Weekly Review June 30-July 6

Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends that relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our comments.

Continue reading to check out the news on mobile technology, including innovation in services and apps from students and young entrepreneurs in Africa to multinational telecoms.

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Students in Uganda to Compete for Android App Glory” on IT News Africa
Handset maker Huawei, launched the Huawei Android Applications Challenge (HAAC) at three Ugandan universities. Huawei hopes to engage the students’ creativity to develop local and relevant technological innovations. The government hopes that the partnership between higher education institutions and ICT companies will help Uganda become another ICT hub in East Africa.

Telefonica Digital, Estisalat partner for digital services” on The Paypers
Telefonica, a telecom based in the UK and serving much of Latin America, is now joining forces with UAE-based Etisalat. The pair intends to roll out m-commerce initiatives across their respective areas of operation, including Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Samsung’s Galaxy SIII Now Available in Kenya” by Charlie Tripp on IT News Africa
Samsung has launched the Galaxy SIII smartphone in its second African market: Kenya.  Although certainly not in the affordable range – the phone retails for $700 USD – it’s an early sign of Samsung’s rally to dominate the smartphone market in Kenya. Samsung hopes to control 60% of the smartphone market.

How Nigeria’s Afrinolly app got almost half a million downloads in 10 months” by Nmachi Jidenma on The Next Web
The entrepreneurs behind Afrinolly are good examples of how to leverage competition winnings (financial and otherwise) to successfully launch and scale an app. After entering and winning the Google Android Developer Challenge, the team  used the $25,000 prize to engage and sign deals with content aggregators, network providers and device manufacturers. From co-branding with MTN to preloading the app on Nokia and Samsung, Afrinolly, an app focused on Nigerian entertainment industry Nollywood, is one of Nigeria’s most successful mobile applications. In the past ten months, Nigerians downloaded it almost 500,000 times.

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