🔎ANALYSIS: Mobile Dominates the African Tech Scene
As mobile penetration increases, smartphones remain the way Africans connect to the web 🌐
Africans predominantly use their smartphones to connect to the web and access services, with desktop access continuing to lag.
⚡️ StatCounter reports that as of March 2022, smartphones commanded 58.68% of Africa’s market share, compared to 39.74% for desktop computers and just 1.57% for tablets.
⚡️ According to the GSMA mobile intelligence report for Sub-Saharan Africa, 28% of the sub-Saharan population were connected to mobile internet in 2020, a figure expected to grow to around 40% by 2025.
Why is this important for African developers?
Development teams, particularly small teams or individuals, need to make important decisions about what platforms they would like to target. Mobile applications have a very different user experience from web applications — and even different mobile devices might require different skills to code.
If you’re developing an app for Africans, it’s clear that your best chance to reach as many people as possible is to focus on mobile development. With smartphones dominating the technology market, and with mobile internet penetration growing each year, the next wave of African users will be handheld.
There are likely several reasons why Africa is becoming increasingly dominated by mobiles, but a few factors stand out.
Smartphones are significantly cheaper than desktop devices, and their portability makes them ideal for users who need to move around throughout their day.
It’s also somewhat easier to deploy mobile network infrastructure, compared to traditional broadband connections. A single cell tower can serve tens of thousands of users, while a traditional connection requires the expensive rollout and maintenance of kilometer after kilometer of copper, coaxial or fiber-optic lines.
At Cassava, we’re building our applications for a mobile Africa. By focusing our development first on mobile users before eventually growing to serve browser-based users as well, we can get our products and services into the hands of as many users as possible, as quickly as possible.
After all, Cassava is built for Africans, by Africans — and Africans are mobile 📱
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