Mobile Devices and Services: Transforming Africa with Employment, Payments, and Education

Author: Dan Shey, Practice Director, Mobile Services

Published: 05 Jun 2009

At the March 2009 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Jose, California, entrepreneur Nathan Eagle showed how citizens of developing world countries can gain employment by using the mobile phone to translate products written in English to their native language. In a trial of the service, students, taxi cab drivers, and security guards were occasionally paid for translation services through their mobile phone. This is a powerful example of the opportunities for leveraging the mobile phone to execute tasks that companies will finance. But to truly understand the potential for mobile devices and services beyond communications, the conditions that enable employment via mobile devices need further examination.

The full text of this Insight is available to subscribers of the Mobile Services Research Service and the Enterprise Mobility Research Service and the Mobile Money & NFC Research Service.

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