This is mobile!

Recently I forgot my wallet in the house and only remembered halfway on my journey to the office. I din't bother much about it and just continued with my journey.

Another day I drove to the office and when evening came, I just walked out of the office, strolled to the bus stop and got into a matatu to my house. I forgot that I actually packed my car at the basement of the office block. (Well, I don't drive most of the days and instead prefer using public transport. Possibly that's why I forgot in this instance). I remembered as I was almost alighting at my place. I din't give much thought about it. The car was safe where it was and I was less concerned.

Another day I forgot my phone in the house. I realized that I didn't have my phone as I was settling in the office. I felt such a strange feeling. I dashed out and went back to the house to collect the phone. I lost a whole two morning hours. Am sure you understand the value of the morning hours.

Today I again thought about this gadget called a mobile phone that made me go back to the house. If I had left money, I would not be so much concerned. The mobile phone is so much intertwined in our lives to the extent that we cannot imagine living a day without it. Certainly we can do without many other things but not a mobile phone.

Think of the day you were in a bus/matatu or in a public place and you tried to reach out to your phone in your pocket. You could not touch or feel it. How you became dramatic and frisking yourself around like a lunatic. Standing up and looking at your neighbor suspiciously. Touching all over your body like someone who has been invaded by demons. If someone took a video of you at this moment, that's when you would realize that that cool, gentleman/gentlelady demeanor you wear around is just pretense. That's how a mobile phone has become so important and part of our lives.

We're so intimate with our phone. It's our world. This is where we meet our friends. It's nolonger the old days of meeting in restaurants and Uhuru Park. This is where we do our banking. This is where we catch with fresh gossip in town. This is where we travel the world and get the news from everywhere, on anything and everything. This is where our world converge. What is it that we don't do on mobile phones?

No wonder the phone has now become the biggest commercial battle field. Everyone positioning himself. This is where consumers are being hunted.

https://www.connectingafrica.com/author.asp?section_id=761&doc_id=762720#:~:text=Safaricom%2C%20Google%20partner%20on%20Kenyan%20smartphone%20financing,-Paula%20Gilbert%2C%20Editor&text=Kenya's%20largest%20telecoms%20operator%2C%20Safaricom,into%20the%20hands%20of%20Kenyans.

It was therefore good news that Safaricom has partnered with Google to offer smartphone financing to 1 million Kenyans and help them transition fully to 4G network. There will be flexible loan where the beneficiaries will pay as little at KES 20 ($ 0.2) per day. This goes a long way in digitizing the vast majority of people and drive internet connectivity. Safaricom may be looking at driving deep mobile data usage to achieve it's revenue growth, but this create a big impetus and reach in the general online market in Kenya.

The World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) report indicates that 52% of global internet traffic is through smartphones (2019) and estimates that 73% of internet users will access the web solely through the smartphone by 2025. This information is backed up by Statista. In Africa, mobile phones account for 60% of total web traffic and are still rising, according to Statista.

Statista data (2020) also indicate that over 98% of Facebook users are accessing their accounts through a mobile device and only 1.8% through desktop computers and laptops. This is very instructive.

A 2019 report by GSMA, a worldwide association of mobile network operators, indicates that there are 774 million SIM connections in Sub Saharan Africa representing 75% of total population and it’s projected that the connections will rise to 1.04 billion, or 84% of total population, by 2025. Of all these SIM connections, 39% are smartphones. Smartphone connections are projected to hit 66% of total connections by 2025.

This is mobile age and businesses - big and small - should position themselves.