"Global Mobile" Weekly Roundup- June 17, 2011

Sam duPont, former director of NDN's Global Mobile program wrote an interesting post on the New York Times on interenet freedom. The link to his blog (with the post and all his beautiful pictures of the Phillippines) is here. 

According to a New York Times article last week, the preeminent position Nokia has enjoyed in emerging marketes is now being threatened by companies like ZTE of China and Micromax of India.  Even small, no-name firms from China are getting a large share of the market.  According to Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CSS Insight (a mobile communications research firm in London):

Three years ago Nokia’s position in emerging markets looked impenetrable, but low-cost chip sets and growing scale has helped a number of Asian manufacturers to price aggressively and seize market share

Yesterday the World Bank, in partnership with mobile handset maker, Nokia, the Finnish Government and iHub Consortium,  opened a new incubation facility for entrepreneurs and innovators in the field of mobile technology in Nairobi, Kenya called m-Lab East Africa.  According to World Bank Director, Johannes Zutt:

"In Kenya, it's clear is a lot of potential in ICT...We are working with Kenya to promote areas where we think it will flourish - tourism and ICT."

Finnish Ambassador, Heli Sirve, agrees, saying:

I hope that m-Lab will succeed in generating new mobile applications and improve people's lives in Kenya and East Africa"

In another article by Ronald Njorge, Zutt adds:

"Other developing countries such as India have developed a world class Information Technology (IT) industry and there is no reason Kenya should not develop if entrepreneurs are provided with the right environment."

CNN is planning to air a fascinating-looking program called "iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring," this Sunday at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.  Looks like it might be worth tuning in to.  The CNN article by Gabe LaMonica and Taryn Fixel on the program and on the topic of the role of technology in revolutions in general can be found here.

A story on allafrica.com by Julie Frederikse calls for the assessment of the role mobile teechnology can play in health.  The story is definitely worth checking out and can be found here.

Finally, a nice little blog post by Jonas Landgren on one of the main benefits that the spread of mobile technology across the globe has to offer: improving emergency and disaster responses.