Mobile Phones: Key To Developing Nations

Most of us use our cell phones for just about everything these days -- texting a buddy, monitoring social networking sites, or checking the weather.

But the ubiquitous cell phone could dramatically affect hundreds of millions of people in countries like China, India, and Africa. New companies such as Obopay and Moka are providing access to a new virtual world made available by cell phone technology.

Obopay, for instance, is enabling third-world countries including India to receive and send payments via text message, while Moka provides language translations, such as English to Chinese.

What does this mean? In India, where many people don't have access to an address or a bank account, cell phones are the new means for government or an employer to send payments. Once the money is deposited into the recipient's "account," he/she can then remit money internationally, send funds to his family, or pay bills -- all right from the phone. Obopay's system also eliminates the risk of theft in cash-based economies. Imagine the Indian farmer who heads to the market to sell his products. The buyer arrives with a safe filled with cash to buy goods -- imagine how vulnerable that cash may be. A cell phone makes that transaction less risky.

And this new cell phone technology isn't just providing better access to money without physical banks. Imagine living in Mexico, home to 100 million people, or China, with a population of 1.3 billion. Many people living in rural areas in either of these countries face limited access to schools or medical facilities. And in China, with so many different dialects, it's easy for crucial information to get muddied up -- whether it's to teach people English or to inform them of the availability of new vaccinations in their area. By enabling translation via text messaging or SMS, Moka can ensure that converting communication from one language to another is done with fewer problems.

With the ever-popular Twitter now readily available via mobile phones, we're now seeing those who never had a voice really take on government. In Myanmar, thousands of monks took to the streets in pro-democracy demonstrations by communicating through twitter via their cell phones, leaving the military generals "caught in a rare dilemma," according to Reuters. It's a reminder of just how powerful social media has become for human rights and other issues.

For entrepreneurs, it means new opportunities to start and grow businesses -- and to do good works in the process. It's sparking all kinds of ingenuity - imaginative minds developing new ways to leapfrog over the lack of infrastructure and bring these people into the 21st century. In Africa, for instance, there's been an effort to bring laptops to those who've never owned a computer. But this effort may not be practical, because they take more electricity to charge than a cell phone. For Africans, the challenge isn't so much about getting a gadget, but rather access, and cell phones can help solve this.

Bringing it closer to home, the global financial crisis has underscored how little the average person knows about the economy. Yet by breaking outside the traditional Wall Street box in tone and language, even WeSeed.com is able to provide ordinary people -- including students in public schools -- an opportunity to learn and experiment in a way they wouldn't have had before.

These days, mobile technology is perhaps the most powerful enabler to access -- access for the billions who have gone without for too long. It's helping people become more self-sufficient and more educated. It's providing the on-ramp to banking, credit, and money-management tools. It's even creating the road to preventative health care and the maps to locate it.

If there's one tool that may prevent people from being left behind, it's mobile technology.

Apple iPhone; Positive start - Long way to go!

Apple iPhone has partly managed to change the way smartphones are approached. Or shall I say, it has been a catalyst to the smartphone boom that we are into.

We always wanted smarter smartphones :P, we wanted great usability, we wanted superior web, we wanted good media and here came the iPhone which brought in so much innovation in all these fronts that the industry still looks up to it and terms any other touch device an iPhone Competitor / killer. iPhone has become a benchmark for measuring any new smartphone that is released.

One of the strongest pillars in iPhone’s continued success is the SDK / AppStore. The buttonless approach with multitouch and accelerometer has let the developers make some some amazing apps for the OS X mobile platform. Not just that; the developers have been paid well for their efforts. The App store via the iTunes has seen over 500 million app downloads in less than a year. Many of these are paid apps that gives the developers a majority share of revenues.

But how big is Apple iPhone’s success? iPhone is still an expensive gadget (with or without contract)! In India it still costs Rs 30000 for a 8GB iPhone 3G. Globally Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry etc sell way more than the iPhone. Each of these platforms have dozens of different models currently in the market, while the iPhone 3G is alone. While they catchup with their own App platforms in the coming months, Apple iPhone needs to prepare to stand the competitions on this front aswell.

Apple has sold roughly 20million iPhones till date (add the iPod Touch to it if you want). While Nokia has sold over 400 million phones in 2008 alone. 20 million out of the 1200 million phones sold is a very tiny share (smartphones might be a much smaller share of that 1200 million though)! No doubt its one of the fastest growing, innovative and very promising - IMO for the iPhone to be called a success 5 years down the line there would be a need for many more such .

The iPhone still has some big shortcomings and a lot to deliver. Its the potential of the next gen iPhones that we are hoping would deliver. While competitors have caught up to the touch-revolution - iPhone needs to get some variety. I won’t point out the same old things that we have been asking for since months/years, but would expect Apple to comeup with stronger and Complete devices in coming months.

Samsung W200i – The Walkman Mobile Phone

It is one of the affordable music phones which can store upto 37 full length music tracks or about four albums. Just like other high gadget phone you can transfer music from your PC with Disc2Phone music management software which comes with this mobile phone. The best thing about this mobile is that you can listen to music for upto 18 hours at length!

Samsung in its latest range of products presents Samsung W200i, the best in terms of music. This walkman mobile phone has some of the best features as far as listening to music is concerned. The music beats in this mobile are so good that you can actually make a small group dance over its speaker sounds.

It is one of the affordable music phones which can store upto 37 full length music tracks or about four albums. Just like other high gadget phone you can transfer music from your PC with Disc2Phone music management software which comes with this mobile phone. The best thing about this mobile is that you can listen to music for upto 18 hours at length!

The memory stick of this mobiles has 128 MB of space which is upgradeable. You can expand it upto 1 GB which can store 225 full length tracks, so you have days to listen to the music. You can also listen to upto 20 of your pre-saved stations. Listen to the stations via color matched stereo headset which gives a clear voice.

It is also a multimedia phone in addition to being a walkman. So, you can expect a lot of things which can be done through this phone. It is equipped with video conferencing, integrated photo album, MPS – 60 portable speakers and a VGA camera with 4X zoom facility. The phonebook can keep a number of contacts. About 30 calls records – received, dialed and missed can be kept. Other features include messaging through SMS, MMS, Email and instant; games, FM radio with RDS, T9, picture editor, organizer, voice memo and built in hands free.

The general network is of GSM 900/1800/1900 giving it a fairly good connectivity.

With polyphonic ringtones, MP3 it’s a good phone to enjoy music for long hours.

Purchase this model of Samsung from any of the leading mobile stores or online shopping stores. Opting for a online shopping store is a better choice for the fact that electronic items like mobiles are sold here at lower prices than their actual prices. In addition to this, you can also have the mobile delivered at your home without going to the shop. For payment you can either pay through credit card or you can pay by cash once mobile phone is received. To try out this option, you just need to log on to any of the India’s leading online shopping companies like themobilestore.in and enjoy the benefits…