Thanks Ani, I remember when Jimmy ,made this remarks, him and I were the only people at Wikimania DC who had the Huawei Ideos. #ProudMoments :-)
On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Anirudh Bhati <anirudh...@gmail.com> wrote: > FYI, folks. > > Anirudh > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Amit Kapoor <akap...@wikimedia.org> > Date: Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 5:09 AM > Subject: [Wmfcc-l] TechCrunch: $50 Android Smartphones Are Disrupting > Africa Much Faster Than You Think, Says Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales > To: Communications Committee <wmfc...@lists.wikimedia.org> > > > > http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/10/50-android-smartphones-are-disrupting-africa-much-faster-than-you-think-says-wikipedias-jimmy-wales/ > > $50 Android Smartphones Are Disrupting Africa Much Faster Than You Think, > Says Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales > > What phone does Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> founder > Jimmy Wales have in his pocket? An unlocked Android-powered 3G smartphone, > made by Chinese mobile maker Huawei – which was selling for $85 on the > streets of Kenya last year and now goes for $50. > > While the majority of Africa’s mobile phones are more basic talk-plus-text > feature phones — recent figures from analyst ABI > Research<http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/abi-africas-mobile-market-to-pass-80-subscriber-penetration-in-q1-next-year-13-9-of-global-cellular-market-by-2017/> > suggest > 3G connectivity accounts for 11 percent of the continent’s overall mobile > subscriptions vs. GSM’s 62.7 percent – 300,000 of these $50 Android > smartphones have been sold in Kenya, according to Wales and African carrier > Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore. The pair were speaking at Vodafone’s Mobile > for Good summit taking place in London today. > > “What I always thought about mobile in Africa…is this [smartphone > adoption] is coming in the future — in the future someday,” said Wales. > “Well the someday’s happening faster than I ever realised.” > > Wales’ own budget Android was brought back from Kenya by a friend and is > now his personal smartphone. “The screen is a little smaller than the > iPhone, it’s not quite as good but the battery lasts two days,” he joked. > > The Wikipedia founder has been spending the past couple of years working on > Wikipedia Zero <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> – a > project that’s aiming to broaden access to the online encyclopedia to those > who don’t own a computer or can’t get access to 3G mobile data – but he > says the pace of smartphone adoption in Africa is changing the digital > landscape of the continent much faster than people think. > > The pace caught Wikipedia by surprise. The not-for-profit organisation had > been focusing its emerging markets’ efforts on India but is now paying a > lot more attention to Africa, thanks to the growth in ownership of cheap, > Android-powered handsets — like the one in Wales’ pocket. > > “This phone actually woke my mind up,” said Wales, pulling the handset out > of his pocket and holding it up. “This is what really got me energised to > say let’s go back and take another look at Africa, because we had focused > most of our attention on India with the view that it was ready for us to do > things.” > > “If you go and you take a look at the numbers [of smartphone adoption in > Africa]… the upward trend — obviously it’s still a very small penetration – > but that upward trend is there really strongly. If you look at the total > bandwidth into Nigeria, for example, it’s skyrocketing. > > “Things that are very hard for us to all imagine are going to happen much > faster than we realise,” he added. “People are going to be coming online > for the first time. There’s this vibrant community of young app developers > growing in Kenya and Nigeria. > > “It’s mind-boggling to think what the possibilities are — and I’m super > excited about it.” > > > -- > Amit Kapoor > Mobile Partnerships > Wikimedia Foundation > > > _______________________________________________ > Wmfcc-l mailing list > wmfc...@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wmfcc-l > > > > _______________________________________________ > WikimediaKE mailing list > WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake > > -- Regards, Limoke Oscar, Dream.Believe.Become....a world of endless oportunities
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