As the first cross mobile OS app store in Africa, BandwidthBlog was curious about the performance of the Vodacom app store since its launch on 1 September 2011. We pinged Vodacom for some insight and what we found was some very interesting stats:

Vodacom revealed that the app store offers about 140 000 apps and since its launch has generated over 800 000 downloads. This is an interesting stat as all apps were free to download upon its launch and as of December 2011 the paid apps library was launched. Predictably social networking apps are the most popular downloaded apps followed by games. Taking the top spot for most downloaded app is Facebook chat which is currently the most popular app download. In the local front, the most popular app is the K53 learner’s app for first time drivers. Game apps such as Mario55 and Qeep are also performing well on the market.

As expected, the Blackberry Curve 8520 remains the leader in the top performing devices on the store as one of the most widely used devices in the South African market followed by the never say die Samsung E250.

As we previously covered results revealed that the South African personal finance app for Android, Expenza, listed on the Vodacom app store, quickly gathered more downloads in comparison to its listing in the Android Marketplace. This performance on the Vodacom app store indicates that users are excited about and receptive to a local carrier app and that there could be a bright future for carrier app stores.

The success of the Vodacom app store, paves the way for other service providers in Africa to enter into the app store market. We love the emerging trend of niche app stores, as the international app stores get bloated with millions of apps. App developers also love niche app stores as they find it increasingly difficult to get noticed in the big app stores.

“Our previous data promotions proved to be so successful that we decided to do it again. This time we’re giving savings of up to 60% to our customers. It is just the value proposition our customers are looking for at the beginning of the year. And as with all our data products, these promotional contracts will use Vodacom’s high speed data network with the broadest coverage across South Africa,” says Chris Ross, Managing Executive for Commercial Development at Vodacom.

The Broadband Standard MyGig 1, 24 month contract has been reduced from R249 per month to R99 per month, giving customers a 60% saving and the MyGig 2, 24 month contract has been reduced from R349 per month to R149. After the initial 24 months contract period, the contract can be renewed or will continue on a month to month basis, at the then prevailing rate for the relevant bundle size. The promotional offer includes a free modem and normal out of bundle prices apply. There are no restrictions on the use of these data bundles – they can be used any time of the day.

“We recently offered our prepaid customers a 20GB promotion that offered them great value and now we are offering our contract and Top Up customers great value” adds Ross.

Customers can visit their nearest service provider to sign up for a promotional Broadband Standard MyGig 1 or MyGig 2, 24 month data contract or Top Up data contract.

Joe Belfiore

Pocketnow.com has learned new details about the new Windows Phone 8 that include a number of features and themes that were accidentally revealed by senior vice president and Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore in a video intended only for partners at Nokia. The Windows Phone 8 codenamed “Apollo”, is the next version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system that is scheduled for launch after the upcoming Tango update.

According to Belfiore, the overall theme of the Windows Phone 8 hardware ecosystem will be scale and choice in order to address one of the platform’s shortcomings in competing with Android and iPhone based devices’ specifications. More specifically, Windows Phone 8 will have support for multi-core processors and microSD card support will also be added.

NFC (Near Field Communication) will also be supported, with emphasis placed on the phone’s push into contactless payments. The “wallet experience,” as he calls it, will have the capability to be carrier-branded and controlled, either by a secure element on the SIM card or utilizing hardware. In addition, NFC will  allow desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones to share content.

Rather than just share a UI with the next generation desktop and tablet OS, Windows Phone 8 will use many of the same components as Windows 8, allowing developers to re-use most of the code when porting an app from a desktop to the phone. Belfiore specifically mentions that areas of heavy overlap include the kernel, networking stacks, security and multimedia support.

The Xbox Companion app, currently found on Windows Phones, will see a partner client on Windows 8 with Skydrive support promising seamless sharing of data between devices.

At the launch of the new Windows Phone, rumoured to take place sometime in the 4th quarter of this year, Microsoft expects to offer 100 000 apps in the Marketplace. There is also likely to be support for app-to-app communication . A revamped Skype client that hooks directly into the OS, enables Skype calls to behave almost identically to regular calls with a camera app that Microsoft will allow OEM’s to customize.

The biggest news on the app front is likely the addition of native code support, which will enable more powerful applications as well as ease the porting of code from programs initially developed for iOS or Android

In terms of data management a highlighted feature by Belfiore is called DataSmart, a new data management system that will keep track of your downloaded data usage. This is achieved by the phone automatically connecting to Wi-Fi when in range.

Overall, it seems that the above changes are designed either to make the Windows Phone 8 run parallel with other platforms or make it more similar to Windows 8 for desktop. Either way, Microsoft is catching up.

Kethan Parbhoo, Equivalent Programme Lead at Microsoft South Africa said, “We funded the research to help Maxxor understand its customers even better. The results will help Maxxor prepare a roadmap for future product development.”

Maxxor, a software development company, has been developing games for the MXit platform for more than two years and they’ve entertained well in excess of one-million MXit users with at least one of their apps to date. As Adrian Frielinghaus, Head of Online Games at Maxxor, explains, “One of the things we’re asking ourselves is, ‘What apps, besides games, do MXit users want?’ We ran a survey amongst our players and received an overwhelming response – almost 30,000 people completed a 30-question survey. That must be some kind of world record for mobile research, and the results offered us some unique insights.”

As it turns out, MXit users don’t care too much for news headlines.What they do care about is hooking up, having fun, and finding out what their favourite celebrity got up to last night. Therefore in order to appeal to this unique market, MXit app developers need to continually create content that amuses, entertains and connects its users.

Perhaps the best news for mobile software developers is that MXit users don’t mind paying for apps as long as you give them exactly what they want. As Frielinghaus says, “This is precisely because MXit has spent years carefully grooming its users to buy virtual goods with virtual currency. This is made even easier by allowing them to easily convert their airtime into virtual MXit currency.”

In terms of user devices, as might be expected, MXit users mostly use Nokia and Samsung handsets but it is interesting to note that 11% of Maxxor’s MXit users own BlackBerries. This challenges some speculation that rapid BBM growth in the teen and youth market has been detrimental to the MXit platform. This is encouraging news for developers considering the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms, because MXit provides an ideal way to get an app to the front of the mass market queue. The Maxxor research explains exactly what sort of apps will prove successful.

Almost 75% of Maxxor’s surveyed users are accessing the web at least once a day on their mobile phones. In other words, the traditional MXit user is no longer trapped in a “walled garden”. Software developers need to realise that MXit is now part of a greater Internet experience for mobile phone users.

Watch the BandwidthBlog interview with MXit CEO Alan Knott-Craig.

The device would be the first to run BlackBerry’s new OS, based on QNX, which RIM is hoping will revive the weakening BlackBerry line with a device that is ‘Hardware and platform, fused into one polished exerience.’ As for the hardware, while everything is purely speculation at this point, Texas Instruments’ OMAP5 and Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core chips are said to be being tested in the new Superphone.

This device is likely to launch only after two other models code named Laguna and Lisbon, which would arrive in the US, while the London would naturally head to the UK.

Read BandwidthBlog’s review of the BlackBerry Curve 9360. 

Source: The Next Web

Launched by Praekelt Foundation in 2009 in South Africa, YoungAfricaLive started out as a way of providing young South Africans with free access to information on love, sex and relationships in a time of prevalent HIV/AIDS in Africa, through their mobile device. It has now developed into a community of young adults who engage with another to gain reliable information, discuss issues, have fun and gain the support and input from their peers.

A 2005 study showed that 60% of Kenya’s unemployed are under 30, and where UNICEF statistics reveal 20% of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. In addition, research published by the World Bank indicates that 6.3% of Kenya’s population of 40.5 million is HIV positive, many of whom are young adults. These results indicate a strong need for support and engagement for and among the youth population of Kenya around HIV/AIDS and unemployment.

In bringing the vibrant mobile community to Kenya, Praekelt Foundation has partnered with leading integrated communications firm, Safaricom which now allows young Kenyans to share and discuss the issues they confront daily, via their mobile phone. Safaricom has invested heavily in bringing Internet access to the Kenyan people. According to government data, nine out of every 10 Kenyans who access the Internet regularly do so through the Safaricom network.

Nzioka Waita, Safaricom’s Director of Corporate Affairs says that “This partnership is key to our digital inclusion agenda. We believe that the best way to improve the utility and therefore take-up of the Internet among the youth of Africa and Kenya in particular, is by having relevant content on it and making it accessible to them. Being in the vanguard of the Internet explosion in Kenya, we have the network to deliver YoungAfricaLive’s socially relevant and well-packaged message to as many young Kenyans as possible.”

Having already launched in South Africa and Tanzania in partnership with Vodacom, YAL South Africa already has close to 1 million unique users while YAL Tanzania has already established a strong presence in the country with a steadily growing user base since 1st December 2011. The Praekelt Foundation and Safaricom hope to achieve the same success in Kenya.

“To follow-up a very successful launch in Tanzania late last year with YoungAfricaLive: Kenya is a great way to start 2012,” says Gustav Praekelt, founder of the Praekelt Foundation. “We are confident that young Kenyans will embrace the mobile platform with the same passion that their South African and Tanzanian counterparts have and use it to create a community that informs, supports and entertains.”

In November 2011 Praekelt Foundation was acknowledged for the success of YoungAfricaLive by winning the regional and global gold awards for Social Impact at the Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership in Los Angeles.

For more information click here or follow the foundation on Twitter at @praekeltfound.

So now that major banks, telcos and other service providers have taken the initial steps in developing technologies, strategies and infrastructure for mobile banking, what is the next phase for mobile financial services? Customers are not just hoping for, but expecting more sophisticated services such as location-based services, corporate mobile banking, remote deposit capture and most importantly, mobile payments.

Smaller and more recent entrants into the mobile banking industry learn from bigger more established financial institutions and service providers. It also doesn’t end there: as competition increases, these newer entrants also look to gain competitive advantages by implementing more superior and advanced mobile banking services. Interoperability between all major role-players brings us to the issues of regulation. Taking a closer look at laws and regulations that govern the mobile banking industry we analyze possible issues, loopholes and inadequacies in existing regulation during the three day event.

With senior executives from across Africa addressing the conference, attending will give delegates the perfect opportunity to interact with banking professionals who are in charge of mobile banking and mobile payments. Other executives include professionals from telcos, mobile operators, emerging application developers and key industry analysts.

This year’s event with a revamped programme offers a comprehensive and multi-facetted agenda relevant to all professionals in the mobile banking industry. The conference features 28 top class speakers, 10 panelists, 2 panel discussions, streams, and an adjacent exhibition.

Event Details:

When: 13, 14 & 15 March 2012

Where: Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg

For more information click here.

9to5 Mac has received some information from a reliable source at Foxconn Technology Group in China that the next iPhone, known as the iPhone 5, is currently being geared for production.

The source revealed that there are various sample devices around but it is impossible to tell which of them is most likely to be the final product. However, there are a few features that are common among all the devices. They include:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them).
• Rather than a teardrop shape, samples are all symmetrical in thickness
• None of the samples have the iPhone 4/4s form factor

What is important to note here is that iPhone 4S production did not gear up until late spring of last year.  If a pattern is followed and an approximate five month lead time is given, it would appear that Apple is back on its new iPhone launch for summer/WWDC pattern that it maintained until last year.

The source that provided this information was the same source that indicated to 9to5 Mac late last summer in the U.S. that the iPhone 5 was not about to be launched, against the prevailing tide of information, and that Apple was building the iPhone 4S model instead.

Any thoughts on all the emerging iPhone 5 details?

ExpenZa is a free Android app and automates expense tracking by intercepting the expenditure SMS message sent by your bank. It uses the information contained in the SMS message to automatically populate your expense list. ExpenZa can also be used without a bank’s SMS service by manually adding expenses, for keeping track of the cash in your wallet for example. The app allows the user to create a monthly budget with different expense categories and a budget amount for each category. The total spent for each category is shown which gives the user a continuous overview of their spending throughout the month. This helps them to make adjustments necessary to keep to their budget.

All the app stores were configured to allow only downloads from South Africa. The app also went through five updates during the period under study. This was mostly to add the functionality to recognise a larger variety of sms’s, but some additional features requested by users were added (e.g. to be able to import historical sms’s from your inbox) and the un-escapable bug fixes. What is encouraging is the amount of user feedback received as well as the variety of users who forwarded sms’s not currently recognised by the app to be included. App downloads were tweeted daily from their account (@AppositionC) with hashtag #MarketDownloadChallengeZA.

Some overall stats:

● The app was launched on 24 November 2011 at Mobile Web Africa
● This analysis covers the period up to 18 January 2012
● Total days: 54 days
● Total downloads: 2044 (The metric used was total downloads and not nett downloads as only the Android market supply information on uninstalls)
● Average downloads per day: 40

The graph above indicates the following results per app market:

In the Android Market, the app showed a very high initial growth rate but thereafter tapered off. This could be as a result of all the initial press releases and overall mobile marketing pointing to the Android Market. Thanks to Google and InMobi for their sponsorship of some ad credits! Another important consideration to take into account is that it is difficult to have your app promoted as a feature app on the Android Market.

In the Vodacom App Store the app showed a slower initial growth but then overtook the Android Market. This could be as a result of ExpenZa being listed as one of the featured apps in the store and that the app was mentioned in an official press release issued by Vodacom that was published in both the paper and digital media. The results indicate that users are excited about and receptive to a local carrier app stores and they trust a brand like Vodacom. The tapering off of the app could be as a result of the market often being unavailable for downloads due to overload conditions.

Samsung Apps showed a very slow start. Apps in the Samsung App Store follow a rigorous certification process before they are published and can take approximately two weeks. Therefore the Samsung App Store was always at least 2 weeks behind the other stores in terms of releases. Sometimes, the next release was available on the other stores even before the release was certified in the Samsung Store. However, growth continued at a high rate which shows no indication of slowing. This could be as a result of Samsung users preferring the Samsung Store to the Android Market and the promotion of the app by Samsung as a listed featured app. In addition Samsung’s large market share of Android smartphones in South Africa is highlighted when taking into account that more than 50% of downloads on the Android Market and an unknown amount of Vodacom App Store downloads are Samsung devices. Adding an app to the market is difficult as every device group has to be added individually (In ExpenZa’s case more than 10 times).

Conclusion:

So which App store should you publish to? Unfortunately developers have to go through the effort of publishing to all three as they appeal to different users. The extra visibility gained by being featured on the Vodacom and Samsung Stores is very valuable, and they seem to do more to help promote local apps from local developers.

The results also highlight what seems to be an out performance of the Android Market by Vodacom’s App Store. This shows that there is room and enthusiasm for carrier apps stores and other niche app stores in South Africa from established brands that consumers trust.

Apposition Consulting will keep on monitoring the situation and provide an update in the future. In the mean time, follow Apposition Consulting on Twitter (@AppositionC) for a daily update under the hashtag #MarketDownloadChallengeZA.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins

After weeks of speculation (Research In Motion) RIM’s co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are resigning from their positions and will be replaced by company insider and former COO Thorsten Heins.

Heins, who also joins the company’s board, is already listed as President and CEO on RIM’s executive bios page. The change in leadership may be explained by a statement made by Lazaridis: “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim [Balsillie] and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now.”

However, it is far from a clean break as both Balsillie and Lazaridis will stay on as directors and significant shareholders as part of the company’s board and management shuffle.

2011 saw almost a solid year of indiscretions under the leadership of Balsillie and Lazaridis. While the beginning of the year seemed to get off  to a promising and exciting start with RIM’s introduction of the Playbook tablets, the launch was unsuccessful with key features like a native e-mail client being left out. Later in the year the company announced the name for a new combined OS only to learn they didn’t have rights to that name. More recently, the company frustrated a large amount of  Blackberry users globally when they suffered through an extended service outage and were heavily criticized for not providing sufficient feedback quick enough.

The company has also steadily slipped down the ladder in smartphone market share as Android competitors and Apple have released more innovative and well-received handsets.

RIM has also recently unveiled the new Playbook OS 2.0 which does feature its own email client.

Source: Mashable