At his Africa 3.0 panel at this year’s South By South West Project Diaspora’s Teddy Ruge critiqued the role the One Laptop Per Child Project has played in developing countries.

A few excerpts of Teddy’s main points:

I applaud OLPC’s attempt to have the governments pay for the laptops and distribute them to the children, but I do not see this going very far beyond a few progressive governments like Kagame’s Rwanda. If the government does not acknowledge and address its poor education system, and put massive weight behind making sure that the cornerstones of their country’s education system are overhauled to be inline with 21st century educational best practices, then OLPC is dead in the water.
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As of 2009, there were approximately 450 million phone subscriptions across Africa. A few countries on the continent have an estimated 90% rate of penetration. To many, this is the first introduction to a piece of technology, the first introduction to a computing device, and if you count SMS and MMS services, the first introduction to electronic communication.
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My third point addresses something that is dear to me. I am not sure how many people will agree with me so mileage may vary depending on your cultural experiences. As I said above, the mobile phone goes about educating and enriching lives in rhythm with Africa’s variety of cultural norms. Outside forces empowering children with their very own laptop (however well-meaning the altruistic gesture might be), puts a majority of children at odds with their place in the family structure. In some cultures, children have their place in the social order, with responsibilities to perform accordingly—be it washing dishes, collecting water and firewood, or cooking. In this structure, children learn social responsibilities to one another and how family functions. They learn things you can’t teach in a classroom.
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Throwing something as complex as a laptop into the ownership of a child disrupts this social knowledge transfer mechanism.

I too have had a handful of conversations with the staff from OLPC and presented the idea of locally manufacturing parts or assembling entire machines in-country, and rather than only distributing through governments at the disruptive cost of ‘free’, selling to governments at a premium and selling to small private sector companies at cost. My complaint echoing Teddy’s that there need to be local stake holders who AREN’T just governments. This model has a double bottom line, supporting local business while also offering the same immense social benefit that Nicholas Negroponte originally aimed for.

Of course OLPC’s staff disagree with these counterpoints from on many levels. But I would like to suggest two alternatives to their operation:

Form Factor

For one I don’t like the OLPC Interface. I think as a netbook it’s pretty cool, but I have one and using it for anything other than playing is a nightmare. Which makes it great for kids, but why should adults be forced to come down a child’s level to learn how to use computers? Furthermore, why are we trying to think for kids who often devour tech to the point where we end up learning from them? Why limit them?

Teddy writes…

The mobile phone in Africa does something that the OLPC will never do, it integrates itself into the rhythm of life in Africa. Its use flows with the pace of life: it augments ones life experience when it needs to; it plays rescuer when the need arises, it creates incomes where none were possible previously; it makes the world smaller where previously distances were vast. Most importantly, it educates everyone. Try doing that with an XO.

It reminds of the debate about Play Pump, which was an ambitious project to use children playing on merry-go-rounds to pump water. It was considered great when children used it, but usually more consistent use was observed by mothers or elder sisters of the community who’s role it is traditionally to get water. This helped in that they didn’t have to do it by rope, but might be considered by some to be degrading for an adult female to have to spin a merry-go-round to get water for her family while the whole village stands around watching. It also didn’t really address the problem of where the water holes were (usually a great distance from villages). That was essentially the debate there, anyway.

With the XO, I think there should be more than one model. After all one size does not fit all, anywhere in the world. A relatively new device who’s design I do like is the Nokia N900.

It’s a computer in the form of a phone. Other than price, it’s a brilliant product almost screaming Africa’s name. Why? Because it allows for more than just the consumption of content. It supports projectors, larger monitors and keyboards for institutions that require more than just a small screen. It also looks professional, but could be designed in ways that are more attractive to kids. It offers real command-line access so if a teacher wanted, they could use it to learn or teach programming skills. Sugar has this but at least in the XO-1 it was fairly clunky. I do think Sugar is a great lightweight OS, I just think it should be deployed on a different device.

Africa doesn’t default to the mobile device because they want to, they do it because it’s useful for them. Embrace that. Make something that will allow the young computer geeks of tomorrow to begin exploring today…before they get to school, on a device that they can use for more than just their school work.

Most people will debate the price-point. My answer is if OLPC disrupted the market once, they can do it again. I don’t know the cost of the components of the N900 but I bet a slightly different design, a less expensive chip, and cheaper materials would cut it at least in half.

Local Stake Holding & Manufacturing

I don’t like top-down solutions. As someone who lives in a developing country, I often avoid the government as do many of the people around me. On one hand it IS the government’s problem to tackle, unfortunately it’s not ONLY the government’s problem to tackle and sometimes a local private sector company can be more transparent and more effect at deploying solutions.

Where that is the case, I suggest making devices that at least in some way, engage some local companies. That could be manufacturing, assembly, branding or whatever. Hire local groups (not necessarily local NGOs or nonprofits) to participate in this process. Now you’re supporting local innovation and local business, two things that are too often overlooked in development. If free is still the aim, do Free in a way that involves local constituents.

It also supports the idea of pan-African trade which over time will decrease the costs of distributing items in Africa in general. How? Because local stake holders will want to sell products, governments will want to see their countries prosper (if only because it gives them more power) and it offers incentive for everyone to improve internal infrastructure.

For an example of how this might work with netbooks, check out Gou Bang (Go Bang!) a company in China that offers netbooks partial assembled and fully manufactured, then they ship you the 75% complete product for completion. And the base cost? $200 per unit. I bet that goes down when you buy in bulk.

I can think of many ways both of these models could work in African countries but these are just ideas, some of them I’ve been working on at Appfrica for some time now. I’ll let others weigh in with their experiences in reality.

More from Teddy Ruge and Project Diaspora…

AustinLifestyles SXSW 2009 Interview – Teddy Ruge – More bloopers are a click away

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

As I enter the last week of my time working as a Fellow at Appfrica, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the experience and to recommend this amazing program to future applicants. My experience has been nothing short of incredible, both on an educational and a networking level. When first reading about the program online, I immediately contacted Jon about joining the company as a Fellow, as I was eager to learn about its for-profit approach and about his experiences as a social entrepreneur in Uganda. Now, after four weeks in the country, I can definitely say that I have learnt a lot and that this experience has helped mould my identity as an aspiring designer for sustainable development and social entrepreneur.

The fellows program is structured in a way to encourage the sharing of skills, knowledge and ideas between members of the Appfrica team and the visiting Fellow. I was able to learn a lot about the technical aspects of mobile application development in resource-poor settings from the fantastic team of programmers here at the office. This was a great opportunity for me, as I get increasingly involved in the information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) space. I was able to bring my web/graphic design skills to the table and contributed to the design elements of a number of projects that were being developed by the other team members.

In addition to the graphic design work, I was also kept busy coordinating some of the initial technical development for ResultsSMS – my “baby project” during my time here as a Fellow. The first day after I arrived, Jon sat down with me at the excellent Good African Coffee and went through the current projects that Appfrica was working on. We worked together to figure out the best way for me to contribute, learn and to have an overall valuable experience during my time at the company. Due to my growing interest in the application of mobile technologies in international development, I was immediately attracted to the ResultsSMS project, which is an open-source system for distributing medical test results, patient education and follow-up information by SMS in resource-poor settings. As the project was still in its very early stages of conception when I arrived, I spent a lot of my time over the first couple of weeks researching on the technologies that would make such a system implementable, and developing the system together with a geographically dispersed team, through discussions and development of concepts and visualizations. This mini-project management experience and the ability to take control of a whole project during my time here was also incredibly exciting and valuable.

Unfortunately, this control would only be short lived. The Fellows program is of course transient in nature and I guess this would be the only limitation I can think of when reflecting on my experience. Since this project was largely managed remotely, I could have potentially continued to stay involved after the Fellows program. Unfortunately, due to a number of larger commitments I have waiting for me upon my return to Europe, however, this will probably not be possible. Therefore, I recommend that future participants in the program consider structuring their time in such a way to allow for potential completion of a project after physically leaving Uganda.

I also want to take this chance to mention my appreciation for the hospitality of Jon and Sarah, who got engaged during my stay in Uganda! They were wonderful hosts, not only providing me with a very comfortable bed in the guest room of their house 10 minutes from the Appfrica office, but also introducing me to a number of their wonderful friends in Kampala and generally allowing me to be a part of their lives in this very exciting city.

I came here to learn and to absorb everything I could from the experience. I would, therefore, like to end with a number of notes and observations I made throughout my time as an Appfrica Fellow:

For Profit Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship means many different things to many different people. From Creative Capitalism to non-profit business models with socially-oriented missions, the term is becoming almost as synonymous as Web 2.0 or the Cloud. In my opinion, Appfrica’s mission “to indentify individuals with talent, passion and training, picking up where the university leaves off to help them improve their technical skills, while mentoring their growth and solidifying their business skills”, definitely qualifies as social entrepreneurship.

After becoming increasingly interested in this concept over the past couple of years, I was excited to learn how Appfrica Labs balanced is socially-oriented mission with a for-profit model of financial sustainability. I have learnt that this model works incredibly well in the software development/IT space, where a lot of the company’s clients come armed with generous technology-oriented development grants or solid business models and associated financial backing. Appfrica’s clients range from NGOs to African investment groups and start-ups, which creates an interesting mix of projects. Some of these projects have more of a development focus than others, however, they all generally align with the company’s guiding principles of African investment and the building of innovative solutions for developing countries.

Apparent Lack of Design Thinking/Training in Uganda

When mixing in with a lot of the IT crowd in Uganda, and particularly with Makerere University students who are studying in this field, I repeatedly heard comments like “I like coding but I don’t like design” and “I am not much of a creative thinker–I’m not good at design.” It turns out that there is also very little focus on design in the IT-related curricula at local universities, and the general application of design thinking and the design process is also pretty much absent.

Although I think this a real shame, I also think it presents an interesting opportunity for the future. As the Internet starts spreading across the continent and connectivity becomes increasingly feasible and affordable. I think that the need for good web, graphic and UI designers in Africa is going to grow significantly. When this time comes, I imagine that much of Africa’s design work will be outsourced to design studios in the continent’s major economies or abroad. I truly believe that there is a skilled designer in any good coder/programmer. Good code logic and structuring is based on very similar principles to good web-design; I think that there needs to be more focus on developing and fostering these skills in university programs. Therefore, there is an opportunity in trying to create this, support or simply help to develop a solid web-design industry in Uganda. To anyone who is skeptical about the value of good web or UI design in development projects, I ask you to re-consider. The lack of a good interface and streamlined user-experience in a revolutionary technology with a great potential impact, will simply act as an obstacle to its widespread acceptance.

Open Working Environment

Another one of Jon’s founding principles for the company was to create an open working environment for businesses and entrepreneurs to “nest” while they are trying to grow. This makes for a fantastically diverse and exciting work environment, where almost every day, the office will be graced by the presence of an interesting individual who is working on some form of ground-breaking project in Uganda. These “visitors”, who are all allowed to make use of the office’s internet and power supply, quickly become part of the Appfrica “family” and will often share experiences or provide feedback on the current topic of discussion. Jon is further developing this concept into what will be referred to as 10K Spaces as part of Appfrica’s 10,000 Hour Initiative. This is a truly inspiring model for how to run an office of a small start-up.

Doing Well in Africa takes You Very Far

The point I am trying to bring across here is one that I have discussed many-a-time with a number of young entrepreneurs in Kampala. The continent is filled with opportunity and there is almost always a chance to do things better, in whatever industry you happen to be working in. Therefore, getting your hands dirty and investing your time and resources to put your ideas into practice can take you very far, even with little experience. Appfrica’s team members are not 10-year industry professionals, but they also don’t need to be.

Wherever there is a lack of experience, there is determination and competence, which has lead the team to be well-versed (or at least familiar) with an incredibly large number of programming languages, technologies and techniques. Therefore, building a start-up with minimal resources, experience and a team of recent university graduates very much paid off in Apprica’s case.

Providing Basic Resources

The office is theoretically equipped with what is considered one of Uganda’s better internet connections. I say theoretically, as their ISP seems to have a lot of difficulties consistently delivering the speeds it promises. Oh, and the power can drop out without notice as well! I quickly learnt how to work around these limitations, however, and now I create two to-do lists each day splitting my internet tasks and non-internet tasks. This allows me to remain productive even if the power is out. When the Internet does work, it is a vital resource for the company’s operations. Every so often large software development kits or programming guides need to be downloaded, along with the occasional TED video for the day’s source of inspiration. I have learnt that investment into basic resources like good internet and computers, although expensive in this part of the world, really pays off and creates a more productive working environment overall.

No Shortage

Working for a software consultancy with a development focus in Uganda has re-confirmed my original belief that there is no shortage of passion, skill, creativity and unique opportunity in this continent.

Oliver Haas can be reached directly at here.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

This morning Erik Hersman and I had a conversation about all the innovation spaces turning up across Africa. We agree that it’s incredibly exciting to see, and that it opens up the opportunity for many exciting possibilities. For instance, what if people with memberships at a hub in Ghana, could drop by a space in Kenya or Uganda?

It’s a solid idea that encourages cross-border business and collaboration, and one that Appfrica and iHub support. This would also offer groups in one country a way to deploy applications and test ideas in another, cheaply and in an environment that’s conductive to experimentation.

Erik and I have already agreed to explore this between our companies, to let young techies travel on a sort of an innovator passport. I’m curious as to how young entrepreneurs out there feel about this. Do you see it adding value to your efforts?

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

The share taxi is a common sight across Africa. A van or minibus (usually with a young male hanging out the window shouting the name of the destination) roves the city streets and picks up passengers headed to said destination, or somewhere else along that route. In East Africa these share taxi’s are called Matatus, in Nigeria they are called Molues, India calls them Phat-a-Phats (I love that name), in Mexico they are referred to as Auto de Ruta, and Argentina has it’s Colectivo.

In some countries, the informal share hire system arises largely due to a lack of a formal public transportation sector. Share hires are the lowest common denominator for getting around, particularly for the poor. They’re cheap and faster than walking, but don’t exactly offer a ‘direct route’ to most places. North America has the benefit of having robust systems of public transportation special or private hires, the public bus system, long distance coaches (Geryhound), etc. However, it’s not really common to see the share hire.

In New York, the idea of the share hire is being reintroduced as a green alternative to the normal taxi system (where no one but good friends share regardless of how efficient or environmental it might be) and casual carpooling (which requires advance planning). In the U.S. and Canada the common name is the Jitney, Circulator or Dollar Van. Most Americans will recognize these as being similar to the shuttles at the Airport.

I admit my title is a bit of an exaggeration. The idea of the share hire is as old as the early days of transportation, and certainly predates the first automobiles on the African continent, both in Europe and in America. Still, it’s funny to see things evolve into such a diverse system, only to come full circle.

Via Good.is. Kenya Matatu Transport Map via KenyaBuzz.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

Guy Consolmagno fears that the future of celestial mining will sink developing countries even deeper into poverty…

Can you put a price tag on an asteroid? Sure you can. We know of roughly 750 S-class asteroids with a diameter of at least 1 kilometer. Many of these pass as near to the Earth as our own moon — close enough to reach via spacecraft. As a typical asteroid is 10 percent metal, Brother Consolmango estimates that such an asteroid would contain 1 billion metric tons of iron. That’s as much as we mine out of the globe every year, a supply worth trillions and trillions of dollars. Subtract the tens of billions it would cost to exploit such a rock, and you still have a serious profit on your hands.

But is this ethical? Brother Consolmango asked us to ponder whether such an asteroid harvest would drastically disrupt the economies of resource-exporting nations. What would happen to most of Africa? What would it do to the cost of iron ore? And what about refining and manufacturing? If we spend the money to harvest iron in space, why not outsource the other related processes as well? Imagine a future in which solar-powered robots toil in lunar or orbital factories.

“On the one hand, it’s great,” Brother Consolmango said. “You’ve now taken all of this dirty industry off the surface of the Earth. On the other hand, you’ve put a whole lot of people out of work. If you’ve got a robot doing the mining, why not another robot doing the manufacturing? And now you’ve just put all of China out of work. What are the ethical implications of this kind of major shift?”

Via io9 and Discovery

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

The One Million Bones project is an art installation to get the world to reflect on the human tragedy of genocide. The image above shows one of the manufactured bones which are biodegradable. The project was co-founded by Senior TED Fellow Naomi Natale.

In her own words:

I am currently working on a new project, One Million Bones. One Million Bones is a fundraising art installation designed to recognize victims of present genocides. Our mission is to increase global awareness of these atrocities while raising the critical funds needed to provide humanitarian aid to the displaced and marginalized victims. One Million Bones will represent victims of genocide, creating a visual demand for solutions to this issue. One million people will each create one bone to represent one victim. Installed together, these one million bones will flood the National Mall in Washington DC, unearthing the memory of these victims, while calling citizens to action.

To support this effort, sales of my infographic “Population of the Dead” (not including shipping) will be donated to the One Million Bones project. For each poster purchased, I’ll sponsor bones on your behalf at One Million Bones. The number of bones I’ll sponsor depend on the size of the print purchased. Medium one bone, Large two bones, Grande, three bones.

I also encourage you to even bypass my work and go right to her site directly to make a contribution or any of the following groups: Genocide Intervention Network, Enough, Genocide Watch, Save Darfur, Not On Our Watch.

You can participate in this campaign by visiting our shop.

View it large on Flickr

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

A few days ago the open source community was livid at a request from the US Department of Commerce that required SourceForge.com to enforce restrictions on users based on their location. You can read more about what occurred here and my coverage here. In reaction to the outcry from the SourceForge community, as well as their own inclinations, the SF team has released the following statement:

Beginning now, every project admin can click on Develop -> Project Admin -> Project Settings to find a new section called Export Control. By default, we’ve ticked the more restrictive setting. If you conclude that your project is *not* subject to export regulations, or any other related prohibitions, you may now tick the other check mark and click Update. After that, all users will be able to download your project files as they did before last month’s change.

We at SourceForge are fully committed to the ideals of free and open source software, including the principle of free exchange of information. We recognize that, for some people, the recent site changes called into question whether your support of us is justified. The changes that we deployed today are intended to empower our projects and reward your continued trust.

We recognize that this change isn’t the completely free access to everything for everyone that some would like. As a US-based web site, SourceForge remains committed to complying fully with all relevant US laws and regulations, including those affecting the distribution of software. But we are also working as diligently as possible to ensure that our compliance is coupled with the highest quality of service that we can offer to our diverse, global user base.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

A few months ago I formalized this nature of the company as the Appfrica Fellows program. The mission of Appfrica’s Fellows program is to breed an atmosphere of cultural diversity and knowledge sharing. Fellows spend their time in Uganda working along side the staff, earning the equivalent local wage for that job, regardless of their individual skills. It’s a great way to see the world and the challenges others face from a completely different vantage point.

Joushua Goldstein was our inaugural Fellow. Previously an intern at Google, Josh worked on business development for Status.ug, one of our incubated startups. Richard Jeong was the second Fellow working as a graphic designer. David Ellis is currently working with us in various areas of business development. Yesterday we welcomed our fourth, Oliver Haas from the Franklin W. Olin School of Engineering. Oliver will be working with us for six weeks, partially as the lead developer and designer of our HIGH Award winning project ResultsSMS.

We’re always interested in knowledge sharing and building capacity through cultural exchange. To find out more about Appfrica Fellows and how you can apply click here.

Current and Past Fellows

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

At a little more than double the price of the One Laptop Per Child’s XO-1 and equal in price to nearly every decent netbook on the market, the Apple Tablet has been announced and it’s entry level price is only $499. It’s certainly cheaper than most full fledged laptops making it a not-so-luxury choice for Mac fans across Africa.

Principal Analyst Julien Blin of JBB Research feels differently:

While Apple is set to experience strong success in developed markets such as North America, Western Europe, and Japan, it is likely to have almost zero impact on emerging markets like South America, Africa, and even parts of Asia like China. Content issues, IP (intellectual property) issues, lack of 3G/WiFi support, and pricing issues due to the large proportion of low income customers, are set to remain key hurdles for Apple in this region to drive the adoption of its new flagship product.

I disagree, actually. The Apple iPad at $499 is already at the same price point of many netbooks sold here in Uganda. (I’ve seen $200 ASUS EEPC’s sold at the equivalent of six hundred dollars here!) So even if a base price of $500 is marked up to $800 in a country like this, it’s still $200 dollars less than the last Acer or Dell laptop I purchased here. Those computers were both crap, defective after the first few months of use. And much like Apple, most Dell parts are simply hard to get in Africa.

So the cost is pair with what the African middle class is consuming in terms of laptops these days. And it’s portable which mobile natives will appreciate. As the price of bandwidth falls, African consumers are becoming more and more ‘connected’ and eager to consume digital content. It’s a mistake to assume that because a Ugandan or Malawian teen can’t access the iTunes store that they won’t want an iphone, or will be bored due to lack of content. Any geek will tell you the fact that the device has a wifi connection is more than enough to load it it with the content of your choosing.

Plus, in a year or two, Apple will release a new iPad (they always do) and the prices of old models will be undercut slightly (a pattern they’ve maintained for three years now with iPods and iPhones). Prices won’t necessarily fall in countries like Uganda as a result, but it will mean more product is available on the aftermarket for resellers, and if the demand is there, these products will find homes easily.

Apple Well Poised to Enter the BOP

The only real hinderance is the bottleneck of distribution. There are only a few authorized Apple retailers and repair stores on the continent, but most of their stock comes from distributors in the UK (As far as I can tell). This makes markup prices rather ridiculous in some cases. That’s a serious hurdle, but one that could be overcome if Apple decides to offer a more reasonable method of distribution to Africa. For South American and continental Asia, there are closer first-teir suppliers (in North America, Korea and Japan respectively).

As far as features, the fact that Apple has embraced a natively unlocked 3G device is huge. It means any of their partner carriers around the globe can be offered the device in their market as a premium item. This might take a year or two but it happened with the iPhone so I’d expect the iPad to follow.

I don’t know about elsewhere in Africa, but in Uganda people love the ‘exclusive’ brands. It’s a status symbol among a burgeoning group of young professionals like everywhere else in the world. Brand recognition of Apple amongst computer users in Africa is high. Yes, it’s a luxury item, but a good sign of a growing middle class is the growing consumption of luxury items.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

The internet has a complex. Sometimes we want things to exist so bad that we, the public, simply hang on to any shred of potential evidence that points to their existence. The tech community calls these beasts ‘unicorns‘, items that would be magnificent if they did exist but theres simply not enough proof. Case in point, for the last FOUR years I’ve been reading rumors about an Apple Tablet. Enough time for a high school senior to, read the rumor, go to college, graduate, get a job at Apple, find out it doesn’t exist only to find himself working on the development team that makes it a reality.

Remember that other ugly fantasy? The Google Phone? Well, it turns out that was actually true. Okay, Google didn’t actually hire a hardware team to manufacture a phone, but they did assist in design specifications of more than just the software drivers, they helped design the device itself. I do believe that’s as close to a gPhone we’re gonna get for now. That was a unicorn for about a year or two or so but it manifested first as a specter (initial speculation lead to the release of Android), then as something tangible (the Nexus One). Sometimes the fantasy is real. Is there a Zune Phone on it’s way as well? It would make sense, Microsoft has been getting destroyed in mobile since the iPhone, Palm Pre and Androids all came about. And many people (myself included) have wondered what the hell Microsoft was thinking by not giving the Zune phone capabilities from day one. iStartedSomething writes:

Coinciding with the scheduled Zune.net maintenance today, a new Zune software update was also released (version 4.2.202.0 for those playing along at home). What might appear as just a regular software update is actually hiding a very big secret. The elusive “Zune Phone” is pretty much confirmed.

By looking closely at the code of the recent Zune software update, a developer spots evidence that the Zune phone cometh. Another unicorn apparently dancing around on the grave of it’s ghostly rumor.

So what about the iSlab/iSlate/iPad/iFlat/iSlablet/Apple Tablet? Four years is a long time for grown men, professionals, CEOs and fanboys alike to simply ‘wish upon a star‘. In a few hours we’ll find out for sure….for now. Of course we could always just ask the Unicorns.

Update: As the world now knows, the Apple Tablet (the iPad) is very real and very affordable. That’s two tech Unicorns that have manifested. Microsoft, your turn.

Unicorn image from Flickr used under the CC.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.