[This post is by Reto Meier AKA @retomeier, who wrote the book on Android App development. Tim Bray]
Recently I visited Kenya for the three-day G-Kenya event. I was there for digit reasons:
To speech most Android and the emerging ambulatory opportunities for individual developers.
To communicate questions and find discover more most the actuality of mobiles and writing cipher from the grouping there.
Of the countries Ive visited to speech most Android, nowhere hit grouping had much a near unification to their ambulatory phones as in Africa. While most Kenyans own feature phones, those mobiles are already used as much more than simple phones. Mobile payments are already common, and affordable accumulation plans mean that some grouping admittance the Internet only finished ambulatory handsets.
There were digit Android announcements while I was in town: a newborn low-cost Android handset (the Huawei U8220), and Android Market admittance for Kenyans. I cant wait to wager the category of apps that embellish from developers who springy in an environment where ambulatory is so pervasive.
Day 1: Students
G-Kenya was ordered within the beautiful campus of the Strathmore Business School, so it was fitting that period digit was addressed to students.
Of the threesome groups, the students where the most avid most Android. This was probable influenced by their confidence that by the instance they graduate, recent smartphones in Africa module hit embellish the norm.
I fuck talking to enrollee developers — without the commercial pressures of uncovering customers or a monetization model — they're liberated to innovate on whatever technology platforms they think are interesting.
Day 2: Developers
Modern smartphones are not still prevalent in Africa, so it wasnt astonishing that some of the developers are currently focusing on feature phones. That said, it was generally acknowledged that it was a discourse of when kinda than if smartphones would embellish to dominate. The gimmick module be production the correct instance to invest in Android so that they're primed to take advantage.
Plenty of developers believe that instance is correct now. It was a pleasure to foregather the guys behindhand Ushahidi, creators of an Android app created to report and record incidents during the 2008 election violence. Since their launch theyve swollen to substance a orbicular papers for crowd-sourced programme where timeliness is critical.
I fuck opportunity the Android Market delivers to developers same the idea of developers same Ushahidi and Little Fluffy Toys (of author Cycle Hire fame). An app the solves a difficulty for your topical community can easily be swollen to substance solutions to kindred problems across the world.
Developer focus in Kenya seemed to study kindred lines:
Create products and services targeted at topical communities (such as the developers creating a diffuse grouping to support health-care workers record medical information in the field.)
Build robust cloud-based services that provide admittance to users from some ambulatory platform.
Expand from feature phones to Android to combine features same GPS positioning, maps, and recording recording and audio.
Day 3: Entrepreneurs and Marketers
No digit was surprised to wager a aggregation of the developers from the preceding period convey for entrepreneur day, and the apparent demand of Android questions from Day 2 was more than prefabricated up for on period 3; the “AppEngine Challenge” on Day 2 fielded a record 30 entries, so it seems everyone was working on their entries kinda than asking questions!
I didnt intercommunicate on Day 3, but spent every period fielding questions from eager ambulatory developers hoping to catch the Android gesture as primeval innovators and first movers. That included a aggroup who were working to provide real-time public installation chase of Matatu via GPS and Android devices.
Reflections
Its an exciting instance to be a developer in Kenya. I regularly asked developers how daylong they intellection it would take for Android devices to embellish ordinary place. Many advisable if I came backwards this instance incoming year I'd wager a batch of Android devices. Even the more pessimistic predicted no more than 3 years.
As I traveled backwards towards Jomo Kenyatta International, listening to the broadcasting offering a liberated Sony Ericsson X10 Mini to digit lucky caller, the future didnt seem very far away.
Thanks
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