Ok. We took it from the Economist. There is no way to explain that Nigeria is not even in the horizon. What is happening people?
RELIABLE data about internet traffic is hard to come by. One of the better sources is Cisco’s annual Visual Networking Index, which was published on June 1st. Internet traffic, the world’s biggest maker of networking gear predicts, will quadruple and reach 80.5 exabytes per month (80 exabytes would fill 20 billion DVDs) by 2015.
This article is adapted from here:
Mr Alex Nyika is an Ugandan software developer based in Kenya. He was the guy that won the Base of the Pyramid award at the 2010 Mobile Monday Peer Awards that took place in Helsinki, Finland. Five finalists including United States-based Super Technologies, which emerged runner up in the category competed for the award.
The award recognises young and outstanding mobile companies that are making a difference in mobile health, education, payments, employment trade and entertainment. Software developers from 37 countries across the world participated in the awards.
Mr Nyika, 26, was recognised for developing iCheki, a mobile phone software solution designed to help users of public transport in Kenya to track taxis coming their way. iCheki is a Swahili-English (Sheng) word for “I see”.
Mr Nyika holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Makerere University and a Diploma in Business Information Technology from Strathmore University. Commenting on the win, Mr Emmanuel Kweyu, a former lecturer of Alex at Strathmore said the win is a reflection of the spirit of East African community – a Ugandan winning a global award while representing Kenya.
Mr Nyika won the Strathmore Boot Camp competition last November with an application called ‘Pamoja’ (Swahili for together) which is an event management system. The application was used to manage applicants in subsequent boot camp in July 2010.
My Nyika led Xrystalgenius, the mobile programming start up he heads to win the 10th MIT-AITI mobile development competition held at Strathmore University on 30th July.
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IC Insights, reports that PC shipments will rise by 13% in 2011 compared to 2010. This is contained in its report
The surge in tablets and a 14% increase in sales of standard notebook computers (to 182 million units in 2011) is expected to drive up total portable PC shipments by 23% to 250 million systems worldwide this year, following 30% growth in 2010, says the new IC Market Drivers update, which is available to subscribers of the report. Portable computers are forecast to account for 62% of worldwide PC shipments in 2011, compared to 58% of the total in 2010 and just 31% in 2005. The shift to mobile personal computers continues to gain strength, and IC Insights now expects 72% of PCs sold in 2014 to be portable systems, with tablets accounting for 24% of the projected 557 million units sold that year–up from 5% of the 355 million PCs sold in 2010
The key driver for this upward trend in PC shipment could be traced to the developing world which is just starting to buy their own PCs now they can afford them. East Africa grew more than 70% last quarter and that trend is expected to continue.
While many have seen tablets as a killer in the PC business, what is happening is that both PC and tablet can co-exist because tablet cannot replace PC. That office productivity cannot be easily replaced by tablet – so people still need PC.
From IC Insights report, desktop PC will lose more share to laptop and netebooks. It will decrease from 45% in 2010 to 28% in 2014 while notebook will increase, marginally, from 45% to 46%. The biggest gainer will be tablets that will move from 5% to 24%. Total PC sales will increase from 355m to 557m within the same period.
Having unveiled its debut tablet computer last month, Packard Bell has said it believes the number of players in the market will contract in the coming years, though actual sales figures will skyrocket. And the firm believes it and its sister-firm Acer are well placed to take significant share of this upsurge, even if the market is unable to maintain the current number of players.
This is coming on the heels of Acer launching its competitive Tab Iconia Tab W500 a few months ago.
“If you look at the predictions, the market will grow in the range of 100 per cent year-on-year in the coming years worldwide,” said Luca Rossi, PB vice president. “So that means there is an estimation of 50 million units in 2011, 100 million in 2012, and 150 million in 2013. So there will be exponential growth.”
“Personally I think there will be a concentration – the current market leader will continue with all the significant share. We have an aspiration for significant share as well. So I do not believe the market has room for everybody. Lets say the top three to four players will hold 90 or 95 per cent of the share. If you look at it this it is similar to the rest of the PC industry.”
However despite high hopes for its own tablet devices, Rossi does not believe that market leader Apple and its iPad can be dislodged from the top-spot anytime soon. “It is my personal opinion, that doesn’t necessarily reflect the corporate one, that Apple will continue to hold all the significant share. In the next year or two I don’t see any reason why they would lose the number one spot, but their dominance will be reduced significantly in terms of market share.”
Packard Bell is also currently making the final preparations for the release of a new one Two series all-in-one PC, namely the one Two S which features a 20-inch touchscreen, an ultra-slim, rounded design, and utilizes either Intel (2nd-gen Core) or AMD (up to a Phenom II X6) power. Set to be available in glossy black, matte white, chrome or silver, Acer’s all-in-one, can have integrated or discrete (AMD or Nvidia) graphics, a TV tuner, it boasts an optical drive, a 2 megapixel webcam, and is pre-loaded with multiple touch-enabled apps – TouchBrowser, TouchMusic, TouchPhoto, TouchVideo and TouchCam.