‘Techpreneurs’ find niche in development of phone software

Unofficial home

Until recently, Strathmore was the unofficial home of software developers in the market.

Earlier this year, a specialized development hub was created to bring together the efforts of software artists in the country.

The iHub now plays host to over 100 developers, who meet regularly to share ideas at specialised mobile workshops often hosted by international giants such as Google and Nokia.

“The interest levels are high – developers attend the sessions and eventually go on to learn the tools in more detail on their own,” said Jessica Colaco, iHub Manager.

Nokia is already promoting two locally made applications - Afro Hot and Wazzup – on its global application store called Ovi which were by developed by two students at University of Nairobi.

In stock market terms, developer mindshare is one of the hottest “commodities” in the mobile business, one whose “stock price” has ballooned in the last two years.

Players in the mobile industry, from hardware vendors and handset manufacturers to networks, are now vying to win software developer mindshare, in order to add value on top of their devices and networks.

Hoping to cash in on the changing dynamics in the mobile sector, Safaricom has now moved to secure budding talent in order to build on increased earnings from the segment.

“Local developers are very much welcome to work with us. We are working with universities towards this end,” said Michael Joseph, Safaricom CEO.

The Safaricom Academy at Strathmore is geared towards creating the necessary competence through leveraging on existing academic institutions by enhancing their curricula to create this competence.

The Academy owns an incubation centre that offers an environment where young minds will be able to develop and create innovative applications.

In contrast to trend in the global market, Kenyan developers are working to create solutions on Symbian (Nokia’s platform) due to the high uptake of Nokia phones in this market.

“Nokia’s Ovi has the largest penetration in the marketplace. Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are yet to gain use in Kenya,” said Mbugia Njihia of Symbiotic, a local software house.

For larger software developers such as Symbiotic and Turnkey Africa, the changing trends have forced a shift in focus from PC based solutions to mobile apps.