Zimbabwe: Econet slashes international tariffs

ZIMBABWE’S largest cellular mobile network, Econet Wireless, has slashed by 50% the cost of outgoing international calls, an official said on Monday.http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-3361-Econet+cuts+int.+tarfiffs+50pc/news.aspx

Mozambique: Gvt Block SMS

Mozambique’s telecom authority ordered cellphone operators to block all text messages after a viral campaign sparked riots last week, independent media said on Friday: http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=18793&cat=2

Zimbabwe: Mobile sector development

Zimbabwe: Africom unveils mobile broadband platform worth US30 million. http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Zimbabwe mobile sector booming

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The dollarization of the economy in 2009 has brought positive developments in Zimbabwe’s mobile industry. Noticeably is the competition amongst the players in the industry that has driven the cost of many products down and increase in penetration levels and launch of new products.

Leadership failures:Why some company executives go ‘women ponzi scheming’

Mark Hurd

When reading the fall of former HP (the world’s top computer maker) boss Mark Hurd following investigations into sexual harassment that stunned investors and sent the share value tumbling- I froze. I was hurt- because he was/is one of my favourite CEO having followed developments in the IT industry for long. The lesson learnt from his story is simple; you can’t divorce human weaknesses to job performance and ultimately company image. When you are on top of your brains, you are not really on top till you are proven otherwise by nature.

Change in technology and its effects on advertising -the case of the mobile phone.

Purpose:

The purpose of this essay is to show how technological developments from electronic to information technology contributed to the evolving nature of advertising-largely focusing on the mobile phone. The mobile phone has managed successfully to cannibalise all the mediums that came before it, newspapers, recordings, radio, television and internet to become one of the advertisers’ most preferred destiny of choice.

RIM unveils BlackBerry Torch

RIM-Research In Motion– unveiled the BlackBerry Torch –which runs the latest version of its operating systems, but critics say it’s not going to match Iphone 4 and Android run phones.

Mobile threatens traditional media- as Google goes for location based mobile ads.

“Google has introduced new location-aware advertising for iPhone and Android handsets” writes Kelly Hogkins.  The user’s GPS coordinates are then used by advertisers to group their ads according to location. “This feature is pretty cool once you get over the creepiness of Google sending ads to you based upon your device, the context of your mobile usage, and now your location” Hogkins says.

This is a threat that mobile phones pose to the traditional media revenue base, when it comes marketing and attracting ads. According to Mobile Marketing 101, 2010, “mobile campaigns are convenient than traditional media as the content is kept down to a minimum and the platforms are adaptable on a mass scale”. Furthermore, Mobile Marketing , states that, the adaptability of the mobile phones will make it convenient to cross platforms and promote other media services.

The precision which the mobile phone measure data that is crucial for advertisers will force the traditional media to rethink their business models. The mobile phone has specific data that is crucial for advertisers. For instance, it can record or store data such as, location, age, gender and what search terms were used. Such personalised information is then used to target audience with the kind of content and ads they want. The competition has driven the cost down and innovation up.

Africa: The state of the mobile web

Jon von Tetzchner

Mobile web browsing has been adopted at a fast rate across the African continent reads the State of the mobile world report. “Looking at the continent as a whole sees mobile web usage surging by 182% in the year period, while unique users are up by 124%, and the amount of data downloaded was over 160% higher than it was at the same time last year” writes memeburn.

The most popular handset brand is Nokia, followed by SonyEricsson, Samsung and LG. South Africa stands at the top of mobile web usage. “Beyond the numbers, we see that access to the Web is reshaping the economic, political and social development of the continent” said Jon von Tetzchner Co-founder, Opera Software

Zimbabwe: POTRAZ call for SIM card registration

“The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) wishes to advise the public that all mobile service providers have been directed to ensure that all post-paid and prepaid mobile phone users should be registered with their mobile operators by 31st August 2010.” read a statement posted by kubatana.net. The mobile operators are: NetOne, Econet Wireless and Telecel.