Multinational high tech companies looking for new frontiers and fresh ideas are lining up for a slice of Africa’s relatively untapped consumer market.
Many experts are saying the continent is poised to be the next hotbed of technological innovation. Others are even more optimistic.
“Africa is that frontier right now,” said Canada-based New Media marketing strategist Douglas Idugboe. And it is the place where “a lot of technology innovation” is taking place, added Mark Walker, a research director at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
“In Africa, the consumers are using technology in new and creative ways,” Walker said. “The most obvious ones are the ones that relate to … payment mechanisms, or transfer of information or just basic human communication.”
Walker said technology development in Africa is the opposite of conventional markets, where innovation has come to be considered more of an improvement on existing products, and less of a breakthrough.
Source: All Africa