ICTworks by Inveneo

Recently, Apple released its 4th quarter earnings, and the numbers were stunning. Macrumors spells out the highlights of what is now the most valuable public company on earth:

Apple shipped 5.2 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a unit increase of 26 percent over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 37.04 million, up 128 percent from the year-ago quarter... Apple also sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, up 111 percent over the year-ago quarter. Apple set new company records for iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales during the quarter.

But all those numbers are pretty abstract. Can you even fathom a company where:

1. The iTunes Store alone generated 50 percent more revenue than all of Yahoo did last quarter
2. Apple's profit for the year beats Google’s total revenue for the year
3. Apple's quarterly revenues are over double Microsoft's quarterly revenues

I have a pretty good imagination, and I am still trying to comprehend what all that means. But there is one small metric that is no dream. Its a metric that should have every IT company concerned too:

Apple sold more iPads alone than HP sold PC's

Oh, and iPads are only 20% of Apple's overall revenue stream. Which means that every IT company in America, Africa, and around the world will need to have an iPad strategy in 2012. No more is the PC - desktop or laptop - the center of the computing experience. The iPhone (and to a lesser extent) Android own the mobile phone space and the iPad is now cannibalizing the PC market as people find the sleek aluminum and glass tablet more convenient and powerful than many computers.

iPads are in Africa already

I can hear a few people in the ICT4D space saying "so what?" They believe that iPads are not Bottom of the Pyramid products. To an extent, they are right - most Africans are not buying iPads as consumer items, like is done in wealthy countries. Yet, iPads are here, and cheaper than in Europe.

IDG reports that IT and business professionals in Africa are twice as likely (47%) to use an iPad purchased by their employer than their colleagues elsewhere in the world (23%), and possibly as a result, iPad users in Africa tended to use their devices more for business than entertainment and their levels of work-based communication using an iPad were higher than average.

But what should be noticed is that levels of hardware substitution in Africa are very close to the global norm. 73% said their iPad had partly or completely replaced their laptop. That means desktop and laptop vendors need to develop an iPad strategy now.

Not a tablet strategy, mind you, but an iPad strategy. So far, its the only tablet that matters as IDG found "incredible" brand loyalty to Apple - only 19% of those surveyed in Africa would consider purchasing a non-Apple tablet. And iPad users are popping everywhere, even in rural agriculture.

Question is: what does an iPad strategy look like?

This is an open question. I've explored the iPad's impact on education, but as to an iPad sales strategy, I'm still a bit lost. I do know we all need to find one asap. Or we will all be working in a Genius Bar before we know it.

Recently there is much hoopla over this tweet by David Coltart, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, in Zimbabwe:

Great meeting with Apple folk in Paris today; "school boxes" will take iPads and education apps to the most remote schools in Zimbabwe

David was referring to IADT's "School in a Box" (SIAB), which is a Peli Case filled with iPads, a solar panel, LED projector, and speakers, and many were excited that solar powered iPads would be rolling out to rural schools in Zim.

Now there isn't an iPad initiative in Zimbabwe, just the hopes for one, but I found the hopes around "School in a Box" to be even more misplaced. The School in a Box is a nice, self-contained computer hardware system, but let us be real.

This is NOT a "School in a Box" -->

A school is much more than just computer hardware. More than the cool apps that run on an iPad - even one with its own solar power and a projector to share its interface with a class. A school is the summation of many parts, almost all of them human. Teachers, students, administrators, parents and the surrounding community all working together to educate children and lead them to adulthood.

There is no way all that can be squeezed into a box or expected to come out of one.

Now technology can play a role. It can facilitate and accelerate the good intentions of the school community and student's curiosity and enthusiasm. It can take the educational experience to a new level. But it cannot work wonders. And a box of iPads alone is just that. A box of gadgets. Not a school.

Now this is Africa pricing I think we can all get behind. Like the $100 Huawei Android Mobile, international technology companies are realizing that Africa is different than Europe or North America and pricing their products differently - they're making them lower cost.

Here's the latest on the Apple iPad in South Africa from Gadget South Africa:

The interest, throughout the country, has been at a peak since the announcement of today’s release was made last night. Previous availability from unofficial importers, referred to as the gray market, appears not to have dampened demand.

“There has been an incredible response,” says RJ van Spaandonk, executive director of the Core Group. “Most people are extremely excited about it being available. It turns out that a lot of people understand the dangers of the grey market and held off until the product was officially available. The loudest response is that people can’t believe the pricing.”

Strikingly evident on the Core website are prices previously unheard of in South Africa. The iPad 64GB model with 3G carries a recommended retail price of R7,599, considerably less than the price tag when it was first made available by unofficial importers: R9,600 for the same model.

The most remarkable aspect of the official pricing is that it is lower than the equivalent in the United Kingdom and Europe. An entry-level iPad is selling for 439 pounds in the UK, at current exchange rates 12% more expensive than in South Africa, and for 499 Euros in Europe, or 10% more expensive than in South Africa.

How could Core release the devices at such low cost? General speculation has pointed to the imminent arrival of a new version of the iPad in the USA, and the devices being dumped on markets like South Africa. The facts don’t bear this out, says Van Spaandonk.

“We get a price from Apple and, as you can imagine, it’s a very favourable environment, with the rand strong and no import duty on the product. Then you apply logistic costs: the beauty of the iPad is that it has a very high value to weight and size ratio, which means the cost of transport is a very small proportion of the end-user price. There’s nothing untoward about that.

“It is also not a price stunt or market entry promotion. This price point is what we intend maintaining into future, if the exchange rate stays the same. So you are paying effectively below R5000 for a tablet. Compare it to the Samsung Galaxy, and suddenly it is a very attractive product.”

I am an Ethiopian that has not been back in Africa in 4 years and so I am counting down to my very first trip to Ghana and I am excited. Ghana is arguably one of the main hubs for ICT in Africa.

With 5 mobile providers operating in country it has highly dynamic mobile markets that are still growing. Ghana is also a place with strong wireless internet infrastructure. Ghana Telecom, currently owned by Vodaphone, owns a majority of the telecommunication infrastructure, however, the National Communications Authority has granted licenses to many ISPs to operate their own international satellite gateways as well.

Most interestingly for ICT4D, the Ghanaian government has embraced the idea that the ICT can be key a tool for sustainable development in their Ghana ICT4D National Policy:

The information and communication technology for accelerated development (ICT4AD) Policy is the result of a three phased process to develop an ICT-driven socio-economic development policy and plan that aims to aid Ghana’s developmental effort and facilitate the process of becoming a knowledge based information society and economy in the shortest possible time.

This makes it exciting for an ICT4D enthusiast like me to venture into a country where there is a homegrown ICT university the "Ghana Telecom University." that draws students from across West Africa and where Microsoft is planning to open a training site. Even Google wants in on this party, having recently launched Google Maps in Ghana. The only other Sub-Saharan African countries with this utility are Kenya and South Africa.

So from one enthusiast to another, I would love to hear from those of you that have experience working with ICT4D in Ghana or have any ideas about things I should look for, ICT4D things to do, people I should talk with etc. If you yourself are in Ghana and would like to connect, that would be great as well!

Though at this moment, my biggest question after rummaging across Washington DC to get the visa, packing and related travel rituals covered has to do with ICT. So I went searching on the twitterverse and Facebook for an answer to this question:

How does one go about using an iPhone4 in Ghana given the smaller simcard used for IPhone4's?

The good news is, according to most accounts, the innovation on the ground has developed to a point where there are sim-cutters and sim cards abound and very affordable from all service providers. But I still would love your advice about ICT in Accra.

Thanks and see you in Accra!

What would open up software sales across Africa? Jonathan Gosier makes the case that it would be 3 things - ePayments, work across phones, and a entire change in the way Africans looked at software purchasing.

In What’s the Business case for an African App Store? he argues that Africans are too used to pirating software to ever pay for it,unless its a government or big corporation.

I respectfully disagree. I say that the lack of an easy payment model is the problem. Just what the original Apple App Store fixed. App stores were around long before the Apple store, but they were disorganized and buying software from them was a pain.

The App Store, by making purchases easy, took away barriers. I could now buy a $1 code and just as amazingly, install it with a single button. That's the real revolution.

So to transfer this innovation to Africa, its not about changing the culture of software sales, but making it easy to buy software to being with. ePyaments is the largest barrier. Next is making apps one-click installs. Neither is easy, but both are less difficult than changing a culture - which thankfully need not be changed to begin with.