Author: CraigWilson

More often than not South Africa gets left treading water in the backwaters when international services roll out new features in waves, but not this time. Without much fanfare, image- and video-sharing service Instagram has rolled out its instant messaging app, Bolt, for Android and iOS in only three regions: South Africa, New Zealand and Singapore. Bolt requires a user’s mobile phone number during set up (much like WhatsApp) and will – if granted permission – search your phone’s contacts for other Bolt users. Despite Facebook owning Instagram, Bolt doesn’t include the option to login using Facebook, nor to add…

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If you needed any more confirmation of Samsung’s popularity in South Africa, the company is planning to open a TV manufacturing plant in the Dube Trade Port in Durban before the end of the year. To this end, the Korean electronics giant is investing R212 million (US$20 million) in the project until 2018. The project is the result of close collaboration between Samsung and the South African authorities at both national and provincial levels, according to Matthew Thackrah, deputy managing director at Samsung Electronics South Africa. “Samsung remains the leading consumer electronics brand in South Africa and we are determined…

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There are now dozens of cryptocurrencies vying for tech-savvy consumers’ attention, but the most (in)famous and popular remains Bitcoin. One of the questions people, especially in South Africa, often ask about Bitcoin is what they can spend it on. Now, thanks to a partnership between payment gateway PayFast and local Bitcoin exchange, BitX, the answer is just about anything. PayFast processes transactions between online buyers and sellers, allowing individuals, charities or businesses to accept payment in various forms – like credit cards or EFTs. Buyers don’t pay anything to use the service, while sellers pay a small percentage fee for…

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The mobile call rates price war is hotting up again in South Africa with Cell C announcing on Thursday that it is “taking a knife to its 66c promotional prepaid offering” by cutting the rate to 50c per minute. Even more pleasing is the operator’s decision to introduce the new rate on per second billing – some operators have been known to offer seemingly low rates but bill per minute, making the actual rate higher than that which is advertised. Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos, who took over from Alan Knott-Craig in May, says the operator is “exceptionally pleased…

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Online retailer and the dominant player in ebooks, Amazon, launched a subscription service in the US on Friday called Kindle Unlimited that allows users access to over 600 000 ebooks and three months of access to Audible’s audio book catalogue for $9.99 a month, which sounds great if you read more than a book a month, but comes with a few caveats, not least of all the service’s US-only stipulation at launch. Amazon’s offer may sound comprehensive, but five of the world’s biggest publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan – have all refused to…

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According to a recent white paper from market research body International Data Corporation (IDC), last year ICT spending accounted for 12.1% of Kenyan GDP. That’s up from 8.9% in 2006, thanks in part to the huge growth in mobile phone users and thanks to investment from international development agencies like the World Bank. Increased ICT spending boosts GDP; countless research companies have been saying so for years. But Kenya proves them right. “Between the years 2000 and 2012, the country’s wider transport and communications sector, of which ICT is a part of, grew by a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)…

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According to a leaked internal memo, Microsoft has sounded the death knell for Nokia’s Asha and Series 40 feature phone platforms, along with its tentative foray into the Android market, Nokia X. Instead, Nokia’s new owner plans to double down on its Windows Phone operating system and the Lumia range of smartphones it powers. Sweeping changes were inevitable when Microsoft announced its acquisition of Nokia in September last year and appointed a new CEO, Satya Nadella, in February. The result has been a slew of job cuts, and now the news that Nokia’s massively successful and margin-rich feature-phone division’s days…

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In a potentially divisive move, Apple announced earlier this week that it is partnering with its previous archenemy, IBM, to create 100 business-specific applications for Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS. But IBM isn’t just writing software to service its corporate customers’ needs, its also going to be trying to sell iPhones and iPads to the enterprise market. Apple and IBM in bed together might sound bizarre at first, but given that IBM’s all but abandoned its PC business to focus on data management and services, and given the popularity of Apple’s phones and tablets, the partnership isn’t as ludicrous as…

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