THE YEAR 2011 IN REVIEW

Well time sure flies guys, but hey I guess it’s only us mortals that are in the habit of showing the excitement by shooting in the air, fireworks and all that fattening that goes around…. Nature never reminds us that a month, year, decade or millennium is over neither does it ever promise a better turn. However, this is not the same thing in the tech world given the fact that a lot goes into the research and development and 12 months could as well be a very long time to wait for some ingeniousness.
The year 2011 was a great year the world over and it sure shall be a memorable to the likes of Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Android despite the bearish nature of the economy. Talking about Android, Google must be laughing all the way to the bank having grossed 10 billion applications download in the marketplace and the record 750,000 daily phone activations. We can as well say 2011 was kind of android year and those are just signs of greater things to come considering the market share of some of the phone manufacturing on the Android platform.
You got to be a hater or swagger jacker if you haven’t noticed how big Samsung has grown. Samsung has not been shy to go for the number one spot in the smart phone arena given the fact that it is doing well very well on the android platform as it bets on the Galaxy family. We have the seen the guts displayed by the company as it has decided to go ahead with the global market leader which is Apple. I know many will argue that Apple cannot be shaken, android is not mature enough but all in all they cannot afford to seat pretty coz Samsung wants the number one spot so bad. The law suits and injunctions won’t stop it leave alone the potential of severing the relationship with Apple. This might have been made worse by the passing of Steve Jobs.
It wasn’t a great year for the Sony given that fact they began 2011 with a disaster in Japan that saw a slowdown in the production its main products as well as the delay in the release of the Xperia range of phones such as the Xperia Arc. Sony has not been as profitable as it used to be and as a brand it’s really struggling to compete against the likes of LG and Samsung who are all rounded electronics manufacture including mobile phones early in the year 2012. Such an occurrence early into the products life circles signals bad health and will make never be a success. The latest classic Sony flop has been with the Sony tablets which have not performed that well seeing a price cut This has led to the company opting to buy the 50% share in the from Ericsson hence the end of Sony Ericsson which was really picking up even with its cautious entry into the African market. Sony Ericsson was looking forward to become a number one brand on the Android platform and had embarked on its journey by focusing mainly only smart phones on the Xperia range. This was bearing fruits as Sony Ericsson came back to profitability and the Xperia brand was becoming a cult in countries such as Japan, Kenya, Australia and the rest. All we have to do is wait and see on whether Sony will retain Xperia as a name for its product range. Looking into the kaleidoscope, I see Sony rising from lose making to compete with the like of Apple, Samsung and HTC.
Not much is known about Huawei as a company to the masses but talk about Idios and you are bound to hear a lot…. 2011 was definitely an Idios year, Idios is a mid-range feature phone that has been such a success in Kenya having been launched on the Safaricom network. This can be accredited to the Market penetration strategy by Safaricom to boost its revenue on data as voice revenue has been eroded by the push by the Communications Commission of Kenya to reduce the cost of communication as well as the relentless tax wars from its competitors in the market. I personally do not think Ideos is a good phone and I do believe that Africa deserves the best just like the rest of the world.
I do believe that HTC is an outstanding brand but as far as I am concerned 2011 was a quit year for them especially for the African market apart from the rumors of the company looking to enter the emerging market. I do like the company`s standing with regard to its product quality. This is informed by the fact that they have chosen not to dilute the product range by coming up with custom products for the emerging market. This is quite a good move for any company with a product range as sound as HTC can make it in any given party of the world as long as it gets things right from the word go especially when it comes to doing business in Africa coz it’s a jungle down here.
Nokia has had a long run and for sure 2011 might have as well been a Nokia year from the loses, to the announcement that they were to go with Microsoft`s mobile OS as they dropped Symbian and Meego which they had spent a lot to develop. Nokia is the most popular brand in the emerging markets especially in Africa where they have all sorts of phones from dual sims to smart phone. This makes me wonder on how they are going to be a success given the fact that they have chosen to go windows. We have seen a few changes such as the downsizing of the work force as well as the moving of the East and Central Africa office down to South Africa. I do not know what is up their sleeves but it better be a good move coz the competition is not sleeping. The approach to doing business in emerging markets requires a hands on leadership that gets down to understand the unique conditions that have seen many startups such as GTV, NGB as well as seeing the success of the likes of Samsung and Huawei.
Mobile communication in Kenya was very spectacular in the year 2011. We saw so much ground gaining by the many mobile phone manufactures and the intensified market share capturing by the like of Samsung, Nokia who have introduced many dual sim phones in the market to the service provider adding value to the services offered. Orange has launched a couple of financial products while we have seen other players intensify their partnership with financial institutions as well as upgrading the networks to a with regard to mobile broadband. Talking about mobile broadband in Kenya will not be complete without highlighting the monopoly of Safaricom and the sleeping giant Airtel. I am yet to experience the 21.1MBps internet speed from neither Safaricom nor Orange Kenya who launched in Nairobi late last year but am damn sure it is not what you might think it is… We await Airtel who seem to be having a grand master plan as we can tell from the kind of relationship they are forging with global brands such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson. The growth of mobile broadband in Kenya will be crucial in the consumption mobile phone applications due to the easy access of affordable feature and smart phones. Given the fact that 2011 saw a tremendous growth on the sales of applications on both IOS and Android marketplaces, there will be need for local service providers to come up with payment tools that will speed up the same here given the fact that many of the people in the East African region do not have access to credit cards and services such as pay pal. Whoever is going to come up with an alternative will be holding the key to a game changer.
The migration from analogue to digital migration in Africa is meant to happen by the end the 2015. This is when every broadcaster will be required to switch off so as to facilitate the re-allocation of the analogue frequency to other services such as the military, emergency organization and the utilization of the white space for wide area WIFI and other services that will emerge as time goes by. On top of that, this is aimed at providing better and affordable TV either pay or free to a larger group of people using the DTT (Digital Terrestrial Technology). Kenya as a country has opted to go for the second generation commonly known as T2. This has not gone without its own share of controversy just as it has been in the past with the entrance of other players in the market. The allocation for the digital frequencies to new players in the country such as SMART TV saw protracted court cases with the local media owners with the likes of Nation Media and Royal Media Services who used dirty words such foreign companies while they rule airwaves in countries such as Uganda and Tanzania. SMART TV is now on its death bed as a result of the exit of the main shareholders Next Generation Broadcasting Africa and also a result of high turnover with regard to subscriptions caused by poorly selected content and a retarded market approach… Come June 2012 we expect a countrywide digitization and the switch off of the analogue signal, but how it is going to happen still remains a mystery because of too much vested interest and lack of funds to see the project through. There is still a lot of potential in the pay TV services in Kenya but how will be salvaged given the disappointments Kenyan consumers have had to endure.
Africa especially Kenya has received a lot of attention with regard to information technology. A lot of has been achieved at the Ihub and the Mlab where many innovations have been natured under the incubation model approach. We saw boot camps such as the Word press boot camp held in Naivasha. We also saw many hackathons being organized by players such as Nokia, Google and the likes of Ericsson. Microsoft has also made its inroads into Africa where it has been at lose due to the high level of piracy. This has seen the company launch a customized package for the continent.
2011 saw the tablet craze take off in Kenya, this must have been contrary to many device manufacturers whose view the kind of place with not enough disposable income. The craze was all over from Samsung`s galaxy tab, Apple`s ipad to Huawei Ideos tablets which could be seen all over. The media houses, public figures, business professionals such as marketers as well government people preferred the ipad. Samsung galaxy tab both the 8 inch and 10 inch was also a success due to the fact that it is more affordable.
The way forward is that the year 2012 is bound to be an exciting year the world over for the tech world especially for the emerging market. In 2012, we look forward to Sony to get into the wholly mobile communication and we can’t wait to see how the competition is going to react to their strategy. Is it going to be a game changer? What are their plans for the emerging markets and will we see a Sony Xperia phone or just Sony. In 2012 we are looking forward to iphone 5, Ipad 3 and more patent law suits between the main players in the industry. We should also look forward to more interest in the emerging markets as the focus keeps on shifting from the west but we should not forget China as its still is the biggest market for the likes of Apple and everyone is still going to scramble for a piece of that pie.
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