Africans Dial Up Innovation

Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/in...innovation

The unusual crime-fighting service could arise only in sub-Saharan
Africa, where roughly half of the region’s 850 million people now
have cellphones. To a degree unmatched anywhere else in the world,
the cellphone in Africa is an engine for innovation, spawning mobile
technologies that a large swath of the population can take advantage
of quickly and cheaply to tackle urgent needs. 


" The achievement is not Africa’s alone. Global device makers, notably
Nokia and Samsung, have found fertile ground for mobile phones as cheap
as US $20 that boast both an FM radio and the capacity to support two
SIM cards (neither feature is found in U.S. phones at any price). Indian
communications company Bharti Airtel delivers the first borderless
service in the world, allowing Africans from countries all over Africa
to pay a single common rate."

There's some real innovation. Apple innovates? Innovates ways to
collect as much cash as possible from their buyers, who end up without
features found in a $20 African phone.