Mobile device heterogenity:
THERE are already in the market today over 1000 brands of
Smartphone and tablets across the globe. The market will witness many more new
smart phones and tablets joining the already saturated segment and then the
current ‘’blue Smartphone ocean’’ will turn ‘’red ocean’’ and become dog-eat
–dog.
Nonetheless, the ‘’new money’’ is not in Oil and Gas, it is not in
Telecommunication companies selling of air-time. It is also not in selling
hardware like tablets and Smartphone. No! The new money is in Mobile Apps
development. Top on the league table of hardware manufacturers today includes
HTC’s butterfly, Dell’s Streak, Microsoft’s Surface, ZTE’s
Nubia, Huawei‘s Ascend Mate, Blackberry, DataWind’s UbiSlate,
Samsung’s Galaxy Note, iPad , iPhone , Goggle Smartphone, Kindle,
NOOK , TECHNO, and Intel’s YOLO among others. For consumers – it is good
news as prices will continue its downward journey towards south in 2013. In the
process, Tablets and Smartphone will become increasingly commoditized. There
will be heavy causalities in this market this year. My take is that ultimately,
the Apple strategy will not stand the test of time- except Apple changes its
‘’closed strategy’’. Human beings are social animals and they cherish freedom,
variety and flexibility above other consideration. Therefore, Apple’s closed
strategy cannot win in the final analysis. Android – with its flexibility and
ease of use will erode Apple’s market share. Already, about 90 per cent
of the Smartphone shipped in the last quarter of 2012 had Android inside. This
perhaps explains the Apple shareholder increasing anxiety about the future of
Apple without Steve Jobs. Little wonder why Apple stocks fell by 12 per cent in
January alone. Nokia and Microsoft- the famous two old Elephants will pull a
positive surprise in this space in 2013.
Blackberry will not make much impact in North America and Europe-
despite the new blackberry E10 that was released in January 2013. But in
Nigeria, Despite the popularity of Blackberry chatting facility, there will be
serious attempt to snatch its ‘’feeding bottle’’ in Nigeria by other Smartphone
makers this year.
For Corporate organizations, this is a year they will need to
evolve viable, practicable BYOD- Bring Your Own Device strategies. Corporate
data is gold, with every staff having an average of 3 mobile devices,
organizations without a veritable BYOD is in danger of losing its data to
competition.
In the long and short of it, we are in a year of MOBILITY. Our
lives – in schools, organizations, Churches, homes, cars, -all over will
revolve around mobile devices. Mobile devices will come with amazing new
features this year. Things hitherto though impossible will happen – like using
mobile phone as car key, or as door key to the house, using mobile phones to
start and off air conditioners or to control the refrigerator temperature among
others will happen this year.
It is my prediction that Nigeria will play a more central role in
MOBILITY EVOLUTION this year- beyond its current role of pure consumer.
Two, 2013 is a year of what I call ‘’COLLABORTIVE OPEN
SOURCE (COS) – so if Apple does not change its current strategy – we might
begin to see the beginning of the end for Apple with regards to its domination
of Smartphone business. Three, Smartphone will become a commodity- it will sell
for N15, 000.00 (To be sure the N15, 000.00 Smartphone will perform all the
functions and contain all the features) before the end of this year- therefore
the current players that sell for N100, 000.00 and above will lose market share
to what I call ‘ECONOMY SMARTPHONES’’ -if they do not change strategy. Finally,
mobile homogeneity will begin to encounter huge problem (Apple model), whilst
Mobile heterogeneity (Android model) will thrive and dominate the market. The
question now is: where does Nigeria stand in all this? – Or how does this
benefit Nigerians? One, I predict the emergence of ‘NEW APPS SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
MILLIONAIRES’’ in Nigeria in the next 5 years that will dwarf Dangote, Adenuga,
Ovia’s monies! Hitherto, the moneyed-people have always emerged from Trading
and Manufacturing (Aliko Dnagotes) or Oil and Telecoms (Mike Adenugas ) or
Banking and Finance ( Jim Ovias). The Nigerian new millionaires will dwarf
Adenuga and Dangote’s money in a speed of light and they will be ‘’small smart
boys’’- Under 25s who have excelled as MOBILE APPS SOFTWARE DEVELOPER.
After all, the founders of Facebook, Google, Twitter and Groupon
were already far richer than any man in Africa before they celebrated their
21st birthday. I see NEW MILLIONAIRES emerging from Nigeria soonest. I
challenge the Ministry of Information technology to create an enabling platform
to achieve this.
Convergence of mobile and cloud computing
The line between mobile and cloud solution will become thinner in
2013 the concept of a personal computer will be replaced by the new concept of
a private cloud. Most individual and commercial services including storage sync
across device will be hosted on private cloud going forward. Life will
move more virtual in 2013. The concept of VIRTUAL ALIEN is very critical for
Nigerians youths as they can tap into the opportunity to work for foreign
companies and get paid in DOLLAR without travelling abroad. Office of the
future will migrate virtual. More people will begin to work from home as
against having physical office. About 6 million Americans worked from
home in 2012. This new development will become global phenomena in 2013. With
the improvement in Internet and broadband, it becomes easier to go virtual even
in education, in church, in the media. Virtual education is growing like a wild
fire now globally.
The demise of physical office:
For the past three years, the question: who needs an office have
been posed globally several times at conferences and seminars. From 2013, what
I call ‘’BRIEF CASE OFFICES’’ will gradually begin to replace the traditional
brick- and- mortar space. In the US alone, the Census Bureau estimates that six
million Americans work from home. With the improvement in internet bandwidth
supply in Nigeria, cloud computing will make data backups and real-time
collaboration, idea- sharing become much easier and remove the need for
physical walls. Video conferencing with better picture and sound quality at
cheaper prices will become possible. Government’s role is that of an enabler.
Therefore, if Nigeria government is desirous of creating small and medium
business that will thrive without incurring the huge cost of physical office,
it will need to provide ‘’hot spots’’ all over Nigeria and make the accessing
fees like N50.00 per. Agencies in charge of small and medium business like
SMEDAN, SURE-P, NDE (National Directorate of Employment) and even CBN can take
over this responsibility. There is need for fresh, new thinking in the
government approach to job and wealth creation. There is too much ‘’old
thinking’’ – which technology has rendered obsolete. For instance – if SURE-P
had invested just 10 per cent of oil subsidy in what I call ‘’JOB ENABLING
TECHNOLOGIES’’- by now it would have created over 1million jobs using
Technology. Even for the media houses that are bleeding, I once proposed
to some of them that the media houses that will thrive today in the midst of
migration of advertisement to the ‘’new media’ space of goggle, twitter,
facebook and others will have to give serious consideration to virtual newsroom
as opposed to the traditional news room with its concomitant huge capital
outlay.
The rise of virtual university, schools:
‘’Nigerians will not go to virtual universities’’- someone once
opined! True? False? The answer is false. This was the same thinking on the eve
of Nigerian joining the league of GSM countries. One of the bidders who later
regretted his decision said openly that Nigerians are too poor to afford GSM
telephone in a way that would make the successful bidders recovered their
$150million investment in five years.
There is a global wave of change across the educational industry
as I write. There is clamor for the ‘’re-education of education’’. The system
today is too expensive and ‘’wall-off’’ so many brilliant young minds because
of space constraints and limited infrastructure in the traditional
universities. There is unanimity of opinion with regards to ‘’education for
all’’ concept. The vehicle to achieve this has been built already and it is ready
to zoom –off. This will be achieved through online education. For
instance last year a small startup company that hosts classes for 30
universities in the US trains 1.7million students in its online courses last
year.
This is 1.7 million that the tradition brick- and- mortar
universities would have fenced-out. This is a wake-up call on National
University Commission in Nigeria to , as Ronald Regan shouted at the Berlin
Wall in the 80s- ‘’Bring down the Berlin Wall of Traditional University’’. The
issue of quality of virtual university should not be used as a factor to
sustain the Berlin Wall of traditional university standing. No. After all, even
the quality of the graduates in the present system is being questioned every
day.
Water will always find its level. Those who go to Virtual or
traditional universities will have to compete for limited jobs at the end of
the day- so lets the employers be the best judge. At any rate, as I write,
thousands of Nigerians are undergoing courses like Money Management,
Information Technology, Sales and Marketing to complex one like Artificial
Intelligence and Engineering at IMT, Harvard, and Stanford among others. If the
Berlin Wall of traditional university is brought down, the foreign exchange our
youths spend in these foreign universities will be retained in Nigeria. It was
reported that Ghana next door earned a whole $1billion from Nigerian students
in one year alone. This is my point: $1billion retained in Nigeria will create
1 million jobs in the education sector! The answer is in Virtual universities!
IT -Security:
IT- Security is already a major concern globally. IT Security
threat will become more serious in 2013 and beyond. The recent news about the
hacking of the Federal Reserve’s and Wall Street journal’s and Twitter accounts
in the US is a tip of the iceberg as to what will come this year. In
Nigeria, where IT-Security is usually handled with levity, with more young
people acquiring IT skills and with little opportunity to earn a decent income
due to poor infrastructure that will make them transit to Technoprenure, these
youths will turn to vulnerable banks, universities, government Agencies and
other corporate organizations to ‘’earn huge income’’ by hacking into their
database and sell it for handsome fees in the online booming black
market. The way out of this pending hacking- earthquake is for
organization to embrace Encryption. Organization that will go unhurt,
un-embarrassed and stand protected this year and beyond will need what I
call:’’7-Layer IT-Security Sweater’’ to cover its origination’s body.
Fortunately, this 7-Layer IT-Security Sweater’’ already exists in Nigeria.
7 hottest ICT skills that will get you your
dream job and promotion in 2013:
Do you have a brother, cousin, sister or in-law looking for a
decent, good-paying job? Or do you want promotion in your current place of work
in 2013? Then you need to pay close attentions and take immediate steps to
acquire at least 3 of the following skills in 2013.
As in MOBILITY, where heterogeneity will carry the Day, so it is
in skill- people with multiple ICT Skills will win over people with one
specialized skills. The reason is simple ICT skill is becoming obsolete at the
speed of light, so one-skill man will have no place in the current space.
Below are the 10 Hottest 2013 ICT skills that
will get you your dream job and promotion:
(1) SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: Banks, Telecoms, Manufacturing
organizations in search of competitive edge are looking for ICT practitioners
that can develop and customize even the existing software that will
differentiate them in the dog-eat-dog market. Therefore guys that are very good
in Android, Java, Oracle, Microsoft will not be unemployed in 2013. And they
will also be the first to be promoted in their workplace. Furthermore, guys
with sound skills in software maintenance will continue to be sought after.
(2) MOBILE APPS DEVELOPMENT: Over 60 per cent of the world’s seven
billion population are embracing mobility. In the 80s, the winner was Microsoft
Window Apps. But today, the winner is Mobile Apps. And this will continue to
mushroom. My picks are: Android, CX code, iOS in that order.
(3) WEB DEVELOPMENT: Every one, every business, every
church, every Government wants to be online. This is why skills in web
development will continue to grow. And JSON, HTMLS, E-Commerce and AJAX are
growth-drivers.
(4) IT-Security: Even when there was recession, the only set
of ICT practitioner whose income grew in disproportionate degree to others is
the IT-Security practitioners. Therefore, EC-Council skills in CEH, CHFI, ECSA,
LPT and the new skills on Secured Computer User Certification (SCUC) will
remain the Industry standard for a
(5) long time to come.
(6) NETWORK MANAGEMENT: In 2013 more things that have power
will be networked. Therefore the need for Network Engineers- most especially-
wireless Network Engineers will grow. Skills like CCIE, Data Base management
will sell like hot cake. Nobody has this in Africa or Asia as at February 2013.
The first set of individuals to acquire this will make a kill. Other CCIE like
Security, Voice will continue to grow.
(7) SERVICE MANGEMENT: For smooth running and seamless
integration of ICT process and effective cost management, skills in ITIL,
PRINCE2, COBIT, ISO20K, and ISO27K PCI-DSS will rule 2013.
(8) VIRTULISATION: Organizations and government have no
choice if they desire to bring down their OPEX and CAPEX- they have to embrace
VIRTUALISATION; which has been described as ‘’ transcendent of optimization’’
The Master Key to future growth and competitive edge in business is
Virtualization. The reigning KING in this space is VMW. Skills in VMW will sell
like hot potatoes.
(9) DATABASE: In an information era, data is gold, it is
blood, it is oxygen and indeed it is life! Now that data is growing exponentially,
there is data overload. Therefore skills in ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load)
will be in hot demand.
(10) BUSINESS SKILSS: EC-Council CRM, Supply Chain
Management, Business Intelligence Professionals, Certified Business
Professionals (CBP) will fly in 2013.
(11) FINISHING: What’s the connection
between finishing and ICT? –someone might like to ask. Recent survey shows that
those ICT professionals that combine Finishing skills in speaking, composure,
manners, etc stand 300% more chances in getting the job than those who only
have pure ICT skills. Therefore, with your ICT skills I advise professional to
crown it ‘’Finishing Skills’’.
In the ultimate analysis, ICT will remain the growth –driver for
the Nigeria economy in 2013 and beyond. It will remain the best job- creation
tool in the hands of Smart Governments across the globe. It will remain
money-spinner for individuals and businesses.
Akano is the Chief Executive Officer of New
Horizons Nigeria, a technology company .
Author of this article: By Tim Akano
The Guardian Nigeria