What Really Happened in Tech Last Week

So apart from the Apple boss coming out of the closet, there were a lot of things that happened in the technological scene last week and here’s a roundup:

First there was the news that Microsoft will change its Nokia line of Lumia phones to start going by ‘Microsoft Lumia’. Very original. Not. They will start rebranding country by country rather than at one time. However, according to their deal agreements when they bought Nokia’s business, they can still use the Nokia name on a feature phone for the next 10 years. Read more here.

Then we took a moment that you can read about here to fill mobile operators’ shoes and consider what will happen if Apple SIM becomes a trend with other phone brands as well; the loss of revenue from SIM card sales/replacements, the diminishing customer loyalty as they go for the next best thing anytime they feel like, the overall competition that they now have to face to beat other operators. There may even be reduced phone sales as the Apple SIM will only come in phones bought directly from the Apple store. The phone manufacturing world may just be getting a major makeover, all because of the Apple SIM…

Have you ever wanted a phone so bad you wish it came with a contract plan to ease your payment patterns? Well, South Africa has had that going for a while now. Recently MTN SA announced the availability of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus instores countrywide on various pay plans for customers to choose from. Read all about it here. It got us wondering why we don’t have such. The most we have is the plan for teachers by Airtel to enable them get a gadget on contract terms, but we pretty much don’t have a definite arrangement with any mobile operators. Soon, maybe?

 

If you’re a trader selling anything, you need to read about KaDealo here. It’s an  eCommerce site that lets you advertise and sell your products/services easily, providing you with a platform that is targeted for your specific market base. With the availability of discounts, every buyer should also check it out for great deals on products/services. Plus it’s SMS based so no need to worry about an internet bundle to stay online when making a purchase.

 

Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook are probably the first apps anyone installs on a new phone, or the first apps they check when they have a minute (or a few hours) but will Zambia ever have access to them for free? Find out here.

 

MTN SA was in the news again, slashing their call rates on internationally bound calls, even to Zambia. For  49c per minute subscribers will be able to call the US, UK, Botswana, Zambia, Nigeria, Germany and India. Got relatives/friends in SA? Then tell them about the promotion which we wrote about here.

Microsoft just started a war in the cloud storage arena by introducing unlimited storage for Office 365 users. Read about that battle here.

Lastly, Airtel and Samsung officially launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in Zambia. It should be currently selling for over K5000 now but the pre-order price was k4900 with a chance to get a free Samsung Gear S smartwatch on top of it.

That was last week. Let’s see what happens this week.

To tech, and beyond!

Image Credits: Microsoft, Airtel