Nokia taps into the Kenyan app developers talent

 According to a publication in the  Business daily Feb 9th Mobile handset manufacturer Nokia will establish a regional research and development centre in Nairobi in an effort to capture the growing number Kenya’s software developers to cultivate applications for its African market.

Nokia’s chief executive officer Stephen Elop said in Nairobi yesterday that the mobile telephony giant intends to use the local talent to develop mobile applications to rejuvenate its falling handset sales.

The move is set to boost the earnings of local software developers and catapult the country’s IT experts to global prominence.

“Kenya not only has the pool of talent required but has also demonstrated that it can produce mobile applications that can be used globally,” said Mr Elop, adding Nokia will use a yet-to-be established regional research unit to develop applications that are relevant for Africa’s users.

Mr Elop, who is in Nairobi to meet the local software developers, says Nokia is keen on mobile applications tailored to education, health and e-commerce sectors. He met about 50 software developers at iHub – an innovation centre that houses more than 3,000 software developers.

Nokia is facing stiff competition in the handset market with firms such as Samsung, Apple and ZTE gaining marketshare and is looking at emerging nations to spur sales. The firm has shed more than 30,000 jobs in three years and moved production to Asia from Europe to cut costs. The Finnish giant last year downgraded the Kenya office from a regional hub to a sales and marketing office under South Africa.

A report released by Gartner in November indicates that Nokia’s global marketshare dropped to 22.8 in August from 30.3 per cent same period last year, with its overall pieces sold over the period dropping to 97,869.6 from 111,473 in 2010.

ZTE, which has introduced cheaper smart phones, increased its global market share to three per cent in August 2011 from 1.8 per cent in the same period last year while Apple’s increased to 4.6 per cent from 2.4 per cent in the period under review.

Kenya’s software developers were thrust to global prominence after local firms – Virtual City and Taka Taka Solutions Ltd – won global awards. Virtual City won the $1million Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge award for  innovators who would create mobile products that can improve lives of people in developing nations.

In my opinion, local app developers will be able to reap so much if there is an integration of platforms such as the Apples App store and the marketplace since mobile money transfer is fully rooted in the Kenya commerce. Whoever gets this to come up with this application of course by working with the service providers such as Safaricom and Airtel will be laughing all the way to the bank. I believe I say this just as an individual but I am very sure very many Kenyans will agree with my proposal.