Subscribe

Whatever the problem, the solution is mobile

Tarryn Giebelmann
By Tarryn Giebelmann, Sub-Editor
Johannesburg, 26 Oct 2012
Mobile is happening, get out of the way, says Alan Knott-Craig Jnr.
Mobile is happening, get out of the way, says Alan Knott-Craig Jnr.

Alan Knott-Craig Jnr sleeps well at night, as he is confident the future, and more importantly, SA, will be ok.

Speaking yesterday at Popular Mechanics' FutureTech 2012 event, the former CEO of Mxit and World of Avatar, quizzed the audience on whether they believed SA would be a better place in 20 years. He got a lukewarm response, as only a couple of hands went up.

Knott-Craig Jnr is confident that everything will be ok in the end, saying: "If it's not ok, it's not the end," a lesson he learnt from his father. He applies this to everything in life for which he "can't see the end of the tunnel".

In applying this thinking to the problems faced not only in SA, but in the world, Knott-Craig Jnr came up with a solution: mobile phones.

"All the problems we have are caused by human beings, and human beings are making decisions. It's when people do stuff that's wrong that things go a little pear-shaped," he said.

"Decisions are always based on information," he continued, suggesting that a lot of the decisions that are made, such as the president of a country, are not because people are inherently dumb, but because they don't have access to all the information.

Mobile phones are changing this. "For the first time, finally, all of the information will be in the hands of everybody."

The Internet cannot be filtered, he noted; no one can stop the man on the street from getting access to information. "This is what makes me feel optimistic because this wave [of information] cannot be stopped; the information is going to be out there eventually," he said.

This means, in 20 years, people will make the right decisions because they'll have all the right information and the world will be a better place, he continued.

While governments may try to control the flow of information, telcos are putting a lot of money into securing licenses.

"Once the mobile phones are out there, that's it, Pandora's Box is open, those phones become part of the fabric of society."

Knott-Craig Jnr referred to the revolution in Egypt, estimating that about 100 000 people were initially angry with the situation, out of a population of about 90 million. It was only when the government thought things were getting out of hand and shut down the networks that there was a revolution, because citizens were unable to make calls, and everyone makes a living using their mobiles.

Digital divide

The digital divide in SA cannot be ignored, said Knott-Craig Jnr. After spending some time in America, he realised that America believed the whole world was like America. The "big guys" are not thinking about the problems and challenges Africa is facing, he noted.

"I realised that they're not going to come here, they're waiting for us to get there, and it's going to take a very long time before we get there," he said, explaining that it will be a while before SA has uncapped, free broadband and before everyone has access to smartphones.

According to stats, he says, about 30% of phones in SA are smartphones, although he does not agree with this figure, saying the lower-end Androids are not smartphones and that not all BlackBerrys are smartphones. "So, if you take the actual true smartphones, probably about 13% to 14% of phones in SA are smartphones, 15% if you include BlackBerry. On the continent, it's 3% - actually less.

"And when you look at sales, 85% of sales every month are not of smartphones, and that 15% is still BlackBerry. I think there's 250 000 iPhones on the continent out of 700 million phones. There's a lot of noise around Android, but you don't see them - they don't move the needle. BlackBerry moves the needle. Nokia and Samsung are also doing well."

Smart apps for dumb phones

The answer to this, said Knott-Craig Jnr, was World of Avatar, and the concept was smart apps for dumb phones. There's a lot of money in this, he notes; it's a massive untapped market. And Mxit is a prime example.

"Just to put it into perspective, Mxit does about 800 million messages a day; Twitter does 400 million. So while Mxit does not have as many users as Twitter, it's 100 times more engaged because the people who are using something like Mxit only have one device in their lives - their phones.

"What Mxit can become, and what it is, is critical to bridging the divide, because it's no good if only the rich people are connected to the rich people. Whatsapp is interesting, but it only gets to the top of the pyramid; BBM is interesting, but it only gets to the BlackBerry users," which is near the top of the pyramid, he notes.

You have to have handsets that foster communication, said Knott-Craig Jnr, and Mxit accommodates this, as it is available across all platforms and on many different handsets, including 250 000 feature phones.

Mxit has 62 million users and is active in 126 countries with between 20 000 and 50 000 people downloading it every day through word of mouth.

In a question and answer session, Knott-Craig Jnr said he had no immediate plans for the future, referring to his recent resignation from Mxit and World of Avatar, other than to "tie up loose ends" and take his family on holiday.

For those wanting to tap the untapped market, Knott-Craig Jnr has the following advice: there's lots of money in games, it's the new cigarette. There's also money in education and information content, such as magazines.

He ended with these sentiments: Mobile is happening, get out of the way.

Share