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Nigerian Developers – Fasmicro says Focus on Android Platform

By
Tekedia Editors
-
6

In the last few weeks, Fasmicro (tekedia is a division of Fasmicro) has received emails from potential customers asking us if we could do developments on iOS and Blackberry platforms which are respectively Apple and Blackberry mobile operating systems. (We are yet to get calls on Windows Mobile. Of course Symbian is now history). We politely told them that we have built capacity in Android and we do not want to expand into these platforms. As the foremost Android trainer in Owerri and perhaps the whole of Eastern Nigeria, we have a regular base of customers to serve from universities, freelance and corporate institutions; we have started first and could define the roadmap. We understand that Blackberry is popular today in Nigeria, but Android will eclipse it within the next few months.

Now, you are a young graduate or a freelance who wants to get into the App business. You want to know what platform to build. We have a direction and suggestion. And these are some reasons why you should focus on Android development in Nigeria.

Universities

It is already penetrating into the schools. For universities we have provided trainings and training right now like Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Federal University of Technology Owerri, we have made a mark that their preferred choice of mobility computing is Android.  We made the decision and they are adapting their curricula into the platform. We are so confident that these students upon graduation will possibly decide to concentrate on Android platforms. So the people you will hire are already trained on Android. Why bother with another platform?

Affordability

Another reason has to do with market. Apple and Blackberry are premium. Nigeria may not need them at the lower class of the market. Sure, the bank CEOs and corporate titans can afford them, but the regular Aba trader and Ibadan driver may prefer something cheaper. Android provides that platform for affordable mobile systems. Our studies before we made Ovim tablet (with our partner, Microscale) show that the future of smartphone and tablet in Nigeria lies in the mass market and not serving the 2% richest Nigerians as NITEL did for decades.  Android gadgets are more affordable simply because you do not have to pay for any software – it is free by default. So the equipment manufactures and chipset makers are free from those contracts that, for example Windows Mobile, will tie your hands.

Android Market Share

In the next 6 months, the number of Android devices in Nigeria will eclipse all the Apple and Blackberry combined. Our studies show that customers MTN will make this possible with its advertising power and brand. Etisalat did not make much impact with Galaxy Tab because of the cost. Even myPad from Starcomms is built on Android. Of course, Fasmicro and Microscale new Ovim Plus and Ovim MiE are all Android devices. Encipher Inye and Inye 2 are also Android. They will compete against the high premium Blackberry and will surely win. The notion that iPad can do well in Nigeria is not supported by any data. It is expensive and that brand is not structured for the Nigerian market.

Globally, Apple has more users but Android ships more phones every day than any other OS, currently. We project that Android will take a very commanding lead in the mobile ecosystem after Dec 2011. In Nigeria, Android has a potential to get to 70% of the market with Glo selling Galaxy when MTN, Etisalat and Starcomms have aligned in that direction. If you want to make money developing, focus on Android – you will have more users and market globally and locally.

OEM-Independent

Android is not tied to any hardware maker or original equipment manufacturer (OEM). This makes it very great. Blackberry could lose appeal if its hardware fails to wow consumers. Same applies to Apple. But for Android, there are legions working on it. One fails, others will succeed and you are sure of users for your Apps.

Android Open Source

This platform is free from all those difficult clauses that stymie innovations and speed for OEM. All you need is buy a chipset, download the OS and you can get a tablet or phone out in two weeks. Mediatek has made things very easy (Fasmicro and Microscale use Mediatek for our tablets) – you just focus on manufacturing after configuring the chipset. The good aspect is that with good electricity in Nigeria, one can buy the chipsets and make phones and tablets in Nigeria easily. Fasmicro and Microscale are moving to ARM based chipsets to ensure we can support and upgrade easily later.

This kind of neutrality makes the future of Android promising. No player will like to kick others out and let the phone companies focus on ergonomics and design while the software is handled by the global legion. That is a place to be over being restricted to an OS that is developed maybe by few guys in one giant building in California or Canada. Innovation lives here and it can easily improve faster than other OS.

Android Apps Distribution

Got a good app, you can have it in the Android market within days for just a small fee. Apple will ask for 4x of that and you will still wait for weeks.

Evolution

Why the world has to wait for few special days in the year for Apple to release new devices, Android does that every day in China and across the globe. This makes the evolution of Android fluidic and deeper than others.

Java/Linux

Android is Java and Linux – two great platforms for developments. You might have known Java and going into Android is a piece of cake. Java is matured and the guy that built it is just going to Google now. There is no information you cannot find online for Java – the books are there, the tutorials, the demos, etc.  And when it is time to say bye to Android, you take your Java skill to other areas. But for Apple, you are stuck with Objective C which Apple invented and you may not get much help.

Our recommendations

If you are a young developer that wants to start developing Apps, now is the time to make a decision. Use Android as your platform. It is better and will surely succeed in Nigeria. Fasmicro is running a free training now on Android App development. Due to demand, we will do the same next week and we welcome you to attend. We were rated Excellent by all our trainees and we are confident you will find our training to be world class. We have a founder who is a first rate engineer and professor and has built a team and teaching structure that delight our customers.

Fasmicro Android Development & Training Center

Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Starcomms New Executives – Logan and David

By
Tekedia Editors
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0

Last month, Starcomms introduced two new executives. Here are their corporate profiles:

Logan Pather Chief Operating Officer, has over 25 years of work experience. He has worked in several telecom communication companies in Africa. Logan is bringing with him his wealth of experience as managing director in other African countries.

Prior to joining Starcomms, he was managing director of Roamwave Africa (responsible for 20 African countries). He was responsible for the set up of the organization in SA and also ensure sales channels along with marketing strategy and partnerships. His career is highlighted by strong and in-depth knowledge and exposure across all core business functions such as finance, sales & marketing, human resources, customer service operations etc.

He worked in Nortel Southern Africa and Telecel – Zambia as Managing director responsible for operational strategy and growth. He holds a Diploma in Business Management and MBA (Short Course Programme).

David Ordman – Chief Financial Officer, has over 18 years work experience in various sectors. Prior to joining Starcomms he worked as Finance Director within EMAAR, The Economic City in Saudi Arabia, with responsibility for all aspects of Finance within the Utilities & Telecoms division of EMAAR, delivering a multi-utility solution within King Abdullah Economic City, a $2bn megaproject.

Previously David has also worked as Chief Financial Officer in United Utilities Plc (Estonia and Bulgaria) and Millicom International Cellular, Pakistan.

He studied Civil Engineering from University of Birmingham, UK. He then trained with Price Waterhouse Coopers, and achieved Order of Merit from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales. More recently David received his MBA having attended a joint program at London Business School, UK and Columbia Business School, USA.

Twitter – Influence and Popularity Measurements

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

We live in the Google, Facebook and Twitter world as they dominant our online lives. For Twitter, its convenience and simplicity have made it a critical tool for product launch and brand management. It provides the pulse of the nation, seconds and seconds, and has attained a status that the Library of Congress is archiving its contents. From celebrities to politicians, iconic Wall Street firms to charities, a Twitter strategy is no more an afterthought.

 

Traditionally, people measure the popularity based on the numbers of followers an account has. That is certainly a good metric in the Internet age where more always win. As I wrote recently, a blog post that is read by hundred casual people is more valuable in the world of online marketing than one only ten people read but was cited by a professor. The former could bring more ad money since it was read by more people though the latter might have been better in quality.

 

So to estimate popularity, we usually check the number of followers for an account. The problem with that is that it gives an inaccurate measure of effective popularity or influence. In this case, I try to differentiate between popularity and influence. Someone could be popular in Twitter and yet not influential. By influence I mean when a post does generate a buzz or attention in the network.

 

To examine this, I used the very simple metrics on every account: “following” and “followers”. In the Twitter world, the former is the number of people an account is following while the latter gives the number of people following that account. With the followers, we can directly obtain Twitter Popularity Index (TPI) and ascertain how popular someone or brand is.

 

To move beyond popularity and ascertain influence, I divide the numbers of “followers” by the “following”. If you have a number greater than unity, you are indeed influential since more are following you than you are following others. To me, this is a better metric of ascertaining the effective popularity for each account and that eliminates the inflation people could create on their profiles. I call this Twitter Influential Index (TII). I initially called it Twitter Effective Popularity Index (TEPI). Either goes.

 

If you notice in Twitter, celebrities will not only have high followers, but also high TEPI. Britney Spears has a TEPI of about 13.9 (Sept 5, 2010) with 5,851,463 and 419,016. That is very interesting when one considers what it takes Ms Spears to add 419,016 people. How many of those friends are effective followers? Possibly, some added her just to appease her for adding them in her network. And they may not be actually interested in her posts! They are followers, but may not be influenced by her.

 

Twitter has this robust expansion tool that puts peer-pressure on members. By sending that email to you when someone adds you, it basically informs you that you can return the favor and add that person in your own network. (I estimate additional 5% hits on Twitter because of that email; they want you to get back to Twitter website). If not, why must Twitter do that assuming your account is already public? It is unlike Facebook where you have set your profile private and need to guard the contents.

 

With that system, we have bloated and fake popularity indices where someone can decide to add 1000 people in a day and will hope to get a favor back from say 80 people. Those 80 people may not even care for this person, but they just do.

 

For marketing executives, this is very important. A comparison between a person with 1000 following and 2000 followers with TEPI of 2, and one with 5000 following and 2500 followers and TEPI of 0.5 could give an impression than the latter could move the product easily since it has more followers. That is wrong. Most of the followers in the latter may be casual that reciprocated an aggressive “marketing” of the account even though they are not interested in the account. In the former, there is a sense the person is influential since more people are interested in the account than the account is to others. Personally, I will use the former with TEPI of 2 to launch my product in Twitter.

 

In the last few weeks, I tested this principle in Twitter by carefully adding people and noticing how my followers increased. The more friends I added, the more followers I got, though I did not retain most after few days. However, most of the accounts that added me without my covet marketing are easy to retain. And they are the ones that followed my posts more. Many of the marketed ones rarely bothered to comment on them.

 

So in summary, it is not the number of followers that matter, rather, it is the TEPI of an account that shows its vibrancy and influence over its networks. Use TEPI in planning your Twitter strategy and you will be better off. The followers could give you popularity, but TEPI provides you with level of influence. I consider George Stephanopoulos with TEPI of 2823 as more influential that Ms Spears though he has only 1,654,492 followers, millions less than Ms Spears’. My algorithm shows that he generates more comments and secondary patterns on his posts and it is possible that a brand pushed through him will penetrate more.

 

Finally, by combining TEPI, TPI, network preferences (music, politics, news, etc), location, post update rate, etc, I came up with Twitter Brand Composite Index (TBCI). TBCI provides a near accurate assessment between a brand and each account in Twitter. This is what the marketing executives must look for.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4990109

Free Training – Embedded Systems, Android App & Web Design

By
Tekedia Editors
-
3

Fasmicro will run free trainings on Embedded systems, Android Mobile App and Web Design as a way of supporting the development of future technical leaders in the nation. This offer is very limited and it is filling up. It is planned as follows :

Date/Schedule:

April 11-12, 2011: Mobility Computing & Android App Development (see some of our Apps)

April 13-14, 2011: Embedded Systems -FPGA, Microcontroller

April 15, 2011:  Web Design – select from Joomla, Drupal or our FasWebKit

(Election cancellation caused confusions; we are training this week. We also going to train week of April 11-15, 2011)

Venue: Fasmicro Head Office, Okigwe Rd, Owerri, Imo State

Time: 9am – 4pm

Cost:  N49,900

Payment:  Payment into our bank account

Gift. You get one unit of Ovim tablet

Acceptance/Confirmation: All accepted applicants will be confirmed from usa@fasmicro.com. We have few slots and we close when we get the number we need. The key part is proving you have an Android tablet.

Summary

Android is an open-source cutting-edge mobile platform that has gained momentum in recent years. Developed by Google based on the Linux kernel and Java, it offers virtually limitless opportunities because of its open-source license. Embedded systems itself is a branch of microelectronics which has revolutionized the world of commerce and industry. This workshop will introduce participants to these core areas of modern technology.

The Android training is a hands-on Android course designed to provide essential skills and experience with developing applications on Android mobile platform. Throughout the course, participants will develop real-life applications, which can serve as basis for their future Android projects. Eclipse and Android SDK are used as the development environment throughout the class.

The embedded systems training is a hands-on embedded systems program designed to impact practical experiences on building with microprocessors and FPGA. Real-life examples on Microchip PIC, Parallax SX and FPGA chips will be taught.

Finally, we will teach participants on how to design websites. Threee courses will run and participants can choose from Joomla, Drupal or our own propriary FasWebKit.

Facilities

Without the the tablet, Fasmicro will not accept you. We will provide the programming modules, Eclipse and Android SDK dev environments, microprocessors, required CAD tools, FPGA boards, computers, and course materials. All materials are retained by Fasmicro. If you need copies, please visit our store.

Audience

This free training is open to the public. We welcome schools planning to develop mobility computing and microelectronics courses in their programs as well as corporate clients that want to train their staff.  For hobbyists, NYSC and students, there is no better opportunity to pick skills that matter. Register Today!

Course Contents (drawn from below)

Modules 1 and 2 Outlines

project outlines

Facilitators: External and in-house team

Contact: Send comments, questions, etc to usa@fasmicro.com

Nigerian Silicon Valley – Ikeja Computer Village?

By
Tekedia Editors
-
3

When last did you visit the Nigeria Silicon Valley(really), albeit the Ikeja Computer Village?  Have you seen any improvement in the quality of the production and knowledge generation?

The truth remains that the Ikeja Computer Village is not producing any major knowledge. It is still dominated by trade and distribution. We think the federal government should examine that cluster and give it a roadmap so that it can develop in the right direction.

From sale of pirated software to phone, Nigeria needs to clear that image that this place could be our hope to develop, creatively, in the digital world. We need something better and now is the time to begin that process.

With the likes of  IT World Limited, , Slot Systems, Gafunk, Tripplesea, Capitol, Brian Integrated Systems,  etc providing employments and other opportunities in this place, we challenge the government to assist ICT firms in this place to take their visions to the next level. A key element is a constant power supply which can help them to invest in the development than mere sales and distribution. Let it be understood that this is a cluster and requires special consideration from government.

But do not be deceived people, the Nigerian Silicon Village is in Obasanjo Space Center, Abuja. You do not expect Computer Village with illiterates to lead Nigeria. Nigerian government is doing something great in Abuja with NiComSat and NASENI and that is what we must refer as our valley.

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