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Developers MoMo Events

5 Reasons to Publish to Nokia X

If you have been following the news for some weeks now, you would have heard of the arrival of the Nokia X new range of devices. Nokia X is a new, affordable family of smartphones designed to run Android apps using Nokia X service extensions. If you are an Android developer and have published apps, there is now a great opportunity for you to optimize your ROI on Nokia X with minimal resources and little incremental effort to quickly expand your app reach while using your existing Android code base.

The good news is that the majority of Android apps will just work with little modifications. Based on the information available on Nokia’s developer website, you can use your existing Android development environment to add the Nokia X service extensions – Map APIs, In-app Purchases and Notifications. For those few that require modifications, the Nokia X Analyser Tool significantly reduces porting time by identifying the required changes.

So, still wondering why you should port your Android apps to the Nokia X store? Here are 5 reasons from our friends at Nokia…

1. Nokia X opens new markets to your existing apps.

Nokia’s sales leadership and brand strength in the fastest-growing smartphone and mobile app markets provide the launch pad for your apps’ success. With Nokia X, you can reach an untapped pool of savvy — and app-hungry — new smartphone users around the world.

Learn more ›

2. Nokia X’s monetization tools create additional revenue streams for your apps

Monetization tools like Nokia In-App Payment, combined with Nokia’s extensive operator billing network, provide your existing apps with new monetization mechanisms in emerging markets. Consumers in many high-growth markets do not have international credit cards, making traditional revenue collection a challenge.

Learn more ›

3. Android app compatibility

Nokia has tested over 100,000 Android apps and approximately 75% are directly compatible and ready to be published to Nokia Store. If your app uses Google services for maps, push notifications or in-app payments, you will need to replace these APIs with Nokia-specific APIs, which have been built to work almost identically to those they replace. Nokia services have been designed to minimize porting effort for apps using corresponding Google services, and to allow developers develop and distribute a single APK targeting both ecosystems.

Test your app’s compatibility now ›

4. Develop apps for Nokia X using your existing Android SDK, toolkit and skillset

If you already develop Android apps, you can continue to use your existing tool chain. If your app is one of the 25% that requires change, Nokia provides a plugin package for the Android SDK, including the services APIs and the Nokia X emulator. You’ve already got the other tools and skills you need.

Get started ›

5. Nokia Developer programs provide the marketing promotion you need

Through programs like DVLUP and local outreach, Nokia offers you opportunities to promote your apps to new users and potential customers, while our online training, events, and support tools make sure you’re putting your best app forward.

Learn more ›

There will be portathons on 27 & 28 March in Lagos Nigeria at iDea Hub and CcHub. So, if you live in Lagos (or around Lagos) and have a published Android app, click here to register. You also stand a chance to win some fabulous prizes for your published app. What are you waiting for? Register now and take part in the portathon!

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Articles News

Why does Apple charge so much for its iPhones?

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The key, Horace Dediu says, is to think of the iPhone as a data services salesperson.

FORTUNE — The short answer for why Apple (AAPL) charges so much for its iPhones — e.g. $549 for the new iPhone 5C that most analysts expected would sell for somewhere between $300 and $400 — is that it can.

“Anybody would if they could,” writes Horace Dediu on his Asmyco blog.

“That’s a poor question. So the right question should be: why does anybody pay this much?”

Dediu’s answer reveals much about underlying workings of the mobile phone business — and indeed, the whole Internet economy. His key points:

Consumers, by and large, aren’t paying those high prices. It’s the operators — 270 mobile phone carriers — who pay the full freight.

The decisions operators make on whether to carry the iPhone are driven not by fashion or fanboyism, but by hard economic realities: ARPU, churn, network costs, depreciation, ROI, etc.
For many operators — about two thirds of them — the iPhone doesn’t fit their business model. Verizon held out for years. DoCoMo just came around. China Mobile may soon as well.

Following the money, Dediu concludes that the operators who pay Apple’s steep prices do so because the iPhone helps move users to higher revenue data services.

“These are more profitable services for operators,” he writes, “and the subsidy model creates more loyalty and thus reduces churn and creates a stable cash flow which can then be leveraged through debt to upgrade networks and attract yet more loyal iPhone users.”
But that’s not the end of the money trail. Consumers end up paying most of the iPhone premium in the form of higher monthly phone bills. It’s not itemized in the invoice, but Dediu estimates that $10 to $15 of every monthly bill in a subsidized plan goes to paying for the phone.

“So in a way,” Dediu writes, “Apple has managed to place itself on many people’s monthly phone bills. It’s a nice place to be.”

Some consumers see that transfer of payment as a thinly veiled con. It smacks of misdirection. The value of the iPhone is apparent to the user, but the payment for that value is not.
“In fact the whole Internet and all business plans that are built on it depend on a subtle ‘something for nothing’ type of misdirection,” Dediu writes. “The Internet runs on the arbitrage between a consumer service market where everybody consumes but nobody pays and a separate data market where nobody consumes and everybody pays.”

His conclusion:

“The iPhone could thus be finally understood as a complex service business. It captures value through the phone bill but delivers value through a screen. A misdirection magic trick which many have tried to pull off. It’s essentially tapping into the $1.3 trillion communications market, skimming profits by delivering the ‘content’ which lights up the wires.

“It’s great except it does not work everywhere. Not yet at least. The complexity of services means that they are usually found in more advanced so-called service economies and rare in less developed so-called goods economies.”

Now that’s what I call smart analysis. Why don’t we get more of it from the guys who are paid to do it on Wall Street?

Link: S is for Service at Asymco.com, where much of the value comes from the quality the conversation in the comment stream.

Culled from: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/12/apple-iphone-asymco-dediu/

Categories
MoMo Events

Business Models for Internet & Mobile Services in Nigeria

Your business model can make the difference between world-leading success and dismal failure. If you are just starting out a business or already running one, the leading question on your mind is how do you make money. This might sound like greek to you but it is important that you understand what a business model is and most importantly find one that works for you.

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MoMo Events

MoMo Holds Startups / Developers Open Day

Mobile Web West Africa 2012 was a blast and Mobile Monday is glad to be part of this great event. If you missed the event, don’t worry.  Techloy and otekbits have you covered.

Head over to their blogs to re-live the event. You will be glad you did :).

So, what’s happening at MoMo this Monday? It is an Open Day? Yes…you have asked for it and we have listened. Are you working on a service / product / app or have just launched your services / products / apps in the last few months? Then, you don’t want to miss this. We are giving you an opportunity to present you service / product / app and get candid feedback from the tech. community.

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MoMo Events

Location Based Services in Nigeria

It is the time of the month again that we meet to discuss one of the technology trends in the world. This month is not different. The February event will be focusing on Location Based Services and how it affects our lives and businesses.

Location-based services (LBSes) have been blossoming — both in functionality and in number of users — over the past several years. And Nigeria has had its share of this. Also, there has been many un-answered questions in the mind of people.

We have teams from Vconnect, Mocality and TimbaObjects on ground and they will be shedding more light on the following:

  1. What is “Location Based Services”?
  2. What are the uses of LBS?
  3. LBS and your daily life & Business
  4. LBS offerings in Nigeria
  5. etc
You definitely don’t want to miss this. To register for the event, click here.

Categories
MoMo Events

January MoMo Event: Learn How to Start a Technology Business in Nigeria

Have you always wanted to start a technology business and don’t know how to go about this, then you don’t want to miss the January 2012 MoMo event. The knowledge required to start and run a technology business is not written in any training school syllabus nor most textbooks. It is more of a culture and language that we have evolved with over the years.

January 2012 MoMo meet-up is therefore setup to help you learn the basics of what you need to do on this journey. We will have business owners on ground to share their experiences on starting a technology business in Nigeria. They will also be available to answer all questions that you may have.

This is a follow-up to the last event and will be an interactive session where you can network, learn and ask questions on everything you want to know. Our panelists will try to answer as many questions as possible.

To register for the event, click here.

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MoMo Events

Nigerian ICT Advocate hosts Hangout with finalists of 2011 Android Developer Challenge

Nigerian ICT Advocate, Gbenga Sesan will be holding a live Google Plus hangout session with finalists of this year’s Android Developer Challenge. This year’s challenge winners include Nigeria’s Afrinolly App, Kenya’s Olaleshe and Kenya’s Shoppers’ Delight App. The Google Plus Hangout will be held on Thursday, November 17th at 12 Noon (Lagos Time)

The live session will provide an opportunity for African web developers, entrepreneurs and Internet marketers to hear from the winners about their experience building their winning applications, what their experience has been like since winning the contest and their plans for the future.

The session will be held in collaboration with Nigeria’s Co-Creation Hub, Kenya’s iHub and the Umbono Tech Incubator in Cape Town.

According to the information made available to us, interested web developers, entrepreneurs and start-up owners who wish to contribute to the session should please post their questions via the session’s Google Moderator page here before Thursday.

Categories
MoMo Events

October Meet-Up: Get Techie 1.0

Are you the mobile / internet enthusiast out there who believes / plays in the industry but doesn’t fully understand the language? You are a potential investor and you know there are prospects in this industry but you just dont understand most of the basics.

You are probably student who has many questions on how to become a mobile/internet enterpreneur? Or you are a professional who is looking at a career change or business in our industry but you have been finding it difficult to understand the basics on the internet and mobile business.

Categories
MoMo Events

Update: August Meet-up

The tickets for August 2011 MoMo meet-up are now available. The theme of this month’s event is “Meet The Players” and the focus is to showcase the key players in the Nigeria Mobile Ecosystem. The event will take place on Monday, 29 August 2011 and the details of the venue will be confirmed shortly.

Three (3)  main players already confirmed their availability for the event and these are Microsoft, MTN and Nokia. These 3 companies will be speaking on their services, product offerings and plans for the Nigeria Mobile Ecosystem.

To register for this event, kindly visit http://meetdplayers.eventbrite.com/

Update: The August event has been shifted by a week. It will now take place on Monday, 05 September 2011. Sorry for the inconveniences.

Categories
Developers

Nokia Announces August Developers Training in Lagos

Nokia has just announced that its upcoming training course for Qt and Java development here in Lagos. The training will take place from 29 to 31 August 2011. As the last training, the objective is to get developers up to speed with creating, developing and publishing Qt and Java applications for Nokia devices.

The three day training workshop will provide an overview of Java ME, review the exciting opportunities offered by Nokia Store, and cover Mobile Java programming essentials as well as mobile application development with Qt Quick.  The company will also be using the event to announce its plan to support local developers for the Nokia’s “Create 4 Millions” competition. Submission for this competition closes on 20 September 2011. Click here to know more about the competition.

Update: You can now register for the training by visiting the Nokia Training Page. The training is free but reservation is based on first-come first-served basis.

NB: Write-up first appeared at www.otekbits.com