ICTworks by Inveneo

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.