Mobile technology: developing the world
This article is written by freelance techcrunch author Erica Kochi , Lead Technical Innovation Specialist at UNICEF. Her team has launched an open source UNICEF - RapidSMS platform, which has spread in developing countries around the world. She, along with other teachers, leads the Design for UNICEF class, part of the ITP-program at New York University, and lectures on how technology and design help develop international cooperation at Harvard, Yale and Columbia University. This article expresses her personal views on this issue.
In less than three decades, the mobile phone has evolved from a status symbol into a ubiquitous technology that provides almost all the interactions in our daily lives. A month after the population of the Earth reached 7 billion people in October 2011, the GSM Association announced that they had registered 6 billion SIM-cards. A study conducted in 2009 in India showed that a 10% increase in cellular penetration leads to a 1.2% increase in GDP.
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However, the way mobile phones are used in developing countries differs significantly from what you usually see on the streets of Moscow, New York and Berlin. This is a market not covered by technologists and startups. He has yet to develop rapidly, and in Silicon Valley has not yet realized the huge economic opportunities of this market for cellular network operators, phone developers and mobile startups. What are these possibilities?
India and China today account for the majority of new mobile connections, and in developing countries, the saturation of the mobile market has not yet reached the limit, so its growth is expressed in two digits.
This rapid growth of the mobile market is especially surprising for developing countries, where the purchase of a mobile device for the average user is equivalent to several of his monthly salaries. Keeping in touch is of tremendous value and meets the many needs of users, as they continue to invest often more than 10% of their monthly income in keeping in touch. The explosive growth of mobile technology in developing countries over the past five years has prompted us at UNICEF to use mobile phones to improve our programs in 190 countries and territories. Many of the UNICEF programs currently use mobile technology for various purposes. One of the programs ensures that young children are tested for HIV and receive all necessary treatment. The other provides community feedback on all topics ranging from water treatment to access to essential medicines.
It is difficult for people in Silicon Valley to imagine that 70% of mobile phone shipments are futures. Most of these phones go to developing countries. The vast majority of the population of our planet, especially in low-income countries and in rural areas, are now going through a mobile revolution in the form of voice, SMS and asynchronous connections.
Such a limited connection inflames a huge creative potential. For many communities, the possibility of simple voice and text communication led to a revolution in access to financial services, health care and agriculture, as well as employment opportunities. For example, many farmers from the agricultural regions of Africa and Asia use SMS services to learn daily the dynamics of prices for agricultural products. This information allows them to strengthen the bargaining position when selling their products on the market, and also allows them to switch between different end markets.
Another successful example in this area is the UNICEF RapidSMS initiative : a scalable, SMS-based, open-source framework designed for dynamic data collection, logistical coordination and communications. UNICEF currently supports governments in six sub-Saharan African countries and more than 200,000 RapidSMS users in the poorest and most rural communities. Primary health care providers, each of whom help hundreds of women and children, actively use the RapidSMS service. Success in this area is measured by time, money, and saved lives. RapidSMS is widely used by governments and communities for the development of international cooperation, also used in business circles. For example, in Ghana, a local entrepreneur uses RapidSMS to control the sale of cookers throughout the country.
In many countries, where most people do not use the services of banks, the replenishment of a mobile account has become another form of currency. Imagine that you need to send some money to your sister who lives in a village ten hours away from you. The easiest way to do this is to top up her mobile phone. Now, for a small fee, she can go and cash out this amount from a mobile account in the office of a mobile operator.
M-PESA, a project from Kenya, which was originally created to spread micro loans and collect payments from the poorest rural communities in Kenya, has now become a large-scale, multi-country mobile money transfer system operated by Safaricom in East Africa and Roshan in Afghanistan.
For many governments, mobile money has become a dilemma. They like that their citizens can access financial services that can significantly improve their lives. On the other hand, this may mean that mobile network operators and those who provide various mobile cash services receive a profit that would otherwise fall into the central bank.
And yet, problems remain. Prices for using these services are still too high for the poorest communities. There are too few items to cash mobile money. People often do not understand or trust non-traditional forms of cash payments.
However, this creates tremendous business opportunities. Even with all the network operators in this area, there are opportunities to create a range of services that can use mobile payments. In order to successfully develop in this sector, we need to better explore the ways in which people handle money around the world, and create applications that are flexible enough to fit into different cultural traditions.
In San Francisco, you can pay a taxi driver through Square, and in Nairobi you can pay money to his mobile bill.
IPhons don't stand a chance because of their inflexibility and high prices. If nothing changes, then Android will be the operating system for developing countries. However, even the flagship Samsung Galaxy Nexus is not the perfect phone. The perfect smartphone would be:
1. Cheap. Last year, Huawei and Safaricom unveiled a $ 80 Android phone in Kenya. In a country where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day. This year, at the Mobile World Congress, Bharti Airtel’s CEOs, Telefonica Latin America and VimpelCom made a joint statement that $ 50 is an absolutely magic price for smartphones to become more widely available in developing countries.
2. Durable and simple. Nokia 1100 - the most popular phones in the world. They are well protected from dust, waterproof, durable, have a simple menu system, are disassembled into several parts and equipped with a flashlight. In every city in developing countries, there is a local repair shop and a shop with spare parts for simple Nokia handsets. When I travel to developing countries, I rely on my reliable Nokia 1100, not the iPhone. Smartphones are gentle creatures that can not withstand the burden of people's daily lives.
3. The battery life is a week. Charging the phone every day is not an option if you live in a village without electricity. While working on one of the UNICEF projects in rural Senegal, I ran into a village entrepreneur who started such a business - he collected telephones from everyone and for a small fee, took them by bicycle to a nearby village where there was electricity. hours charged them there, and brought back.
People in these countries spend money to charge their phones. Development of phones that will work without recharging a week, will open a large market segment for smartphones.
Data is equally expensive in both developed and developing countries. Data is unlikely to fall in price as quickly as smartphones, so even if the phones are cheap enough for the average user in developing countries, he still cannot afford to run many of the applications that are on smartphones. In these countries, there will be demand for applications — be it banking services, weather forecasts, chat rooms, social networks, or market information — but it will be especially important that they use little network traffic. One of the technologies to be followed is the Android data consumption screen, which allows you to set data usage limits and shows the amount of data already received.
The growth of the mobile industry, expressed in two digits, contains a great potential for business. While companies from the US are trying to get into the top applications in various categories, there is still a huge untapped potential in developing countries. Work in this area will require entrepreneurs to design their applications from an alternative point of view. Their end users will have different motivations, experiences, needs and limitations. While phone manufacturers need to create a phone with sufficient battery life, application developers will need to create applications that use little traffic.
In less than three decades, the mobile phone has evolved from a status symbol into a ubiquitous technology that provides almost all the interactions in our daily lives. A month after the population of the Earth reached 7 billion people in October 2011, the GSM Association announced that they had registered 6 billion SIM-cards. A study conducted in 2009 in India showed that a 10% increase in cellular penetration leads to a 1.2% increase in GDP.
')
However, the way mobile phones are used in developing countries differs significantly from what you usually see on the streets of Moscow, New York and Berlin. This is a market not covered by technologists and startups. He has yet to develop rapidly, and in Silicon Valley has not yet realized the huge economic opportunities of this market for cellular network operators, phone developers and mobile startups. What are these possibilities?
Developing countries increase economic power
India and China today account for the majority of new mobile connections, and in developing countries, the saturation of the mobile market has not yet reached the limit, so its growth is expressed in two digits.
This rapid growth of the mobile market is especially surprising for developing countries, where the purchase of a mobile device for the average user is equivalent to several of his monthly salaries. Keeping in touch is of tremendous value and meets the many needs of users, as they continue to invest often more than 10% of their monthly income in keeping in touch. The explosive growth of mobile technology in developing countries over the past five years has prompted us at UNICEF to use mobile phones to improve our programs in 190 countries and territories. Many of the UNICEF programs currently use mobile technology for various purposes. One of the programs ensures that young children are tested for HIV and receive all necessary treatment. The other provides community feedback on all topics ranging from water treatment to access to essential medicines.
Creativity despite the lack of data
It is difficult for people in Silicon Valley to imagine that 70% of mobile phone shipments are futures. Most of these phones go to developing countries. The vast majority of the population of our planet, especially in low-income countries and in rural areas, are now going through a mobile revolution in the form of voice, SMS and asynchronous connections.
Such a limited connection inflames a huge creative potential. For many communities, the possibility of simple voice and text communication led to a revolution in access to financial services, health care and agriculture, as well as employment opportunities. For example, many farmers from the agricultural regions of Africa and Asia use SMS services to learn daily the dynamics of prices for agricultural products. This information allows them to strengthen the bargaining position when selling their products on the market, and also allows them to switch between different end markets.
Another successful example in this area is the UNICEF RapidSMS initiative : a scalable, SMS-based, open-source framework designed for dynamic data collection, logistical coordination and communications. UNICEF currently supports governments in six sub-Saharan African countries and more than 200,000 RapidSMS users in the poorest and most rural communities. Primary health care providers, each of whom help hundreds of women and children, actively use the RapidSMS service. Success in this area is measured by time, money, and saved lives. RapidSMS is widely used by governments and communities for the development of international cooperation, also used in business circles. For example, in Ghana, a local entrepreneur uses RapidSMS to control the sale of cookers throughout the country.
Recharge mobile phone - a new type of payment
In many countries, where most people do not use the services of banks, the replenishment of a mobile account has become another form of currency. Imagine that you need to send some money to your sister who lives in a village ten hours away from you. The easiest way to do this is to top up her mobile phone. Now, for a small fee, she can go and cash out this amount from a mobile account in the office of a mobile operator.
M-PESA, a project from Kenya, which was originally created to spread micro loans and collect payments from the poorest rural communities in Kenya, has now become a large-scale, multi-country mobile money transfer system operated by Safaricom in East Africa and Roshan in Afghanistan.
For many governments, mobile money has become a dilemma. They like that their citizens can access financial services that can significantly improve their lives. On the other hand, this may mean that mobile network operators and those who provide various mobile cash services receive a profit that would otherwise fall into the central bank.
And yet, problems remain. Prices for using these services are still too high for the poorest communities. There are too few items to cash mobile money. People often do not understand or trust non-traditional forms of cash payments.
However, this creates tremendous business opportunities. Even with all the network operators in this area, there are opportunities to create a range of services that can use mobile payments. In order to successfully develop in this sector, we need to better explore the ways in which people handle money around the world, and create applications that are flexible enough to fit into different cultural traditions.
In San Francisco, you can pay a taxi driver through Square, and in Nairobi you can pay money to his mobile bill.
Phone for developing countries
IPhons don't stand a chance because of their inflexibility and high prices. If nothing changes, then Android will be the operating system for developing countries. However, even the flagship Samsung Galaxy Nexus is not the perfect phone. The perfect smartphone would be:
1. Cheap. Last year, Huawei and Safaricom unveiled a $ 80 Android phone in Kenya. In a country where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day. This year, at the Mobile World Congress, Bharti Airtel’s CEOs, Telefonica Latin America and VimpelCom made a joint statement that $ 50 is an absolutely magic price for smartphones to become more widely available in developing countries.
2. Durable and simple. Nokia 1100 - the most popular phones in the world. They are well protected from dust, waterproof, durable, have a simple menu system, are disassembled into several parts and equipped with a flashlight. In every city in developing countries, there is a local repair shop and a shop with spare parts for simple Nokia handsets. When I travel to developing countries, I rely on my reliable Nokia 1100, not the iPhone. Smartphones are gentle creatures that can not withstand the burden of people's daily lives.
3. The battery life is a week. Charging the phone every day is not an option if you live in a village without electricity. While working on one of the UNICEF projects in rural Senegal, I ran into a village entrepreneur who started such a business - he collected telephones from everyone and for a small fee, took them by bicycle to a nearby village where there was electricity. hours charged them there, and brought back.
People in these countries spend money to charge their phones. Development of phones that will work without recharging a week, will open a large market segment for smartphones.
Data Optimized Applications
Data is equally expensive in both developed and developing countries. Data is unlikely to fall in price as quickly as smartphones, so even if the phones are cheap enough for the average user in developing countries, he still cannot afford to run many of the applications that are on smartphones. In these countries, there will be demand for applications — be it banking services, weather forecasts, chat rooms, social networks, or market information — but it will be especially important that they use little network traffic. One of the technologies to be followed is the Android data consumption screen, which allows you to set data usage limits and shows the amount of data already received.
Call for battle
The growth of the mobile industry, expressed in two digits, contains a great potential for business. While companies from the US are trying to get into the top applications in various categories, there is still a huge untapped potential in developing countries. Work in this area will require entrepreneurs to design their applications from an alternative point of view. Their end users will have different motivations, experiences, needs and limitations. While phone manufacturers need to create a phone with sufficient battery life, application developers will need to create applications that use little traffic.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/144952/
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