There are extra than 1/2 one million Android apps in the international. The i-Store, which officially garnered over 25 billion downloads in March this 12 months, gives 5.5 million downloads, with more than 170 000 apps mainly tailor-made to your iOS. If your head is not spinning with the range on offer, then I’ll hit you with the truth that around three hundred 000 of those apps were uploaded within the last 3 years. Talk approximately about an enterprise growing overnight.

The South African App Market: Where Are We Now? 1

All this has been pushed with the aid of an ever-growing stage and the availability of mobile hardware and solid working structures and development equipment. Given the proliferation of cell devices around the arena (more than 85 percent of the planet is using them), you might well ask, has South Africa taken advantage of this new outlet for her expertise and industry?

The solution, regrettably, is blended. South Africa has had some incredible benefits when compared with its friends on the continent. Unfortunately, we have a track file sitting on our laurels. We have controlled to drop, or at the least fumble, the ball regarding troubles like youth improvement, the creation of sustainable alternative energies, and the improvement of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure.

So one might well ask are we going to miss the boat on the App boom too? It’s now not that I’m saying we’re completely vain; it’s more a case of failing to capture possibilities. South Africa has to, via proper, be one of the strongest players on the continent but permits observe what we’ve performed with our possibilities.

At the turn of this century, we had one of the great telecommunications infrastructures on the continent, but now our line speeds and information fees are falling ways at the back of the rest of Africa. In 2012 our Internet penetration was much less than 14 percent which puts us ahead of the African average of 13.Five%, however well in the back of countries like Kenya (25%), Nigeria (29%), or Morocco (forty-nine %). We are above common, sure, however here’s my point: whilst you recollect our ability, is right enough all we need to be aiming for?

Our poor performance on training and communications infrastructure might be the single largest stumbling block in this user’s development. Certainly, it’s miles a major element in our lagging behind the rest of the sector about taking advantage of the app marketplace. Here we have an earnings-producing enterprise that everybody ought to be able to enter, anywhere and at any time, and we’re choking ourselves with old-line speeds and exorbitant expenses for bandwidth.

The South African App Market: Where Are We Now? 2

Everyone can see how the e-tolling system may be awful for businesses and commuters. With that in mind, would it without a doubt marvel anybody to listen that a latest observes performed for the Business Software Alliance positioned us 18th out of 24 international locations in our readiness for cloud computing?

The file stated our low ranges of Internet penetration and coffee stages of records and communications technology as trouble. Additionally, it went on to say that there wishes to be better planning for the growth of our excessive-speed networks (we’re presently lagging behind India on this department). Above all, we’re going to want to make the Web quicker and extra inexpensive if we’re going to be able to compete for the world over.