
Jimmy Wales: $50 Android smartphones are disrupting Africa - mtgx
http://www.techcrunch.com/2012/12/10/50-android-smartphones-are-disrupting-africa-much-faster-than-you-think-says-wikipedias-jimmy-wales/
======
netcan
2 years ago I made this comment:

" _Interestingly, outside the "1st world" mobile phones are quite common. The
speed at which this technology trickled down is amazing, about ten years from
yuppies in major cities to subsistence farmers in failed states. Even more
amazing is penetration. Most things just don't go that far down the economic
ladder at all. Basic, fundamental things like vaccination, artificial
fertilizers, electricity or regular phone lines which our grandparents took
for granted have been outpaced by mobile phones in many places.

Tablets may be similar enough to mobile phones for us to hope that the same
economics apply and we might see the <$3-a-day majority benefiting by 2020.
Hopefully._"

So, where are we now? It really looks like smartphones might have the momentum
to make it all the way down to the bottom. Lets hope it keeps going.

------
jaggederest
I really hate the word disrupt used in this way.

$50 Android smartphones are enhancing the lives of millions, maybe? Titling it
this way sounds like they are some sort of addictive drug or natural disaster.

~~~
fpp
You should not underestimate the life changing effects (aka disruptive) the
availability of cheap smartphones had for large groups of the population in
Africa (where many still live on less than $2 a day).

Many for the first time could pay / receive money directly e.g. without a
middleman who collects percentages - most people still don't have bank
accounts and can now do their payments / get paid via smartphones.

They can now communicate (long distance - private, business, emergency,
political), some started new businesses around these smartphones, some became
rich (some even billionaires without the sleaze) and can now provide their
families with a much more solid basis to survive. There are now more people
with access to mobile phones than to electricity in many parts of Africa.

These smartphones are also having an impact on the daily lives of many in
developed countries. Many of the smartphone payment systems that are available
since recently / will become available soon have been field-tested in Africa.

~~~
neumann_alfred
_"life changing [..] (aka disruptive)"_

Nope. Everything disruptive is life changing, but not everything life changing
is disruptive.

1\. To throw into confusion or disorder 2\. To interrupt or impede the
progress, movement, or procedure of 3\. To break or burst

The rest of your post may be true, but is utterly besides that point.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
It comes from the term "disruptive innovation":

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation>

 _"A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and
value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value
network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. The
term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations
that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect,
typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new
market and later by lowering prices in the existing market."_

So the thing being 'disrupted' is the old way of doing things, the old telcos,
the old money markets etc.

~~~
neumann_alfred
_"So the thing being 'disrupted' is the old way of doing things, the old
telcos, the old money markets etc."_

I know that. And that's why saying "disrupting Africa", instead of "disrupting
old African telcos", is silly/stupid. Good we cleared that up.

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ck2
Found video of the conference, here he speaks in part 9, and he pulls out the
phone at 9 minutes:

[http://www.youtube.com/embed/_MVGnLZnMbs?start=549&autop...](http://www.youtube.com/embed/_MVGnLZnMbs?start=549&autoplay=1&vq=hd720)

Here is a screencap of the phone <http://i.imgur.com/McJSj.jpg>

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andyjohnson0
African developers are building apps for diagnosing and tracking diseases in
humans, farm animals, and crops. Also pest-outbreak tracking/warning, getting
offer prices at local agricultural markets, disaster mitigation.

From August last year: [http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/16/80-android-phone-
sells-...](http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/16/80-android-phone-sells-like-
hotcakes-in-kenya-the-world-next/)

Also, Kenyans have been using phone credits as a form of exchangeable currency
since the early 2000s.

Exciting stuff.

------
tangue
The killer product in Africa would be a 50$ _solar powered smartphone_ I was
in Madagascar and people there are walking huge distances just to go into a
small shop where they can charge their phones.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
it will NEVER be efficient to integrate these two technologies. A phone is
something you carry in your pocket, a solar cell is something you leave out in
the sun all day.

~~~
tangue
Didn't think about that. The second part is still valid though : having the
electricity is the exception rather than the norm in most parts of Africa.

~~~
rmc
Depends what you mean "having electricity". Here's 3 cases: (a) Have
electricity at home (b) No electricity at home, but have access to charge a
phone at a shop/workplace/friend/neighbour (c) None of the above.

------
namank
I absolutely love how we are going to get to see the developing world become
developed in our lifetimes.

And how the level playing field will force us to scale innovation rather than
operation.

Man, this is the best time to be alive!!

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Thank you :-)

(Assuming that level playing field cures malaria etc - but Singapore did just
by getting richer and politically compete t)

------
narrator
To me this is just another argument for The Great Stagnation. Don't get me
wrong, it's fabulous that the lives of Africans are being improved by
technology. However, what if Africa catching up with the western world is just
a side effect of technological progress slowing down as Peter Thiel and others
have commented about? We marvel at our smartphones, but so what. They make
them in china for $50.

~~~
dagw
_They make them in china for $50_

Anybody who stops to think about it for a little while probably marvels far
more at the technology and innovation that actually makes it possible to build
such a device for a mere $50.

~~~
dfxm12
And wouldn't they have to make them for _much_ less than $50 if they are
selling them for that much?

~~~
dagw
Yup, I should have written make them for a price where they can sell them for
$50.

------
throwaway1979
Just like obesity has become a major problem, I wonder what other blight will
be wrought on the second and third billion by progress? My wife and I often
close each others laptops or devices when we are doing a shared activity (e.g.
watching a movie). We recognize we both might be a bit internet-addicted. We
have a friend who has a strict "no computing devices in the living room"
policy. I hope these problems don't go hand in hand with ubiquitous access.

------
linvin
Leave aside first billion people. The next 2-3 billion people on the planet
now have access to a computer that can truly help them in their everyday
activities.

That seems like a disruption. But then, getting a ticket booked through a
friendly travel agent over phone is definitely easier and affordable than
using smartphone and using self service - effectively takes more time.

Self service is a compulsion in developed world due to play of economics.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Self-service indicates that staff income is high; it's either self-service, or
increase prices to the customers, which in turn lowers availability of the
service and overall lowers income. etc.

------
mamu95
Mister. Mo from mobility blog based in Nigeria gives his analysis on when
android will take over the Nigeria market.

[http://mobility.com.ng/when-will-nigeria-become-an-
android-m...](http://mobility.com.ng/when-will-nigeria-become-an-android-
market/)

I totally agree with him.

------
spindritf
What's the disruption? What are the possibilities? At least, what model are we
talking about?

~~~
mtgx
The disruption is that millions of Africans will be getting their first
"computers" for $50, and these computers run the open source Android OS.

I believe it's this model or a variation of it:
<http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8150_ideos-3513.php>

Obviously it's not much, but these smartphones are getting into dumbphone
territory, and are going to all but wipe out the Symbian dumphone market in
these developing markets, much like it's already happening in China and India.

Next year's Cortex A7, which has Cortex A8 performance (2010 flagship chip)
and much lower price, being 5x smaller[1] in size (the CPU core itself), and
the fast Jelly Bean OS should greatly improve the experience of such low-end
smartphones going forward.

[1] <http://images.gizmag.com/hero/arm-cortex-a7-biglittle.jpg>

~~~
w1ntermute
> I believe it's this model or a variation of it:
> <http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8150_ideos-3513.php>

From the specs:

> Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo)

It just won't die...

~~~
cageface
Argh! So annoying to see a whole new crop of devices launching with 2.x. Is
4.x that much more resource intensive or what?

~~~
EwanToo
You need 768MB of RAM for Android 4, and realistically a decent GPU. 256MB and
the most basic $0.50 ARM chipset from Qualcomm [1][2] will get you up and
running on Android 2.x.

1 -
[http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=cpu&id=a7225&c=qualcomm...](http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=cpu&id=a7225&c=qualcomm_msm7225)
2 - <http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/576095640/MSM7225.html>

