He also explains how ForgetMeNot Africa are working with global handset manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, to build mobile applications utilising the SMS channel.

Social networking revolution
Watch the video below which explains how it all works and see how yu is leading this African social networking revolution by providing convenient access on standard mobile phones, without the need for expensive handsets or data plans.

Most of the talks covered how wireless application and innovation is needed to connect the wider African community with Internet, with only about 6% + Internet penetration. In Uganda it is alot lower and it was highlighted that the government are too slow in connecting schools in Uganda which is critical if kids are to be educated and help develop Uganda as they grow older.

SMS the killer application
Interestingly with all the high tech talk going on about 3G, wireless and infrastructure, it was highlighted that SMS is still the killer application in Africa. Good to hear what we have always believed at FMNA, the key focus must be on the 80% of the African market who cannot afford a smart phone or a data contract.

These people need to be connected now and cannot wait for prices to come down or connectivity to improve for this to happen. Thankfully our two way email and chat service on every mobile phone is helping to bridge this digital divide NOW and we look forward to connecting all Africans.

Calling - that's so 90s

The UK is falling out of love with calling on your mobile phone, with most preferring to tap out a text instead.

The data, from a survey by comparison site uSwitch of over 12,000 people, showed that over 60 billion texts are being sent per month, with around 67 sent per person on average.

58 per cent of mobile phone users (74 million in use in the UK) admit to only making one call a day, with 44 per cent of landline users doing less than that – showing that the art of actual conversation is being replaced by texting, Tweeting and online chatting.

In fact, around one in ten people surveyed admitting to almost never making a phone call at all.

Hardcore and online

In Britain, over half (55 per cent) spend time chatting on forums, using IM programs or sites like Facebook. On average households spend two hours a week in such pursuits, but 12 per cent spend three to five hours socialising online while a core 11 per cent spend over 6 hours a week.

“We used to have time to talk, but today it’s all about communicating quickly and easily with more than one person at a time,” says Jason Glynn, communication expert at uSwitch.

“By using emails, text messages and social networking sites people feel like they are staying in touch with family and friends while still saving valuable time. In reality, they are communicating on their own terms, choosing the time and place that suits them and staying in control by limiting the chances of a lengthy inconvenient conversation.

Twittering classes

“As the chattering classes give way to the Twittering classes this has huge implications for telephone, mobile phone and broadband providers. Consumers will want maximum flexibility to switch between texting, emailing and calling and the industry will have to respond with creative mix and match packages to allow this.”

Figures from mobile operator 3 also back up these findings, with the operator highlighting that as news of Michael Jackson’s death hit, with a 400 per cent increase in news traffic to its mobile portal and a 100 per cent rise in the amount of Tweets going out at the same time, showing users are increasingly using the mobile in a very similar way to their PC.

Source: TechRadar UK