Nigeria.com Founder, Atobatele: My Technology Predictions for 2013

Founder of Nigeria.com, Ade Atobatele, looks into the tech crystal ball for 2013 

 Innovation In Nigeria

1. Incubation/Innovation hubs go mainstream in Nigeria, but the majority don’t produce commercial hits, proving that neither innovation nor the incubation of innovation is easy.
2. Federal and State Governments attempt to spur innovation through Open Data initiatives.
3. Collaboration and hence co-founders will become more prevalent as entrepreneurs realise that it’s teams that attract investment not individuals.
4. Foreign venture capital money pours in and then the dries up as commercial hits don’t follow the money.

⦁    Ecommerce in Nigeria

1. Ecommerce in Nigeria becomes commoditised, with most sites actually being “grey market” shippers and/or aggregators . Few sites actually make money. Logistics companies spring up to solve same day delivery issues.
2. Epayment becomes ubiquitous as mobile money finally takes off as it transitions from being primarily a money transfer service to a stored value service with the general public and merchants using it as a payment method both on-line and off-line.
3. Banks come to see ATM’s as service delivery points and try to cram as many services on them as possible.
4. Corporate organisations align themselves with individual mobile phone apps to reach the youth market but still do not buy locally designed enterprise software .

⦁   Telecommunications in Nigeria

1. Android smartphones break sales records and become prevalent as they fall below they N10,000 price barrier.
2. Local computing hardware assembly initiatives stall as the public transition from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones.
3. Blackberry continues to sell well in Nigeria proving that, at least locally, it’s not the technology but the value chain that matters.
4. Telecommunication costs continue to drop mainly from a glut of bandwidth and and an inability to get it past urban areas.

⦁    Around the world

1. Windows 8 goes mainstream worldwide as corporates buy laptops and desktops with it installed. Towards the end of the year this causes Windows Phone 8 to get a boost as more people become familiar with the UI. Android becomes the number 1 mobile OS in every country but the United States
2. Yahoo returns to glory through buyouts (MySpace, Twitter, FourSquare maybe)
3. Advertising on mobile devices takes on new personal paradigms as corporates start to realise that Mobile is not the Internet on a small screen just as television is not radio with moving pictures.
4. Internet enabled televisions become commodity items, causing television producers to make programs more interactive.