. A colleague next to him was on the phone (how old-fashioned!) to a Vdf mgr next to me.

How did you come up with “Merry Christmas” on December 3rd? Did you think it would take that long to deliver?
Neil> What else would u send to a Christmas party ?

What was the moment, the atmosphere like when the message was sent and delivered?
Neil> It was a professional moment. We were under pressure 2 deliver, & we did. When it works, u just think “GR8 !”

When did you realise you were the pioneer of a majorly successful global communication tool?
Neil> Ha, well I didn’t even think about it b4 it was widely reported on the 10th anniversary. So, about 10 yrs ago !

What impact did the SMS have on your life personally?
Neil> I continued working with SMS for almost 20 yrs. Every yr I get a good 5 mins of fame, from coverage in the local paper 2 starring in a Superbowl ad!

What was the most important or most memorable SMS you have sent or received?
Neil> Announcing the births of my 3 kids 2 family & friends.

What famous person would you like to send a text message to and what would you write?
Neil> I’m a big F1 fan. I’d txt fellow Brit Jenson Button & say, “C u @ the race in Montreal. Fancy a pint ?”. U got his # ?

Who should never text you?
Neil> My kids. Until they r old enough 2 own a phone & pay the bill themselves.

Imagine you had the chance to send a text message to all mobile phones in the world – what would your message be?
Neil> Don’t txt & drive!

When did you write a real letter for the last time?
Neil> OMG. When I was @ Vodacom in Johannesburg I wrote some letters 2 my mum ! That was maybe 1994 !

20 years later and SMS is still one of the best ways to get your message to as many individuals as possible. With, Bulk SMS provider, Clickatell‘s new APIs its easier than ever to integrate SMS into your start-up’s mobile app, add SMS to your blog or integrating text messaging as part of Customer Relationship Management.

NATIVE Inventions, as part of its mandate to make technology accessible to the masses, has launched a new Mxit application, ‘GetThere’ – a directions app which uses the Google Maps API – which can be used on all feature phones.

“Though statistics indicate that smartphone usage in South Africa will significantly increase over the next few years, we also know that the majority of South Africans don’t have access to smartphones, or the Internet, and so we wanted to create an affordable, accessible platform that reaches the broadest base possible,” says Levon Rivers, head of NATIVE Inventions.

He says the free GetThere app can be used on any feature or smartphone using Mxit. It allows users to input their starting point and end-point addresses. The route is mapped out on a step by step basis, using listed directions and supporting images. “It’s basically smartphone technology for feature phones,” states Rivers. The nice thing about this app is that it is versatile, commuters can use it to get directions to a specific destination whilst they are travelling in a taxi, visitors new to a city will find it useful, promotion companies can use it for their field operators, or parents can use it to assist their children, and more, he adds.

“GetThere and the other Mxit applications from NATIVE Inventions are free and supported by mobile advertising. By working on these types of products, we keep our skills on the cutting edge and also provide utility for our customers going forward,” says Rivers.

Read the full story at MarketingUpdate

To add GetThere as an app on MXit simply add “GetThere” as a contact. If you didn’t already know, you can get this site as an app on MXit by adding “webaddicts” or “rafiq” as an app. Join thousands of other readers who consume and share our Web AddiCTion on their phones.

1. Find my iphone: Works on Apple devices.

This app works across all the Apple devices (iphone, ipad, ipod touch..) — it helps locate any of your Apple devices on a map.  Find my iPhone also allows for a remote deletion of your personal information when your phone has been stolen. For a comprehensive review of the app, and how you can download the app find out more here.

Limitation: only works on Apple devices.

2. LookOut : Works on Android and iPhone devices

LookOut also allows for locating, tracking, remote locking or / and deletion of your private information when the device has been stolen. For an in depth review on how you can install it, find out more here.

Limitation: The application is free, but most of the functions are available for premium users.

3. Blackberry Protect: Works only on Blackberry

Some blackberry users might be familiar with this feature because it comes preinstalled on most newer blackberry phones. This app also allows for tracking and locating the stolen or misplaced phone on a map and also allows for device locking to prevent your data from getting in the wrong hands.

Limitation: Only available for blackberry users.

4. Find my phone : Works on Windows phone 7 / 8

Find my phone is a feature included in windows phones 7.8 and allows for tracking . locating and pretty much perform similar functions as all these other apps.The only limitation is that it’s also only available on the windows phone platform and you have to got through a few processes to activate the feature.

5. Cobra Tag: Android, blackberry, apple devices (iphone/ipad).

The really cool thing about this application, is that it’s a really goes beyond mobile phones and becomes useful for just any other valuables that might get lost or stolen like keys, bicycles.

Let us know (in the comment section), what ‘security’ application you currently use on your phone and why.

Samsung Extended Its Lead in the Smartphone Market Widening the Gap with Apple

Egham, UK, 14 November 2012 — Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached almost 428 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a 3.1 per cent decline from the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 per cent of total mobile phone sales, as smartphone sales increased 46.9 per cent from the third quarter of 2011.

While the mobile phone market declined year-on-year, Gartner analysts said there were positive signs for the industry during the third quarter.

“After two consecutive quarter of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “In China, sales of mobile phones grew driven by sales of smartphones, while demand of feature phones remained weak. In mature markets, we finally saw replacement sales pick up with the launch of new devices in the quarter.”

Smartphones continued to fuel sales of mobile phones worldwide with sales rising to 169.2 million units in the third quarter of 2012. The smartphone market was dominated by Apple and Samsung. “Both vendors together controlled 46.5 per cent of smartphone market leaving a handful of vendors fighting over a distant third spot,” said Mr Gupta.

Nokia slipped from No. 3 in the second quarter of 2012 to No. 7 in smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2012. RIM moved to the No. 3 spot with HTC not far behind, at No. 4. “Both HTC and RIM have seen their sales declining in past few quarters, and the challenges might prevent them from holding on to their current rankings in coming quarters,” added Mr Gupta.

While seasonality in the fourth quarter of 2012 will help end-of-year mobile phone sales to end users, Gartner analysts said that there will be a lower-than-usual boost from the holiday season. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents.

Samsung’s mobile phones sales continued to accelerate, totalling almost 98 million units in the third quarter of 2012 (see Table 1), up 18.6 per cent year-on-year. Samsung saw strong demand for Galaxy smartphones across different price points, and it further widened the gap with Apple in the smartphone market, selling 55 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012. It commanded 32.5 per cent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Nokia’s mobile phone sales declined 21.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, but overall sales at 82.3 million were better than Gartner’s early estimate, largely driven by increased sales of the Asha full touch range. Nokia had a particularly bad quarter with smartphone sales, and it tumbled to the No. 7 worldwide position with 7.2 smartphones sold in the third quarter. The arrival of the new Lumia devices on Windows 8 should help to halt the decline in share in the fourth quarter of 2012, although it won’t be until 2013 to see a significant improvement in Nokia’s position.

Apple’s sales to end users totalled 23.6 million units in the third quarter of 2012, up 36.2 per cent year-on-year. “We saw inventory built up into the channel as Apple prepared for the coming holiday season, global expansions and the launch into China in the fourth quarter of 2012,” said Mr Gupta. With iPhone 5 launching in more territories in the fourth quarter of 2012, including China, and the upcoming holiday season Gartner analysts expect Apple will have its traditionally strongest quarter.

In the smartphone market, Android continued to increase its market share, up 19.9 percentage points in the third quarter of 2012. Although RIM lost market share, it climbed to the No. 3 position as Symbian is nearing the end of its lifecycle. There was also channel destocking in preparation of new device launches for RIM, which resulted into 8.9 million sales to end users in the third quarter of 2012. With the launch of iPhone 5, Gartner analysts expect iOS share will grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out. Windows Phone’s share weakened year-on-year as the Windows Phone 8 launch dampened demand of Windows Phone 7 devices.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Amith Maharaj, 8ta Senior Managing Executive, said; “Effectively it means that all South Africans can have access to Google Search, Google email and Google social networking by simply using any 8ta SIM card on any data enabled handset, no matter how old, free of charge.”

Luke Mckend, Country Manager, Google South Africa, said;“This gives people easier access to information in a way that benefits everyone, whether it’s an individual or a small business that wants to reach more people on the web.”

The service will be available immediately to all 8ta subscroners at freezone.google.com

The cheapest data bundle in South Africa is now free. You have to use your default browser on your phone and does not apply to tablets. Users without a Gmail account can sign up for free. When users leave the Free Zone to navigate deeper into a website or download an attachment they are informed about the data charges and given the option to purchase an appropriate data package. The service will be trialled until 31 May 2013.

Free Zone aims to put the web in the hands of more people. First time Internet users who haven’t purchased data bundles often find basic services like email, mobile web browsing and social applications to be very expensive. Using Free Zone, feature phone users can use the power of the web to grow their businesses or keep in touch with friends and family without the fear of unknown data costs and make more informed choices about their next data device.

Blackberry, Samsung Galaxy, iPhone 5, iPad, Notebook, mobile apps: In recent years it seems as if there has been an explosion of mobile technology. Our cell phones have become more than just devices with which we make calls to each another.

Which Mobile service provider offers the cheapest mobile data in South Africa? Check this infographic by moneysmart to find out.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch event which was held last week Thursday in Johannesburg signaled ‘a statement of intent’ Microsoft wanted to make with the release of the new operating system. Those who were fortunate enough to have attended the event can probably attest, it turned out to be a very awesome event. Mr Mteto Nyati, Microsoft’s MD in South Africa showcased (for the first time) the new Standard Bank app for windows 8 yet to be released, and strongly urged developers to build more local apps for the new platform.

First impressions of Windows 8 from a regular user’s point of view are:

1. Not only did Windows 8 meet the expectations given the high profile launch and publicity, it actually exceeded them.
2. It’s unfortunate that we no longer allowed to call the new tiles-based, touch-centric User Interface metro, but I am quite fond of the idea of having a seamless user experience across all the windows devices, (the laptop or desktop, phone and tablet). However, it takes a little bit of time adjusting to the new UI as a result of a few changes to the UI from the previous operating system. but after spending a little bit of time with it, the experience gradually becomes flawless.

In conclusion, it’s only been a short time running Windows 8, there are still probably a lot features yet to be discovered but as I continue personalising it to my daily needs there may be a few worth sharing with you over here. On Thursday the Windows Phone 8 is being revealed to us in Cape Town  with it,  Windows Phone 8X by HTC, the first Windows Phone 8 signature mobile phone to launch in South Africa.And yes, WhatsApp is available on Windows Phone 8 Will you do the Windows 8 Upgrade?

The chart above highlights just how things at MXit have changed over the last year since Alan has been at the helm. Never in it’s 8 year history has the wwworld been researching MXit as they are now. Show me another CEO/CMO or CTO that can achieve that? This is why your Web AddiCT believe the changes Alan brought to MXit will be felt by those investors who let him go many years after his name will be forgotten: There are only 3 reasons actually, or rather 3 people who Alan had join his team or continued to support.

• The MXit API – Gavin Marshall. Gavin has been with MXit as long as I can remember. He is also one of the minds behind the API. Only good things, like the WordPress MXit plugin, can come from this.
• MXit Cares – Marlon Parker. I’m a bit biased here but assimilating Parker’s world changing ideas into MXit cares will unlocks more opportunities for MXit in Africa than any suit could.
• TrustFabric – Joe Botha. The opt-out registry is pretty much part of MXit’s DNA is you ask me. The mind of Joe Botha always astounds. He is just awesome when it comes to doing business too.

No insults, no speculation, just good moves by Alan Knott-Craig jnr while he was at MXit. Much respect. MXit shouldn’t be looking for a CEO. They do need a new CMO though.

Now the question is, how do you make sure your app gets noticed in a way that will help attract more users and ultimately increase sales? The answer is not that simple, but the following short video gives a breakdown of the critical success factors for your app to stand out in the app store.

Enjoy

mxPress is a open source community project that helps Bloggers & Community based projects easily create Blogs (a.k.a “apps”) on Mxit.

In technical jargon, mxPress integrates the Mxit Mobi API from Mxit with WordPress. The mxPress plugin is made available by Kazazoom (Pty) Ltd under the open source BSD-3 license.

Instead of  developing a Mxit App, Site or Blog from scratch, you can set one up in a few minutes using the mxPress WordPress plugin for Mxit.

Coming soon. Web AddiCT(s); on MXit

The goals of the 2013 Prize are to:

• Mobilize leaders from all sectors to fuel African innovation
• Promote innovation across Africa in key sectors of interest through the competition
• Promote science, technology and engineering as rewarding, exciting and noble career options among the youth in Africa by profiling success applicants
• Encourage entrepreneurs, innovators, funding bodies and business development service providers to exchange ideas and explore innovative business opportunities.

IPA anticipates contributing to the following outcomes:

• Increased commercialization of research and development (R&D) outputs in Africa
• Increased funding of start-ups, adoption of new and emerging technologies and accelerated growth of an innovative and dynamic private sector; and
• Increased economic activity and African led development that results in lasting impact.

Find out more about the 2013 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) Looking for a list of some African Innovations? Check this African innovation spreadsheet crowdsourced at a coffee shop one sunny  weekend in Cape Town.

What is responsive design you may be thinking? Responsive Web Design is defined as a website that responds to the device that accesses it and delivers the appropriate output for it uses responsive design. Rather than designing multiple sites for different-sized devices, this approach designs one site but specifies how it should appear on varied devices. Check out the 36Man site on your desktop, tablet and mobile. The same experience at the same URL no matter where or how you access the site. Seeing that at least 20% of the visitors are mobile ensuring the pre-launch campaign was responsive enable 36Man to convert all visitors to email subscribers. I will not purposefully be part of any campaign that isn’t responsive from this day forward. Enjoy the 36Man video below…

You’ll learn how to add, edit and manage your own text, image and other media content. You’ll also learn how to integrate your site with a range of social and other media to achieve the most effective web campaigns on a shoestring budget.

The Most Demanded Skills in Web Publishing

With WordPress currently powering more sites than any other CMS(Content Management System) on the market, and clients demanding WordPress skills more and more, there’s no better time than right now to get your foot into the door of this super popular, user friendly and extremely powerful system which has already changed the way web publishers use the web to get their messages out there.

Learn to Build, Manage, Optimise and Super Charge your own self hosted Website running on WordPress. The Course will run over 4 Saturdays, starting September 15 until October 6 in Cape Town CBD.

There are even more reasons to be excited. That’s particularly because …

TrustPay, one of Africa’s biggest mobile payment companies (which is also one the event sponsors), in collaboration with the organizers of Mobile Entertainment Africa, are giving an opportunity in the form of a contest, where 5 mobile app developers can win a very “sought-after €650” access passes to attend the event, all costs covered.

To stand a chance of winning, all you have to do is send an email to info@allamber.co.uk and give a brief motivation about your dedication to mobile software development. The winners will be notified on Thursday, August 23, 2012 — Seriously, it’s that simple.

Meanwhile, I can’t wait to be there next week. Given the massive success of last year’s event and looking at this year’s lineup of speakers, the list of companies that will also be attending, as well as a top notch venue — this year’s event promises to be even bigger and better.

Developers, this is truly and an opportunity not to be missed.