[Video] Interview with Kelvin Jayanoris of DukaPress at WordCamp Kenya 2011

Published on November 14, 2011 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This weekend I attended the first ever WordCamp Kenya at Crayfish Camp in Naivasha. The event which is focused on all things WordPress was well attended with over 100 participants, mostly from Nairobi. I had an opportunity to interview Kelvin Jayanoris who is one of the founders behind DukaPress.

DukaPress is an open source e-commerce plugin for WordPress that has been developed from scratch in Kenya. DukaPress was launched in August 2010 and since then has been downloaded more than 20,000 times from WordPress. It is NOT the most popular e-commerce plugin (yet) for WordPress but it is doing really well by being adopted by businesses globally, even though it was initially developed for businesses in Kenya to deploy e-commerce on their web sites.

DukaPress was built from the ground up by Kelvin and his team to offer Kenyan businesses a localized and no frills WordPress e-commerce plugin that could be used for all sorts of payment platforms including Safaricom’s M-Pesa as well as other International platforms such PayPal. In the interview, Kelvin told me that they make money from DukaPress when their mostly International customers engage them to do simple or extensive customizations to meet their unique e-commerce needs. You can find out more about Kelvin and DukaPress in the interview below. Enjoy!

[Deck from WordCamp Kenya 2011] The African Blogging Journey

Published on November 12, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Below is a deck/presentation I made this afternoon at the inaugural WordCamp Kenya 2011 being held at Camp Crayfish in Naivasha. The presentation is basically a top-to-bottom view of my experiences (seriously) blogging for around 4 years. Enjoy!

The African Blogging Jouney by Moses Kemibaro at WordCamp Kenya 2011

News24 launches in Kenya.

Published on November 8, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

News24 is South Africa’s leading news web site with an Alexa ranking of 8 making it one of the most popular local web sites overall in South Africa. Earlier this week, News24 launched their Kenya web site at kenya.news24.com which features the latest Kenyan news including sports and business.

The News24 Kenya web site is still very much in its nascent stages as there are lots of areas that feature international news to supplement the limited Kenyan news. However, based on the fact that News24 has done well in South Africa for many years, News24 Kenya could potentially mount a very credible challenge to the local and well-established Kenyan news web sites such as the Daily Nation and the East African Standard.

What remains to be seen is how well News24 Kenya will catch on in the coming months and how they intend to differentiate their web site offering(s) from the formidable incumbents. One of the novel features of the News24 Kenya web site is that it can also be accessed on mobile devices at m.news24.com/kenya.

News24 is owned by Naspers of South Africa who also happen to indirectly (through MIH Internet East Africa) own Dealfish, the online classifieds business which I manage in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Media Madness – When a blog becomes an online community.

Published on November 4, 2011 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I first came across the Media Madness blog probably around a year or so ago. I first heard about it from some friends of mine who work in Kenya’s media sector. They told me that Media Madness was MUST read for anyone who wanted a refreshing take on what is happening in Kenya’s media space. This prompted to have a look at the Media Madness blog the next day.

What I saw, and what I read, had me laughing to tears, and stitches. The blog posts on Media Madness were a complete riot! But what was even more entertaining was the many comments that readers would post there. It was the first blog I had seen in Kenya that regularly had over 200 comments, on daily basis! This is no mean feat and suggests that the readers are just as passionate as the bloggers on Media Madness. I also noticed that there was a consistency to the readers who came back everyday and made comments on Media Madness – it has transcended being a blog and has in fact become a vibrant online community.

I have gone back, time and again, every few weeks for a good laugh over the past year. If anything, their blog is doing even better these days and the comments just keep coming back on every blog post. The content is as candid and as witty as ever! (be warned though that profane language is liberally spread in both posts and comments). I even saw that they had sold display ads to Nivea during a recent campaign (which could be a first for a blog in Kenya with a mainstream and “blue chip” brand).

Media Madness is probably the most popular blog in Kenya since it ranks as one of the most popular web sites in Kenya as well on Alexa.com. At some point, I had gotten in touch with the people behind Media Madness and meant to do a blog post on them – that was a year or so ago. I have been busy and procrastinated. However, finally, I got them to do an interview with me on Media Madness this week. Below is what I got from them – enjoy!

MK: What is Media Madness? When did it start?

MM: Media Madness is a community of bloggers who come together to USUALLY discuss what is put up on a daily basis (They don’t have to discuss what’s put up, it’s your choice). The site started in August 2009 at a joke as we drove to the airport.

MK: What makes it so popular since it’s probably Kenya’s leading blog?

MM: CONTENT! MM is updated on every weekday, it rarely veers off its personality (Bitchy, rough, funny, a swift kicker in the nuts). Plus Gossip and ‘inside scoops’ are PRIME topics in the digital space.

MK: Who is behind Media Madness? Tell us more about your content. How do you promote it?

MM: The site is run by College going guys and young entrepreneurs. The writers change a lot but the ‘Brand Voice’ (Don’t laugh, we killed brain cells trying to define the brand voice) doesn’t change. It’s a nice mix. We love it! The site is largely spread through word of mouth, but one of our admins uses his/her Twitter account to push the day’s post online. We did use Google once and it paid off BIG TIME! (I wasn’t paid to say that btw)

MK: We heard that someone or a company recently invested in Media Madness? Can you tell us more about it?

MM: The deal is covered by a very tight NDA but the little that we are allowed to squeal about is that the firm will plug in expertise that will see us monetize better and diversify the content offering. And yes, there was some infusion of capital that will make this possible.

MK: Who reads Media Madness? We have noticed that each blog post gets over 200 comments a day. This is HUGE for Kenya. Do tell?

MM: We really can’t tell who is who !!! As we ENCOURAGE our users to be anonymous (Communities thrive when everyone is ‘in the dark’) … plus the ease in which you can leave comments. There are several ‘Commentators’ on the site who’ve carved out a niche for themselves and are seen on a regular basis. They’ve even started leading discussion (which we don’t mind) plus sometimes it’s a mess and more entertaining on the comments section, it sometimes REFLECTS the society we live in, as some of the comments are quite eeer enlightening.

MK: It seems to me that Media Madness has transcended being a blog and has become an online community? How did this happen? Why did this happen?

MM: It had to happen; it’s the same people coming every day to a site where their comments are not moderated (Unless they go against our legal line). They form a community; it’s a ritual for them. It’s part of their social network, we allow them to be anything on the platform but allowing and encouraging free discussions.

MK: Is Media Madness making money? We saw some Nivea Ads not too long ago. How did this go?

MM: Yes, we’ve made money … we’ve tried a few banner ads. But sometimes, we have to turn away some people. Those that come in and first ask for specific posts to be taken down (This is not your grandfather’s thingira) *shaking a mwiko*

MK: What are the long term plans for Media Madness? It seems like you have a blog that could be profitable going forward – a first in Kenya perhaps?

MM: We are looking to grow our readership more and diversify our content to include other verticals of interest. Brands come where conversations happen and we happen to be one of those places where we have conversations happening on a daily basis. So in the coming year we will engage more with brands looking to push their product a bit different

MK: What keeps you going with Media Madness? Where does the obvious passion come from?

MM: Hahaha we still can’t explain that and it’s not that we have free time, we must be the busiest ‘Teens’ in town. For me (Bitch Fest writer) I guess I use the site as a ‘release’ mechanism. It helps me forget about the a million and one projects I’m working on and for a few minutes I’m a total bitch!

MK: Parting shot? (Whatever comes to mind?).

MM: Build it, and they will come. All bloggers should keep this to mind, MM started as a joke (and shit grammar, which sometimes it still has) but we have a few thousand eyeballs. Also, get paid for doing what you love. Also, know your genre … okay I need to stop! Cool warus!!

NOTE: Media Madness can currently be found at frankierants.com but will be moving to mm.co.ke next week.

 

SafaricomCLOUD: Safaricom’s third act to dominate Kenya’s telecoms sector?

Published on October 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

There is no denying that Safaricom is easily one of Kenya’s most innovative companies, even if its DNA is ultimately rooted in technology. It seems just like the other day when mobile telephony became widely available to the masses in Kenya at the cusp of the Millennium when Safaricom and Kencell launched their services. In fact, Kencell’s network was actually operational before Safaricom’s and everyone expected them to do well as  a result of the head start they had. However, the folly in Kencell’s launch is that they focused on the post-paid customer rather than the pre-paid customer. This proved to be their undoing as Safaricom hit the market with pre-paid services as the sharp-end of their strategy. Everyone could sign-up for Safaricom without needing to place financial deposits or showing their bank statements. All they needed was a mobile phone and pre-paid scratch cards to get started. In addition, Safaricom focussed on per second billing whilst Kencell focussed on per minute billing. The rest you could say is history and we all know what happened – Safaricom won that battle quite convincingly and it’s probably the platform that they needed to consolidate the market leadership they hold to this very day. However, that battle was largely about voice and SMS services. You could say that was Safaricom’s the first act in dominating Kenya’s telecoms sector.

The next phase of Safaricom’s market domination came with the arrival of M-Pesa and data services. More specifically, in launching M-Pesa, Safaricom reinvented Kenya’s financial services sector and almost all of its millions of subscribers are now more or less subscribed to it. This all happened around the time that Kencell had already changed its name to Celtel and thereafter to Zain. M-Pesa in many ways has locked in subscribers to Safaricom as its immensely useful as we know for moving money around. At more or less the same time, Safaricom paid a handsome fee to secure a 3G data license from the Communications Commission of Kenya and that led them to launching the first 3G data network in Kenya. The amount that Safaricom paid for this privilege was very high and we all saw the other networks balk at paying anything close to what Safaricom paid. Ultimately, two things happened in the process – one is that Safaricom had a monopoly on 3G data in Kenya which led to individuals and businesses opting to use their speedy network for data services. At the same time, the other mobile networks had to watch as Safaricom’s 3G revenues took off rapidly whilst voice and SMS revenues plunged. In fact, it was only just two months ago that the second 3G data network went live in Kenya in the form of Orange Kenya and we know Airtel Kenya has (partly) launched 3G services recently. So, you could say, Safaricom’s second market dominance act was the potent combination of launching M-Pesa and 3G data.

This past week, we saw what is essentially the arrival of Safaricom’s third act – the launch of their cloud services, also known as SafaricomCLOUD. According to Wikipedia, The Cloud or Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet). SafaricomCLOUD offers the following 3 cloud service pillars:

  • Data Centre As A Service.
  • Storage As A Service.
  • Back-up As A Service.

I happened to attend the launch of SafaricomCLOUD and the total investment that they have put in shocked me – Safaricom has already invested Kes. 2 Billion and plans to invest another Kes. 1.5 Billion over the next year or so. Going by the recent exchange rates, this represents an investment of US$ 20 Million thus far for a service they have yet to start selling in the market. They are clearly taking the next wave of cloud services very seriously and are easily way ahead of other telcos in this space. So, what has happened is that the goal posts have shifted once again for Safaricom’s competitors – whilst they are trying to get subscribers onto 3G, Safaricom are already moving up the value chain to offer world-class cloud services right here in Kenya. As data becomes the next frontier for competition, Safaricom once again seem prescient and are moving forward relentlessly in their third act for market domination.

It seems hard to imagine that just last year I wrote a blog post here as to why we urgently needed to build out the local cloud after some outages on the high speed undersea data cables connecting East Africa to rest of the world reminded us as to how dependent we are on the International cloud already. At the time, getting to Gmail or Google Apps or any other form of cloud service was nearly impossible. Therefore, it seems that through Safaricom we now indeed have the local cloud that we have always needed that could make data services far better for organizations and people in the region. I am eagerly looking forward to the prospect of more companies setting up local cloud services by following Safaricom’s lead in this respect. This will ultimately lower the cost of accessing cloud services and reduce the latency of using cloud based services. It will also enable capacity building in terms of deploying and managing cloud services for local consumption, across the board, as well as  encourage innovation. In the final analysis, it’s a good thing and Safaricom once again is setting the tone in Kenya’s telecoms sector.

Digital Animator Gatumia Gatumia wins the Chase Bank Enablis ILO Business Launchpad Competition.

Published on October 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The Chase Bank Enablis ILO business plan competition came to a close on Friday the 28th at a colorful ceremony attended by 100 finalists selected from over 400 entries submitted from all over the country.

The winners were selected after a four day boot camp held at Inoorero University where the entrepreneurs were trained on Presentation skills, Financial Management, Marketing, Business Systems, Legal issues of setting up a business, Integrating ICT in Business and aligning businesses to Vision 2030. The emerging entrepreneurs also had an opportunity to interact with seasoned entrepreneurs as well as the winners of last year’s competition. Each finalist was given a chance to refine their plans and present to a panel of judges showcasing their ability to apply the knowledge acquired at the boot camp in to their presentation.

Assistant Minister for Industrialization congratulated Gatumia Gatumia, the overall winner of this year's Chase Bank Enablis, ILO Business Launchpad.

33 year old Gatumia Gatumia, who runs a digital animation company called Recon Digital emerged the overall winner in the 2011 business plan competition. He walked away with Kshs. 500,000 being the cash award for the information communication and technology category. The category was sponsored by International Labour Organization’s Youth Entrepreneurship Facility. Gatumia is a certified Autodesk Maya Animator who trained at an animation college in Toronto Canada and has 10 years of experience in producing Digital Content Animation for local and international clients. He aims to tell many untold stories through his products.

“At Recon Digital we believe that many people all over the world would really enjoy seeing well-made animation products that tell African stories featuring African characters. There is still far too little African animation out there and though it is an uphill task, we are working hard to build a profitable business that will play a part in bringing African Animation to the world,” said Gatumia.

Gatumia also said that he was honored to be selected as the winner of this year’s competition, amongst distinguished competitors saying he plans to leverage the credibility that comes with winning this competition and the funding to rapidly get his product to market.

Samsung Africa launches Solar Powered Internet Schools for Africa

Published on October 26, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Press Release

Samsung Africa has today unveiled a continental project to boost computer literacy and expand internet access at the basic education level with a Solar Powered Internet School model. The model unveiled on a pilot project in South Africa features a fully equipped containerised computer school kitted with Samsung Personal Computers and remote access internet connectivity.

The pioneering project at the Samsung Engineering Academy in Boksburg, South Africa is also set to be replicated in other parts of Africa including Kenya. Speaking in Nairobi, Samsung Electronics East Africa Business Leader Mr Robert Ngeru confirmed that plans for a similar Kenyan launch are in high gear as Samsung races to support initiatives geared at raising computer literacy in East Africa.

While describing the project as a world-first, Ngeru explained that the new model features an exclusively solar-powered, mobile and completely independent classroom designed for use in remote rural areas with limited or no access to electricity. The School’s model addresses one of Africa’s largest economic challenges – electrification. On average, less than 25% of rural areas on the continent benefit from electricity, resulting in isolated communities with limited access to education and connectivity – both of which are key to fast-tracking a nation’s development.

“We have set an ambitious goal for ourselves in Africa: to positively impact 5 million lives by 2015,” affirmed Ngeru. And added: “We believe that this can most effectively be achieved if we connect our CSR initiatives with our history and core business. With the goal to grow our business on the continent, we also know that we have to sustain our level of innovation. This can only be achieved if we invest in education to facilitate African thought-leadership and to ensure we have access to a large workforce of skilled engineers in the future. The Solar Powered Internet School is a great example of this strategy at play”.

The initiative is exemplary of Samsung’s investment in CSR on the continent: a keen focus on education and harnessing the company’s legacy of innovation to respond to the felt needs of people on the continent. The launch follows the rollout of Samsung Africa’s ‘Built for Africa’ product range and the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy earlier this year.

Each Solar Powered Internet School is built in a 40 foot (12 metre) long shipping container, making them easily transportable via truck to remote areas. The schools are built for energy scarce environments, harsh weather conditions, and for transportation over long distances. Fold-away solar panels provide enough energy to power the unit for up to nine hours a day, and for one and a half days without any sunlight at all. The solar-panels themselves are made from rubber instead of glass to ensure they are hardy and durable enough to survive long journeys across the continent.

The classroom can comfortably accommodate 21 learners, and includes several layers of insulation and a ventilation system, to ensure a temperate environment is maintained. Each classroom is fitted with a 50 inch electronic E-board and different Samsung Notebooks and Netbooks, including the world-first solar powered netbooks and Galaxy Tablets for student and teacher interface

“The amount of power generated by the schools each day means they can be used beyond the traditional school day as an adult education centre in the afternoons or a community centre over weekends,” adds Tessa Calleb, Samsung’s East Africa CSR Manager. “Our goal was to create an environment that would facilitate learning for whole communities in remote areas that otherwise don’t have access to education tools or internet connectivity.”

The School is also equipped with an energy efficient refrigerator, a file server, router, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), video camera and world first Wi-Fi camera, all of which are designed to communicate via 3G. This allows a central location (such as the Ministry of Education) to monitor classes and deliver curriculum-based content directly to both the learners’ and educators’ notebooks.

The server currently contains the complete South African school curriculum spanning from grade 0 to grade 12, allowing the school to teach any school going subject or grade. In Kenya, the servers will be customised to hold local curriculums from standard one to eight. In the unlikely event of a complete power outage, teachers can continue their lessons using a regular built-in whiteboard and chalkboard. Samsung LED lighting ensures reduced power consumption, while remote solar power diagnostics are in power supply complication.

With 21 students and one teacher, as well as other members of the community making use of the classroom daily, Samsung has installed its environmentally-friendly Virus Doctor air-purification system to ward off the spread of germs within the classroom. The Samsung Super Plasma ion (SPi) technology emits active hydrogen and oxygen ions into the air inhibiting infection by airborne viruses and destroying airborne bacteria, fungi and allergens.

The Solar Powered Internet School prototype is currently being piloted at the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy in Boksburg. It will then be sent to Qunu in the Eastern Cape to undergo further testing as a functioning learning and teaching environment, with the aim to e Schools thereafter.

[Press Release] The official MIH position on the closure of Kalahari in Kenya and Nigeria

Published on October 25, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Press Release

On 24 October 2011 MIH Internet (Sub-Saharan Africa) advised that, following a strategic review of its investment priorities, it will be closing down the Kalahari Kenya and Kalahari Nigeria operations with immediate effect.

MIH launched online retail services in Kenya and Nigeria under the Kalahari brand in October 2009 and January 2010, respectively. This was pioneering work which carried considerable risk. As the performance of the service has been below expectation since launch and reaching profitability was not a reasonable near-term prospect, a decision was made to refocus efforts on other group businesses within the region. Specifically, our Dealfish and Mocality sites will continue to operate.

Contact details:

Stefan Magdalinski
, GM, E-Commerce, Sub-Saharan Africa MIH Internet

Email: Stefan@mihinternet.com

[Review] The N9 proves that rumours of Nokia’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Published on October 23, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

It’s hard to imagine how hard the last couple of years have been for Nokia, once the world’s dominant mobile handset manufacturer. It was only a few years ago that everyone coveted that next Nokia mobile handset and their market share seemed unassailable. In many ways, this status quo changed with the arrival of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone back in 2007. You could say that the iPhone redefined everything that we expected from what we knew until then from a mobile phone – the rest you could say, is history.

Nokia today has far less market dominance – this is a fact. Yes, they still dominate for low-end handsets in markets like Asia and Africa but in a world that is increasingly shifting to smartphones, Nokia has clearly been slipping quite badly. This trend has no doubt started happening in markets like Kenya where US$ 100.00 Android handsets are readily available to the masses. It’s expected that in the next few years, Nokia’s Symbian OS will lose its iron grip in emerging markets as Android comes to the fore and gains widespread adoption. However, there is good news on the horizon for Nokia.

Just this past week, Nokia announced better than expected third quarter financial results. Yes, it was a still a loss but not nearly as bad as financial analysts had predicted. This comes after Nokia has slashed thousands of jobs and closed down many production facilities globally, which is still on-going. At the same time, Nokia is to launch its first range of Windows Phone 7 powered mobile handsets next week at their annual Nokia World Conference in London, UK. This is what probably has me most excited. Just last week, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made a remark the just concluded Web 2.0 Summit that the new Nokia Windows Phone 7 smartphones will be “very beautiful”. Nokia and Microsoft have been working overtime to make sure that they having winning products that can take on Apple and Google’s Android.

Ultimately, all the above leads me to the point of this blog post – the just launched Nokia N9. I got one from Nokia East Africa this past week and I have used it for the past 5 days or so. It is a gem of a phone and although it will be the last mobile handset produced by Nokia to run the MeeGo OS, it really does go to show that Nokia still does have its legendary creative mojo when it comes to making beautiful mobile phones! I am really surprised at how good this phone is from a hardware and software perspective. To be honest, after having test units of the Nokia N8 and E7 phones over the past year, it was very clear that the shortcomings of the aging Symbian OS were starting to show – in-spite of the Anna and recent Bella updates which did go a long way to improve the overall user experience and underlying technology. The N9 however shows what the future holds for Nokia, and it’s a bright future indeed! So, here we go, lets dive into the N9:

  • Packaging – the overall packaging of the N9 is very slick! I got a black unit in a matte finish to test and it feels really good to hold. It has a very minimalist feel with no buttons or keys on the face of the phone. It’s all “touch” from this standpoint. You have the on and off button as well as the volume adjustment keys on the right side. The N9 comes in at 135g making it quite light. It looks and feels like its made of metal but it’s actually a polycarbonate material. There are hardly any protrusions on its smooth surface as details such as the camera and flash are recessed. You will look at the N9 from a design perspective and honestly find it more beautiful than anything else out there – including the Apple iPhone! However, I was not especially thrilled that the N9 came with a micro SIM tray instead of a standard SIM tray. This means you have to get your SIM “chopped” to fit to use the phone.
  • Screen -  The N9 comes with a Gorilla Glass screen which makes it very hard to crack or break. Gorilla Glass is a common feature on high-end smartphones these days so nothing unusual here. The screen is AMOLED meaning is bright, clear and sharp to look. Because of the curved surface of the screen everything you view seems to literally float to the top! The screen itself measures 3.9 inches which means its smaller than a good number of the newer smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2 that sports a screen of more than 4 inches. The screen was great for viewing photos, playing games and watching videos on YouTube. It was also easy to use productivity applications.
  • Processor and Memory – The N9 comes with a single core 1GHz processor. This in itself is NOT bad and it works fast enough. However, compared to the newer crop of Android phones coming it today with dual core processors running at 1.2 GHz, this is not ideal. Its good enough and the MeeGo OS was zippy powering through multiple applications. The unit I received came with 16GB of internal memory but there are no expansion slots to expand memory.
  • Networking – The N9 comes with all the usual suspects when it comes to networking including 3G at up to 14.4Mbps, EDGE, WIFI and Bluetooth. However, the N9 goes a step further in supporting Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC is a form of networking that has recently caught on with the latest smartphones globally and is expected to be used for making mobile payments and also for transferring data between mobile devices and terminals. My experience using the N9 on 3G, WIFI and Bluetooth was that its quick and works when it comes to connecting to other networks and devices.
  • Battery Life – I found the N9 to be surprisingly good when it came to battery life when it comes to using the phone on a full day basis. I did not ever need to recharge the phone even when I would browse from time and access online videos as well as applications. Seeing that I have only used the N9 for around 5 days before doing this review, I would say it probably has better battery life than I found on the Samsung Galaxy S2 as well as the Apple iPhone 4.
  • Applications – Probably the biggest Achilles heel when it comes to the N9 is applications. When you turn on the N9, there are a good number of applications pre-installed including those for social media like Twitter and Facebook, Email, Contacts, Games such as Angry Birds, etc. However, when you go to the Nokia Store for the N9 which is MeeGo applications, the choice is rather thin. It’s quite obvious that very few developers will spend any amount of time building apps for the N9 or MeeGo in general since its now considered a “dead” mobile OS with limited prospects. This aspect will limit how many people will ultimately but the N9 since applications have become a key deciding factor when buying a mobile phone these days. Another thing that really ticked me off about the N9 is that it was practically impossible to import my contacts from an Android phone or from my online contacts on Google Mail. Why is this when I was able to get my calendar synchronized and even Facebook contacts could come in? I have no idea but the ability to get your contacts easily onto the N9 is something that Nokia need to fix. One last issue I had with the N9 is that the browser does not support Flash.
  • Camera(s) – The N9 comes with a Carl Zeiss lens camera that can take photos at 8Mp and record video 720p HD. This resolution is less than the Nokia N8 which had a 12Mp camera. Also, newer smartphones like the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S2 tale videos at 1080 HD. The camera also has auto focus and a dual LED flash that works well in even very low light conditions. I took both video and photos with the N9 and I have to say its pretty good even if it’s not necessarily in the league of the Apple iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S2 from what I can tell. There is also a front facing camera on the N9 but I never quite got round to using the same, or rather figured out how to use the same.
  • Usability – The overall usability or the user experience of the N9 was easy. Everything starts by “swiping” from the right hand of the touch screen to the left side the screen. When you do this on any screen, you can access more screens and applications. This is quite different from the way that Android and Apple’s iOS work but it really is a nice different take that does not leave you feeling the after taste of Nokia’s dated Symbian OS. It’s quite responsive when opening apps but sometimes you seem to have to wait for things to happen. All in all, its a decent user experience that “works” and at no point does it feel clunky. It’s a shame that MeeGo will die with the N9, or so it seems when Nokia launches its Windows Phone 7 handsets later in the year.

Conclusion.

I am a little puzzled with the N9. On one hand, Nokia has clearly demonstrated that it can still make great phones that can effectively compete with the Apple iPhone and Android phones in the N9. The hardware and software integration using MeeGo is top-notch and this phone shows that Nokia still has mojo. However, its pretty much a dead-end phone in that in a few weeks it will be superseded by the Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets. If anything, the N9 was more a proof of concept for Nokia and it really did hit the mark. It will retail in Kenya for around Kes. 60,000.00 to 70,000.00 in a few weeks time when it launches and I wonder if I would spend that kind of money when I know it’s a one hit wonder. That being said, it really looks and works good meaning that a good number of people out there WILL buy it in Kenya. Whatever the case, the N9 is “sweet” by any measure and barring a few kinks it will go down as a truly distinctive and well executed smartphone from Nokia

Why digital marketing IS rocket science, even in Kenya.

Published on October 22, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , .

I’ve meant to write about what I see as a major misunderstanding of how difficult digital marketing is for sometime now. More specifically, it seems to be a recurrent theme in Kenya that many people underestimate just how difficult it is to execute a successful and well thought out digital marketing initiative – many think its actually easy to pull-off and that it should cost no more than a few thousand shillings. This is an area where I have close to 15 years experience and even today I still feel like a novice when it comes to digital marketing since its so dynamic and ever evolving.

If anything, digital marketing as we know it is becoming far more complicated than it was even 5 years ago when the focus for most organizations was just launching a decent web site in Kenya. Nowadays, building a web site is probably the easiest part when you can buy inexpensive designs online and latch these on to readily available and open source content management systems like WordPress or Joomla. Indeed, the devil really is in the detail when it comes to digital marketing since the mode of execution can make or break your digital marketing efforts.

I have a well-etched memory going back to the early days of Dotsavvy which I co-founded back in 2002 as one of the first web design shops in Kenya. At the time, we had secured business from a reasonably large medical services business in Nairobi. We had gone for a kick-off meeting with the senior management team and were presenting creative concepts and the information architecture for the web site. If you are familiar with the professional web design process these are essential aspects of the whole process to succeed. However, at the meeting, the CEO of the said organization started insulting our project team, for “over-complicating” the whole business of building a web site which even her 15 year old son could for her. Naturally, we were not happy by these remarks and the meeting quickly deteriorated as we tried to make a case for how we get web sites done. At the end of the day, this client proved to be one of the most challenging to work with and to this very day the same organization has never launched a web site.

I have shared the above anecdote to illustrate a simple point – even close to 10 years later since the same happened, there are many in Kenya who still underestimate just how hard it is to execute digital marketing in the most effective and efficient manner. It’s the simple fact that building a web site is more than design or a content management system. There are issues such as building out content in the form of text, images, branding, etc. There is the matter of things such as search engine optimization (SEO) and determining how to ensure a web site can be viewed effectively in a myriad of web browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, etc…How about the use of Flash and CSS, as well as producing elegant HTML code that works everywhere? Which databases are preferred? Which coding languages will do? How about securing back-end systems from penetration, etc etc…The list simply goes on and on.

Since the advent of social media, there is a whole new area of how you can achieve brand visibility and community engagement through Blogs, Twitter and Facebook. In a more recent area, the rise of the mobile Internet means that a web site and internet marketing associated with same means dealing with an entirely new audience and technologies to make sure your digital marketing is “mobile enabled”. Being mobile enabled itself when it comes to digital marketing is a whole new beast in itself in that many are grappling with. Lastly, how does one design their digital marketing campaigns? Where do you buy the most ideal media at the right price? How about the creative messages that will drive users to “click” and interact with the same and how will Return on Investment (RoI) be measured using analytic tools for campaigns? Do you see what I mean? When you put it all together, digital marketing is, and has always been, rocket science. Even in Kenya.