ICTworks by Inveneo

In the global market for personal computers, 2010 was a watershed year. For the first time PC shipments to emerging economies outpaced those mature markets, 174 million to 173 million. The Business Software Alliance celebrated this milestone by reporting that emerging economies now account for more than half the global value of PC software theft, $31.9 billion by their count.

In their 8th Annual Software Piracy Study, BSA found that:

The commercial value of the unlicensed software installed on personal computers in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), which excludes South Africa, reached $109 million in 2010. The figure stands at almost double the global piracy rate for PC software, which is around 42 percent. BSA also notes that the figures have risen by 3.6 points on the previous five-year average.

Here is a real question to ask: Does this piracy matter?

I don't ask this question to be flippant. In economies where a majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day, every dollar counts. The cost of commercial software can be a major barrier to ICT adoption. Even Microsoft recognized it when they discounted Windows XP to less than $5 per license before they discontinued it in 2010.

At the same time, software developers need to be paid if we want them to develop new and exciting software. And without a robust credit card payment system, developers cannot offer subscription or pay-per-use systems for their efforts. They must expect to be paid fully at the time the software is purchased in a physical retail outlet, which adds friction and cost to the transaction.

So I can see where there is a demand for free and a supply that is anything but. So in the middle there is much software piracy. Should we be overly concerned about it? Does it matter that many people are stealing intellectual property? Or should hackers continue to be modern-day Robin Hoods freeing us from the corporate overlords? Or does piracy hurt everyone - from the foreign multinational to the neighborhood coder?

What are your thoughts?

What is the number one tool of empowerment? You guessed right, education. With that said, it is unfortunate that so many women in developing societies are not afforded basic educational resources, a factor which contributes to poor literacy rates and marginalization of women. Education as we all know can come in many forms and through many mediums. That is why Microsoft and UNESCO are teaming up in a new initiative that is aimed at increasing the literacy rates of girls and women around the world, with the help of mobile technology. The initiative will bring mobile phones to developing communities and use them as a medium for education.

“The flexibility and relative affordability of phones allows for easy distribution and use, providing distance learning across geographical barriers. One of the first projects we will be working on is how to bring literacy retention applications thru mobile devices to the underserved across the world.”

The project is under UNESCO's "Better Life, Better Future" initiative and has backings from US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, along with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Mali Prime Minister Cissé Mariam Kaidama Sidibé. The project is still in the early stages of being formed, more information about this interesting project to come soon!

Source for this article can be found here.

It is no longer news that Nokia’s market share has been suffering. Even the company’s CEO once said that Nokia is failing to compete and losing ground to competitors such as Apple and Google. Now, Nokia and Microsoft officially announced that Microsoft’s Windows 7 would serve as Nokia’s primary smartphone platform.

Nokia smartphones are currently using Symbian which accounted for 37.6% (46.9% in 2009) of the total market share in 2010, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows 7 share dropped drastically to 4.2% in 2010 from 8.7% share in 2009. In contrast, Android’s market share stood at 22.7% in 2010, a massive increase on its 2009 share of 3.9% and Apple’s iOS market share was at 15.7% in 2010, a little increase on its 2009 share of 14.4%.

Before now, there were indications that Nokia will team up with Microsoft to fight Apple and Google. Under a new strategic partnership between Nokia and Microsoft:

1. Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
2. Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone.  Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
3. Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
4. Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
5. Nokia’s content and application store (otherwise known as Ovi Store) would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience. In a nutshell, Nokia and Microsoft plan to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

But what does this mean for developers and entreprises in Nigeria?

According to Saheed Adepoju, Encipher’s co-founder:

“Nokia’s alliance with Microsoft shows one thing: they’ve got no clue what they are doing with regards to developers, they (developers) will decamp to other playgrounds. Nigerians need to awake from their ‘symbian slumber’ and stop dreaming that Symbian still has something to offer. Existing Symbian developers will jump ship to Android and Blackberry as it feels like home because of Java.”

He sees developers developing for Android and corporates looking up to the Nokia platform because of Microsoft’s Windows 7, though Windows 7 hasn’t impressed that much amongst developers. He also thinks that Microsoft partners would develop for Nokia, but regular developers who want to monetize their efforts would not. For iPhone, he thinks its still far fetched for developers in Nigeria due to Apple’s strict rules.

I tend to agree with Adepoju and it would be interesting to see how app developers in Nigeria would react to this development. He further said that in Nigeria, internet access is getting cheaper and because Nigerians have spending power, they’ll buy and use more smartphones phones. He predicts that smartphones will do what GSM did in Nigeria, back in 2001, exploding in usage because Internet is becoming cheaper.

“Nokia will become a second alternative now as everyone will have a smartphone which isn’t a Nokia”, said Adepoju.

In the end, the deal would benefit enterprises more than developers in Nigeria.

This was originally published as What Nokia-Microsoft Deal Means For Developers in Nigeria: An Analyst View

Are you an IT professional? Do you rock at your work? Then you might think about moving up to the big leagues - as Business Daily reports, big name companies are hiring.

The companies have embarked on a massive recruitment drive in Africa in search of new growth opportunities in the ICT sector.

Over 100 vacancies are currently open at high tech firms such as IBM, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, promising to increase focus on the African talent pool in coming months. Among the firms that are aggressively pursuing talent are IBM and Google, who are collectively seeking to fill over 60 vacancies. Other firms such as Oracle and Microsoft seek to strengthen their existing position on the continent, while relative new-comers such as Internet advertising firm InMobi are on a quest to deepen their presence regionally with management expertise.

Facebook, the most successful social media network that currently has over 27.4 million African users, is recruiting a Growth Manager for Africa who will be based in either Kenya or Nigeria. Research carried out by Business Daily indicates that the companies are mostly seeking personnel with strengths in business development, marketing and sales, as well as those with technical skills who can tweak the products that the firms offer to suit the African landscape.

Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria are attracting the most demand for talent, with two thirds of vacancies required to fill posts in Nairobi, Cape Town and in Lagos; cementing the three countries status as technological hubs on the continent.

Microsoft has introduced the Windows 7 operating system, and it seems to be a worthy replacement for Windows XP, which is EoL on October 22.

Windows 7 has a much greater cost.

Microsoft has ended its low-cost operating system deals - XP could be had for just $3 per license. Now, Microsoft is charging much more per license for OEM's to install Win7 on new PC's. In addition, Microsoft recommends 2GB RAM for optimal performance.

PC prices are increasing - unless you use Linux

The result of the price increase by Microsoft and the RAM increase, is that all Win7 computers will be around $100 more expensive than their XP predecessors. These price increases are being experienced by everyone in the IT field - from giants like HP, down to specialized firms like Inveneo.

For ICT entrepreneurs, there are three choices to adapt to this change:

1. Increase your prices to your clients - keep your current margin and add it to the new, higher Windows 7 prices
2. Reduce your margin - raise your prices, but lower your margin and look to increase sales to maintain profitability
3. Switch to Linux - Ubuntu is still free, and with a $100 price premium on Win7, you may find clients willing to consider alternatives

At Inveneo, we're employing all 3 options above to adapt this change - on some products, we're increasing prices, on others we are cutting margins and hoping to increase volume, and we're encouraging Linux whenever clients balk at the new prices.