As per the experts of the International Telecommunication Union, the extent of mobile phone subscriptions in 2014 is bound to go beyond the overall number of human beings. It has been forecasted that Asia and Africa will witness majority of the growth where countless people will get a phone and millions more will get online as well.
The good news is that both India and China would be launching the fourth generation of mobile broadband this year. The subscriptions will cost much less compared to the subscriptions in the Western Nations. In India, it will be priced about $2 each month.
The IT firms will come across several colossal opportunities this year. However, Western IT firms are likely to come across solid domestic competition. According to experts, the competition will first take the shape of price combat from local imitators. For instance, in China, Xiaomi phones have pushed Apple into the seventh spot in smart phone sales. Xiaomi is a privately owned company that started selling smart phones 2011. Xiaomi designs and develops smart phones along the lines of Apple. A survey conducted by a research firm revealed that local smart phone producers now have almost 60 percent of the smart phone market in China. It has also been predicted that Micromax, the local phone maker in Indian market will outperform Samsung phones in India this year.
The most crucial matter here is to observe how the under developed countries are utilizing technology once they have access to it. One of the most significant examples that can be cited here is that of M-Pesa, a mobile phone based money transfer system that was introduced in Kenya. This concept is also getting popular throughout Asia.
Lately, an entrepreneur from India created an app named Hike. It is a mobile a messaging app like that of Whatsapp, Line and Viber, designed for Android phones. Such mobile messaging apps allow you to send texts through your smart phones using data connection by avoiding sms charges. However, Hike can also be used by non-smart phone users. This is no doubt an indispensable feature for many in a country like India where the rate of penetration of smart phones is only 6 percent. None of the popular mobile messaging apps including China’s WeChat app offer anything similar.
The innovations introduced in developing nations have one thing in common. The innovations are the result of scarcity. The concept of M-PESA was a success in Kenya but it did not thrive in Western countries as they have plenty of banks and countless credit card holders who do not need mobile phone based money transfer system. WhatsApp, developed in Silicon Valley does not require users of non-smart phones for expanding its network.
However, this does not indicate that novelty can be counted as a zero-sum game. Cross-ownership proves to be beneficial for everyone. For example, Vodafone of Britain had funded M-PESA during initial stages. Similarly, Hike is partly owned by a popular Japanese telecom company called SoftBank. 2014 will be a great year of innovation. Though technology and funds will be coming from the West, but the unique ideas will be coming only from unexpected countries.
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