Mobile phones: A way to spread e-books around in Africa
By David Ajao
Moderator’s note: We welcome our latest TeleRead contributor, Oluniyi David Ajao of Mobile Africa.
E-books written for mobile phones are not to be downplayed if your target audience is Africa.
The majority of telecom subscribers in Africa are connected to the rest of the world via mobile phones.
Mobile phones are common because most incumbent (and in many cases the erstwhile monopoly) telecom operators have failed to extend telecommunications services outside the urban areas. That’s left millions unconnected by wires.
Gerhard May, the CEO of Celtel Kenya Ltd summarizes my point when he opens a recent article with this sentence:
“In Africa, mobile communications systems are playing the role fixed-line networks are playing in developed countries.”
Cellular networks are gradually reversing the trend of poor connectivity. Basic telephony and text messaging are now available to many across the vast African continent as a result of the market-driven and highly competitive telecom sub-sectors in many of the African countries. Many cellular networks now offer some form of mobile Internet technology or the other. Name it: GSM data (CSD), HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, 3G (UMTS) and even HSDPA!
The growth of mobile telephony is huge, and sub-Saharan Africa is widely regarded as the fastest growing mobile telecom market in the world.
The BBC recently reported that the majority of the traffic to its WAP site comes from Nigeria, and the rest of Africa. It did not come as a surprise to me. I have since outlined some of the reasons why I think this is so.
If you are an e-book author and your target audience is Africa, it is only wise that you have a format for mobiles—a huge audience out there will thank you for your thoughtfulness.
Popularity: 2% [?]
September 1st, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Are there African authors (if I may paint with so broad a brush for a moment) who publish for mobile phones? What formats do they use?
September 2nd, 2006 at 3:20 pm
There are authors in Africa who publish for mobiles. I know of people who publish using XHTML and WML, both programming languages for publishing WAP pages.
September 2nd, 2006 at 6:29 pm
David, what kind of content is most in demand over there–both public domain and the copyrighted variety, as well as Creative Commons? Fiction? Nonfiction? Popular genres?
And can you tell us more about the local authors and the e-publishing infrastructure? Are many publishing just electronically?
What business models are they using–how do they get paid, if they do?
This is fascinating stuff. Of course, if you’d prefer, you can use the main part of the blog–ideally with some accompanying art, if that isn’t too much trouble.
I hope you write in depth, if you have time and mention the authors as individuals. This story needs to get out.
Thanks,
David
September 7th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
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