Dr tim kelly , mobile application lab brainstorming

Mobility in Africa Foresight Workshop, June 1-2, 2010
Mobile Africa 2049:What role for applications?
Tim Kelly, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, infoDev / World Bank

A brief history of typewriters
Mobiles in 2010 = Typewriters in 1950:Current focus is on the device rather than the applications
Typewriter first commercialized in US in 1870s – important innovations included the QWERTY keyboard, carbon paper, portability etc
From 1960s onwards, computers began to be integrated into computers – a similar analogy would be the transition of mobiles into smartphones with addition of memory, IP capability, keyboards etc
By 1980s, typewriters were transitioning to “word processors” – typewriters becoming “keyboards” on other devices like mobile is a “communications capability” for other devices
By 2010s, typewriter keyboards are becoming “invisible” – the typewriter is now a device application than can be turned on when required

What lessons for mobile 2049?
Mobile communication embedded into universal communicator device
Mobiles in 2049 = Typewriters in 2010:Mobiles will be impossible to “count” because they appear in so many different forms
The focus will be on the application not the device – Could we have imagined, in 1950, the uses of keyboards in 2010?
Non-human mobile “users” will greatly outnumber human ones – machine to machine communications in an “Internet of Things”
Usage costs will approach zero – Flat-rate, rather metered, pricing will be the norm within the next 10 years
Everything over IP
Navigation Mobile updates real-time traffic and weather conditions
On-board mobiles communicate with similar devices in other vehicles for collision avoidance
Mobiles report real-time vehicle data for automated carbon tax collection

Why are mobile applications so important for Africa today?
Mobile already represents the largest delivery platform for development applications – e.g., M-Pesa in Kenya
No adequate substitutes are available – mobiles outnumber PCs by >16:1
Low barriers to entry – Standard-based tools are available free of charge
Market is highly segmented and localized – industry has not yet had its “Google moment”
High export potential – compare with India’s success in offshore s/w development
Growth of fixed and mobile connections in Africa, 1998-2008, in millions
Source: ITU World Telecom Indicators Database.

Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy
A public-private partnership, launched on Dec 17 2009
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland
infoDev / World Bank
Nokia
Other partners include Mobile Monday, Korea ICT4D Fund, MCT Mozambique
Three key areas of focus
Agribusiness
Mobile communications
Innovation, SME creation and supporting technology entrepreneurs
Three regions
Africa
Asia
Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (ECA)

Track 1: Mobile Applications
Regional Mobile applications laboratories
Three labs to be established in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe
Labs intended to develop between 8-10 mobile applications
Possible Lab functions
Training and accreditation
Certification
Competition for Ideas
Replication of successful applications
Mentoring of start-ups and SMEs (via incubators)
Repository of knowledge and best practice cases
Consumer behaviour research
Facilitating access to finance / access to markets
Mobile social networking
Working with Mobile Monday to extend the model of an innovation network to extend the reach of mobile applications
Launch of MoMo Kampala on 8 March
Launch of MoMo Nairobi on 11 March
Other planned launches in Mozambique and Tanzania

Creating Sustainable
Businesses
in the Knowledge Economy

Dr tim kelly , mobile application lab brainstorming

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