I was meant to attend the launch of YouTube Kenya yesterday but other commitments kept me away. The new web site was launched at www.youtube.co.ke and it features local video content from Kenya. In addition, users can access the web site in Kiswahili, if that is their preferred language. At the same time, users in Kenya who have spotty bandwidth can also access videos using YouTube Feather which optimizes streaming for slower Internet connections. All in all, an excellent initiative by Google for Kenya in driving the local content agenda. Below is the video from YouTube launching their Kenya web site:
Monthly Archive for October, 2011
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If your like me, you may have woken up to the shocking news that Apple’s iconic founder Steve Jobs died yesterday. I first heard about it on Twitter, when I saw a tweet saying “R.I.P Steve Jobs”. I immediately thought it was a hoax and went over to CNN.com to confirm – it was true, Steve Jobs had passed on. Indeed, this is sad news for many of us who love technology and to go further are fans of everything that Steve Jobs accomplished in his lifetime at Apple and beyond.
Steve Jobs was without a doubt one of the Fathers of modern technology as we know it – a true Titan of all things digital. He defined and redefined everything from personal computers to mobile phones as well as movies and more recently tablets. He drove the vision of products and services that were quite simply “magical” – we would never have appreciated the art of technology that he brought to life through his well-known and unrelenting drive for perfection in all he did. The world would not be what it is today we’re it not for Steve Jobs.
One of Steve Jobs’ famous “closing” statements when recruiting new team members to Apple was to ask them if they wanted to “put a dent on the universe” by working for him. Indeed, Steve Jobs made many many dents in the technology universe, as we know it. R.I.P Steve Jobs, you will be missed.
Well, this is treat! I just turned on my BlackBerry which happens to run on an Airtel Kenya line this morning and I was greeted with a 3G signal instead of the usual EDGE data connection. I only got back into the country over the weekend so this has just come to my attention. This makes Airtel Kenya the third mobile network in Kenya after Safaricom and more recently Orange Kenya to have 3G go live on their network. This would mean that only YU remains as the last network without 3G in the Kenyan market and I am sure they will need to respond soon as 3G becomes “de facto” for most mobile subscribers.
As far as I can tell, Airtel Kenya has NOT yet started a major marketing campaign around their 3G launch yet but this is sure to come soon. I also suspect that Airtel Kenya’s 3G network is possibly only live in Nairobi at the moment as I have not yet seen updates on social media from Mombasa or other cities or major towns where users are on as well. From what I have found online thus far, seems to me that the Airtel 3G service is actually fast, like really fast so can’t wait to give it a spin. However, its early days and even Orange Kenya’s 3G service, although launched nationwide, seems to be spotty from what I can tell.
I love cars. If you follow me on Twitter or are a Friend on Facebook, you would know by now how much I love Formula One and by extension cars. In Kenya, as happens in the rest of Africa, the business of marketing and selling cars has remained largely “old school” in that little has changed over the last three decades or so. Sure, many automotive dealers selling new and pre-owned cars have corporate and sometimes (local) brand web sites these days but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can actually do to in terms of selling cars via digital channels. During a recent trip to South Africa, I experienced what I could only describe as a cutting edge approach to marketing a new car in that market – The Nissan Juke.
The Nissan Juke is what you would call a small SUV. Its brand new to South Africa and clearly the Agency that was briefed to market the Nissan Juke must have been given full creative license to come up with an innovative digital marketing approach. The whole marketing approach starts by having a “prominent” (read: spotlights, barriers, etc) closed off space in a mall where you cannot see anything at all, as below:
Now, as you can see, there is NOTHING in the closed off space. This is where it gets interesting. The team doing the brand activation then come up to you and ask you if you would like to see the car? “What car?” you ask. They then point their iPad at the empty space for a few seconds as below:
Then, you wait for a few seconds and the following is what you see:
And…PRESTO! A virtual Nissan Juke floats onto the screen of the iPad. However, its a complete 3D mock-up of the car so using the iPad you can “walk” around the car and even open the doors and peer in, etc. Its like the real thing but only its digital and virtual. Its a classic case of using augmented reality to market a real-world product in a virtual and digital space. This is really innovative and novel. However, it gets better as per the screen below:
On the above screen, right from the iPad, you can navigate to an online form so that you can book a test drive or make a general enquiry on the Nissan Juke. Now this bit of the “campaign” for the Nissan Juke I loved the most since instead of just interesting would be buyers, you capture lead details so that the selling process can begin immediately after the first marketing effort has been achieved.
Now, this whole campaign of the Nissan Juke may represent the cutting edge of digital marketing approaches that are possible for cars. However, it’s but just one way in which the marketing of cars could be reinvented in markets like Kenya and the rest of Africa. I can imagine an approach that leverages mobile optimized web sites, QR codes, mobile marketing, email marketing, etc in lots of new and exciting ways that get people to buy a car - instead of just glancing at a full-page newspaper ad or a billboard on a highway. To visit the campaign website for the Nissan Juke in South Africa go to www.nissanjuke.co.za
I want to start this blog post with a confession. As much as Google’s Android has been all the rage for the past year or so in Kenya, I have been something of a skeptic about it. Why is this when everyone has been going all “googly-eyed” about Android? Well, for one thing, I have been mostly using an Apple iPhone for most of this time. I moved to the iPhone (i.e. the 3GS and more recently the 4) and everything about what I expected from a smartphone got a serious reality check. Basically, no one could ever convince me that anything but an iPhone was “the real thing”, until now that is. To paraphrase Steve Jobs when Apple launched the original iPhone 4 years ago, “the mobile phone, reinvented”. Yes indeed, even 4 years later, the iPhone still does really set the standard by which all other mobile phones are measured.
However, in doing a review of Samsung’s entry-level Galaxy Mini Android last month, I found myself in a predicament. I had to find a way of completely transferring all my contacts, calendars, email accounts, social media and other important information from my iPhone to the Galaxy Mini. After spending a good amount of time on Google looking for an adequate solution, I found one. The process went better than expected although it did require me to create a new Gmail account and then upload all my Outlook and iPhone contacts via iTunes. Once done, I was able to synchronize with the Galaxy Mini and presto! It was done. This blew me away as now all my contacts and calendar info are effectively “living” in Google’s cloud, for free! This in itself made me re-think Android from the perspective that its more useful than the iPhone when it comes to working with the cloud.
Going forward, I have been “off” the iPhone(s) for the better part of a month. The funny thing is that I do not seem to miss them that much. I have more of less fully adapted to Android and I am surprised at how easy it was! The big thing seems to be that the Google Ecosystem has me in their proverbial matrix (just like Neo!). All I need is an Android phone and I am “plugged in” to everything I need from maps, to contacts, calendars, apps, etc. Its really surprising how this all worked out and I really had no intention of actually liking Android as much as I do, right now. All I can say that is I can now see why everyone is going “gaga” about Android, even for an Apple fanboy like me who may still, just still, may go back to his iPhone. Nuff said! 
The Samsung Galaxy Mini
I have been using Samsung’s Galaxy Mini (model GT-S5570) for the better part of a month, or slightly longer. The Galaxy Mini is being retailed in Kenya for Kes. 12,999.00 by Safaricom which places it in the entry-level range of Android handsets available in the market to-date. This is more expensive than Huawei’s IDEOS which has been a runaway success for Safaricom but its also a more capable phone on many levels. Included in the Safaricom price for the Galaxy Mini is 600 MB of free data for three months or rather 200 MB per month which is decent enough for most people. In reviewing the Galaxy Mini, here are the details based on my experience:
Screen Size: On holding the Galaxy Mini for the very first time, a few things caught my attention. The first was the size of the screen. Its a large 3.14 inch screen which got me all excited. This is almost as large as the screens you get on much more expensive Android phones in the market. However, on turning the phone on, I was disappointed with the quality of the screen – clearly this was no AMOLED or Super AMOLED screen with a fuzzy looking resolution of only 240 X 320 with a range of only 262 colours. However, I got used to it, eventually.
The back of the Samsung Galaxy Mini
Packaging: In terms of the packaging or the casing of the Galaxy Mini, it does feel low-end in terms of the finish. However, for the price on offer this is hardly a surprise and it certainly does have a “plasticky” feel that seems to plague all low-end (and sometimes high-end) smartphones. Its pretty hefty in terms of weight at 106.6 grams but you really could not compare it to an HTC or iPhone in this respect, which generally have a solid metallic feel. It does however have a “chunky” feel to it that I like.
Responsiveness: In terms of panning through apps on the Galaxy Mini, the experience was generally was satisfactory but not excellent in my opinion. You did feel at times that the processor was light-weight and it took ages for apps to open at times – hanging was not uncommon after a few weeks. But putting things in perspective, this is an entry-level Android that I am STILL using it as I write this review.
Memory: The Galaxy Mini comes with limited phone-based storage. However, you do get a Micro SD card with 2GB which is sufficient for handling most of your multimedia needs for video and audio. However, it is small compared to what you get on more expensive Android handsets which can be in the region of 16GB out of the box. But then again, this is an entry-level handset.
The Galaxy Mini - Exposed
Contacts: As mentioned earlier in this blog post, I was able to download all my contacts from my iPhone and Outlook. However, I was also able to integrate and synchronize Facebook and Twitter contacts as well. This is a pretty nifty feature as it puts everything in one place.
Camera: The Galaxy Mini can do video and stills. Still pictures are taken at 3 MP which is not bad for a phone of this level. However, it lacks autofocus and a flash which are now becoming commonplace on more recent Android handsets being launched globally. Personally, it’s worked really well for me and I have no complaints.
Battery Life: I was actually quite impressed with the battery life on the Galaxy Mini. It does not always last as long as I would like but at least it could take me through a whole day – provided I turned off the Internet when I did not need it from sucking all the battery life. The regular email and social media notifications are quite simply battery draining.
Video: The Galaxy Mini worked well in terms of accessing YouTube videos. However, it does NOT support Flash which is a hindrance to browsing a good number of web sites. I can only imagine that this is the case due to processor constants.
The Galaxy Mini - Side Profile
Music: I used the Galaxy Mini in the gym as a replacement for my iPhone. It comes with all the expected accessories such as headphones with basic controls. However, the user interface and overall experience including the quality of sound could not match that of an iPhone or iPod.
Networking: The Galaxy Mini is able to connect to data in a myriad of ways. It supports EDGE and 3G meaning it get online fast. However, it also supports Bluetooth and WIFI networking. Lastly, like the Huawei IDEOS, it can also work as a WIFI hotspot for multiple computers. In a nutshell, it connects, whenever and wherever you need it to!
Conclusion
In concluding, I have found that the Galaxy Mini was able to meet both my professional and personal needs when it came to having an entry-level Android handset. It did however have some short-comings like the screen quality and becoming less responsive as I installed more applications and content. I was able to use it for work email and personal email, as well as social media apps, etc. It worked and continues to work for me. However, it’s not a Galaxy S or Galaxy S2 – but then again these phones cost 3 to 5 times as much. At the end of the day however, the Galaxy Mini is a decent Android phone and I would recommend it with a strong buy if you are budget constrained and want great value for money.
Buying and selling of tickets, or ticketing, is not a particularly sexy topic in Kenya when it comes to technology. In fact, you could say, the business of ticketing has remained in the proverbial dark ages with only a few businesses and companies bothering to digitizing the process – be it paying for bus tickets or the next big music concert. One of the major players in this space would have to be Kenya Airways who have had an online booking engine for years that lets you buy tickets using your credit card or mobile money. Personally, I have bought tickets on Kenya Airways using M-Pesa and apart from being super convenient for someone like me, it works just fine!
However, when rethinking the concept of ticketing in the context of technology in Kenya, this is an area that has been largely untouched, until now that is. Over the last year or so, it seems to me that two companies are aiming to capitalize on this nascent opportunity to streamline the ticketing process for businesses and people, online, and on mobile. The big deal here is that there are over 10 million Internet users in Kenya and over 16 million mobile subscribers have access to mobile money in the form of Safaricom’s M-Pesa. This convergence of sorts if a BIG untapped opportunity for a vast range of digital services, e-ticketing included.
E-ticketing from TicketSasa.com
The first company of note is PesaPal, which is probably the first business that really got into on e-ticketing in a serious way. I remember buying tickets to the Jonathan Butler concert held in Nairobi late last year in this way, using Safaricom’s M-Pesa for payment. However, what was ironic is that on arriving at the concert, no one (initially) seemed to know about the e-tickets that had been sold and someone had to rummage through a file to get details. I suspect that this logistical hiccup must have been resolved by now at current and future events. PesaPal has since branded their e-ticketing offering as TicketSasa.com and it seems they are signing up a good number of businesses – it seems to be paying off.
E-ticketing from PataTicket.com
The second company of note in Kenya’s burgeoning e-ticketing space came to my attention this past week. I am attending the Safaricom Classical Fusion event this afternoon and having been out of the country I needed to buy tickets online by this Friday as this was the deadline. After searching online, I found a solution through PataTicket.com which seems to be a product of BernSoft, a well-established ICT solutions business based in Nairobi. It seems to me that PataTicket is essentially the same as TicketSasa and what remains to be seen is which of these offerings will scale fastest in signing up businesses, and become a part of mainstream consumer brand consciousness.
South Africa's leading e-ticketing business, Computicket.co.za
I think that the e-ticketing space has a very large opportunity in Kenya and the broader East African region. What is already apparent in both TicketSasa and PataTicket is that mobile money and more specifically Safaricom’s M-Pesa will be key due to the lack of adequate credit card penetration in the region – it’s a perfect fit! It means that long queues and missed opportunities could be a thing of the past for a wide range of businesses that need e-ticketing solutions. It would be great to see this reach the level of what I recently experienced in South Africa when using CompuTicket to buy movie tickets – it works across a myriad of payment channels and they even have an Andorid mobile app. South Africa’s CompuTicket is essentially how far both SasaTicket and PataTicket could potentially go. It’s a bright future for e-ticketing in Kenya – whichever way you look at it!