Or Africa’s interest in the Internet of Everything
Initially Published on LinkedIn Pulse - July 24, 2015
Most of us, professionals, living in (sub-Saharan) Africa, use every day our connected devices for our work (smartphones, laptops, tablets, and so on…)
We can’t even imagine staying one day, one minute, without being connected to our professional world.
One good thing to recognize is that our local Internet operators managed to give us real true benefits of high speed Internet services (yes, we also have (almost) 4G), offering solutions and applications to permanently keep us in our business, wherever we are, at office or on the roads of Africa.
We are so addicted and proud of our new brand technology that we even use Google Maps or Apple Plans to find out our way to the customer’s office just next door…
We have nothing to envy to our colleagues outside Africa, and we use (almost) the same connected tools that they use, apart, of course, of the famous network, that sometimes comes and goes, with the ups and downs of the public electric supply…
How many of us have been one day at the restaurant for lunch break, waiting for an urgent and important email from the “boss” or “the MVIP client”, that just doesn’t come, just because of a bad network in the area (and while the restaurant manager has forgot to turn on Wi-Fi, and went with the keys…for lunch) ?
But finally, we are quite satisfied of our “mobile Internet business everywhere” solutions, which are up to date and efficient, thanks, again, to our local operators, who have put a lot of work and innovation in their professional offer.
But what happens at the end of the day, when we arrive at home and we want to play with our houses’ connected objects?
What happens when we need continuity in our connected lives?
Because we do have connected objects at home, here under African skies…
When we arrive at home, we just want to lie down in our sofas and play with our little connected objects, controlled by our little Android, iOS or Windows smartphones, fully optimized with tools found in good old sites like Xda.
Because we also know about mobile software development, here under African skies…
When we arrive at home, we just want to lie down in our sofa, and play with our smart Tv, each year smarter than before and more and more linked to our smart connected objects.
We just want to watch a good movie using Plex streaming to our little Chromecast or watch some good us TV Shows on Netflix with our Apple Tv.
Because we also know how to use and set up a prepaid private VPN to access American contents, here under African skies…
When we arrive at home, we just want to lie down in our sofas, and control our Hue lights to put the perfect luminosity for our moments of peace after a hard-working day, and check if our Nest smoke alarm system firmware is up to date.
Because we also want to protect our houses, here under African skies…
We also want to program from office our houses’ air conditioner, so it will reach the right and good temperature just now we open our home’s doors.
Because we also need some fresh good air, here under African skies…
Houses’ connected objects are an interesting new market in Africa, as African populations have more access to education, live more in urban areas, are more demanding in terms of quality services and are every day more and more open to what the world has to offer.
That’s what people call globalization and what I call a World without consumers differentiation based on where they live.
Indeed, it’s not because we live in Africa that we have do not have the right or desire to access or simply buy what our fellow citizens of the Earth, living on other continents, purchase and consume.
It’s true that most of us did not reach yet implementation of home automation high standards here in Africa, but we already have some little connected objects in our houses, which also need high speed internet access.
And this is the high fast-growing demand that our Internet local operators have forgot, or just do not know…
This market of connected objects is not reserved for the wealthy or those who travel most, since most connected objects do not cost a lot of money and are easily transportable (both high tech products and digital broadcasting services).
But this market can live only if its products can always be… connected to Internet, to a good internet access, provided by good local Internet operators, aware of the new needs of domestic consumers, here under African skies (while writing this article, I had to turn off and on three times my wireless access point…)
Connected objects and home automation are a real new market with high potential of development in Africa, and every Business Developer should take account of this opportunity.
Africa is connected and Web 5.0 lies here under African skies.
