Last Sunday I was in down town Nairobi. Impulse led me to buy a few books, spending the only money I had. This happens all the time: I love a good bargain, even when it leaves me with nothing in my pockets. So it happens that last Sunday I had books in my bag and no money in my pockets. I called a friend to M-PESA me a few reds. ‘Dear customer, M-PESA is currently experiencing delays…’ is not the kind of SMS you want to receive when you are stuck in downtown Nairobi. I never figured a power outage in a server in Germany could get into the equation that is being an impulse buyer and living along Kangundo road. But it got me thinking about our overreliance on mobile money–mobile technology in general–how apocalyptic it feels to continuously receive the ‘M-PESA is currently undergoing maintenance…’ message.
Mobile applications have been and continue to be a great convenience to all of us, so it is only probable that we should consider the certain ineluctable risks we are exposed to when we overly rely on them. Of course, I had the option of going to the nearest ATM or banking agent, but the issue is that I deposited all my money (not so much, eh) into my M-PESA account. It has always been much easier that way. Unless you live in Lokichogio you will not find a queue at an M-PESA agent.
The phrase ‘emerging technology’ seems to be synonymous with mobile technology. It’s all mobile everything wherever you go, and all investments seem to be directed towards only those technologies that involve the use of mobile phones. Yet without computers we cannot create these apps. When we send our kids to primary school and through to the university we are under the impression that they will be taught how to use computers, not mobile phones. As it is, my definition of an ICT hub would be a place where mobile technology is developed.
I’d much rather think of the future of web being the desktop.
There was a time when I wanted to own a computer so badly I came up with a 6 month saving plan. It didn’t work. Eventually I acquired one and it has gone a long way to helping me do a lot that would have been much harder without it. The people developing mobile applications do so using computers. Why, then, aren’t we hearing about campaigns to increase PC penetration, encourage use of fixed/terrestrial internet subscriptions? Why do we have to rely so much on mobile phones? This year, mobile telephone penetration is at 75.4 per 100 people, and mobile data internet subscription contributed 98.1% of total internet subscriptions (7.7 million). PC penetration is at less than 10%. It follows, then, that the emphasis be on mobile technologies.
At some point, to be truly efficient, you will need to stop uploading 1GB of data at 5 Mbps. You know, as much as a smartphone is great, I’d still prefer to read my PDFs on a desktop–there’s no way I’ll read my e e cummings or the World Bank Doing Business 2013 report – since my editor is listening in on this conversation – on a 4.5″ x 2.31″ screen.