Samsung to provide specific content for African Market

To coincide with the Apps World Series taking place in Cape Town, Samsung South Africa is responding to market trends and demands by implementing a new team structure to address the growing need for Android/BADA users and to cater with a range of applications/content that suits their lifestyle needs and provides mobile content for both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.

Worldwide mobile application store downloads are forecast to reach 17.7 billion downloads in 2011, a 117% increase from an estimated 8.2 billion downloads in 2010, according to Gartner. In fact, by the end of 2014, Gartner forecast over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first one in July 2008.

Says Paulo Ferreira, Head of Product and Software Solutions at Samsung; “New talent has been recruited to discover new ways to apply innovative technology and form a new content and apps team. This team will create and provide localised African content and apps for smartphone and tablet users and in turn contribute to the local software ecosystem. We have recognised the opportunity in the market, as highlighted by Gartner and others, to provide engaging and relevant content as smartphones are becoming more accessible to all Africans.”

While providing the market with cost effective smartphone options is a good start, it’s important to educate the market to understand that smartphones and tablets are more than just cool and convenient devices, they also hold the potential to transform many industries. Brett Loubser, B2C Apps Development Lead, adds; “Through this education and understanding Samsung aim to bridge the gap between the unique challenges and opportunities around innovative mobile applications, in Africa.”

“As we look ahead, Samsung sees the opportunity to expand not only the breadth and depth of apps, but also how users interact with them, making it easy to discover and enjoy digital content across multiple devices. The potential of apps and content to change the landscape of Africa is boundless,” states Adrian Lee, Mobile Content Lead.