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Competition in the Mobile Phone Industry in Kenya

News - Technology

For the past decade Safaricom has been the most dominate phone service provider with an average of 80% of the market belonging to them. They have managed to maintain this dominance despite the entrance of new service providers such as Celtel which was taken over by Zain and now Zain wants to sell its stake to the original owners of the Business Verizon.

Safaricom's only true competitor has been Ken cell which was owned by Verizon since then Celtel has been unable to shake their dominance despite having better services , a wider coverage and better pricing. The only dominance that Celtel has been able to maintain over Safaricom has been over its corporate clients who are more focused on quality than popularity.

Over the years Safaricom that seemed to understand the market better than its competitors managed to maintain its dominance to a point that it did not even bother to come up with strategies to counter those of Celtel/zain its main competitor. Celtel therefore ended up hiring more temporary sales people, and giving more concessions on their tariffs which reflected at the end of the financial year by a huge loss. Eventually Celtel sold the company to Zain who came with refreshing new advertisements but no real changes apart from making the organization leaner and a year down the line wants to sell it Africa unit claiming it is unprofitable. Based on all the different management changes the company has gone through we may be forced to believe that they are may be circumstances that the investors had not fully assessed about the common market and when they got to the market it took they by surprise and had to adjust to them; but on the other had it may be that the organizations strategy was ineffective as well as the investors had really high expectation to the profitability of the company. It is a fundamental Law of Nature to profit through loss and therefore the quick retreat of Zain from the African Market due to not achieving their expectations is a wrong move.

Orange the new market entrant seems to be making more headway in capturing the Kenyan Market achieving its 1,000,000 millionth customer within eight months by the implementation of a marketing strategy that is appealing as well as provision of quality services to clients. Orange's strategy has worked so well that it has made safaricom jittery to the point that it is responding to Orange and their advertising campaign and has also led to the latest entrant Yu replicating its penetration strategy.

Orange that has been one new entrant in the market has taken over the market and has exponentially grown it especially its ISP to a level that is threatening to Safaricom that had been looking to get into the market. Safaricom that had bought one com in order to get into the market has been unable to fully get into the market that Orating with orange further introducing dial up modems that would allow mobility has further eaten it the Safaricom internet market to such a level that Safaricom had to increase its spending on advertising for their modem , decrease their download prices to the point of comparison with the orange and set up conferences in all major towns to introduce to the owners of the cyber cafes their new broadband and Wi-max products that they would offer to the Owner at a 15% lower cost than the competitor Orange with the choice of controlling the bandwidth they give to each computer.

This is basically a fist whereby Safaricom is no longer the market leader but instead the challenger and therefore has to change its strategies from one of defense to attack. So far it has been using promotional material and competitions these being its traditional strategy (dishing out money and goodies to maintain Customers). This is due to the understanding that Kenyans love free things and therefore the best strategy would be to give them the chance to get the things at a cost making Safaricom look like a  lottery than a service provider. The strength of the success of these beliefs cannot be fully accessed but one thing is for sure in order to upstage Orange from their new territory a lot need to be done and Safaricom may just not be up to the task.

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Infographic: As many as 100,000 Android apps are “suspicious”

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Out of over 400,000 applications reviewed by Bit9, over 70% gained access to at least one high-risk permission. Bit9 analyzed the apps and examined the permissions requested and assessed the potential threat or vulnerability these permissions caused.

About one in four apps were classified as “suspicious” or “questionable” based on the permissions requested, category of the application, number of downloads and reputation of the publisher. Bit9 also surveyed a group of IT decision makers in the commercial sector whose IT security policies affect over 400,000 employees.

Not only do the apps pose a potential vulnerability, but so do the policies. 71% of the respondents said that employees were allowed to access company networks and data using personal devices, but only 24% of those businesses had any monitoring or controls in place to know if any apps present on the devices were accessing sensitive information. That statistic is rather disappointing given that 68% of them said security was the most important driver of their policies.

In the infographic below, Bit9 found over 100 applications with the words “Angry” and “Birds,” but only 4 are from Rovio, the popular apps’ publisher. One of those other apps (among many), “Angry Birds Wallpaper” had access to detailed GPS location services, arguably not needed for such an app to function properly.

Aside from concerns this may raise for consumers, the concerns are a magnitude larger for companies as the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practice gains more and more acceptance. 26% of the apps get access to personal information such as email or contacts, yet 96% of employers allows users to access corporate email on their personal devices and 85% have access to calendar and scheduling.

One of the more interesting statistics out of the report is that while these companies seem to allow Android devices on their corporate systems, they also rank their perception of Android’s security as less than iOS or BlackBerry.

Technology in cell phones

Can you remember the day when you didn't know what a cell phone was?  Or perhaps when you decided you needed one too?
Cell phones have become a necessity for many people throughout the world. The ability to keep in touch with family, friends, and access to email are only a few of the reasons for the increasing importance of cell phones. Today's cell phones are capable of not only receiving and placing phone calls, but storing data, taking pictures, and can even be used as walkie talkies, to name just a few of the available options.

We have become accustomed to the cellular phone, and usually find that it quickly becomes something we don't leave home without.  You see everyone from kids to business executives with a cell phone to their ear, or even having a conversation with an earpiece attached to the cell phone that is hiding in their pocket. 
In the past, being part of the "in" crowd for teens used to mean hanging out where the cool kids were: the mall or the house party. Now all they have to do is having a cell-phone, and even better is having one with internet, like an Iphone, a blackberry, and all that kind of stuff.
The cell phone has become a primary mode of socializing for teens.

For example, with those cell phones (the bb or iphone) you can send messages, use a browser and have organizer applications. All this is supposed to facilitate the management of all your information and communications from just a single device.
How many times have you wished you could play a game on your phone while talking to your friends?  Chat with them in any places or google something just to check?

Here are some BlackBerry pros and cons, which may help you, make a right decision:

Pros: You can access your existing email accounts, wirelessly. It have a  QWERTY keyboard just like a computer that allows for quicker and easier data entry.
You can choose your network and service providers. People that owns blackberry, they can text for free with an application (the bb msn) as long as they have internet.

Cons: The cost is higher for a BlackBerry or an iphone than for most other cell phones.
The ability to read e-mail that is received in real time, anywhere, has made these devices infamously addictive, that’s why some people give them the nickname "CrackBerry", a reference to the drug which is also highly addictive. Another point is that the cell phone is always ringing even in public places or in the middle of the class. So it keeps your attention out, not only for you but for the others too.

So before you get one, you have to consider all this stuff. It is a tough decision. But if you give it the right use without any excess you can have one without problems. So first of all consider what your current communication needs and learn how to be a responsible user. Because want it or not cell phones are the perfect way to stay connected with others.