Smart Phone Penetration in Africa Growing Faster than You Might Think

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been spending the past couple of years working on Wikipedia Zero, a way to make Wikipedia available to users who don’t own a computer or can’t get access to 3G mobile data.

On the other hand, Wales says the pace of smart phone adoption in Africa is happening much faster than people typically think.

The pace of change in Africa was surprising enough that Wikipedia Zero, which formerly had been focusing on India, now is paying a lot more attention to Africa, thanks to the growth in ownership of cheap, Android-powered handsets. 

The African mobile market in the third quarter of 2012 served 1.08 billion people using 821 million subscriber information modules, representing subscription penetration of 76.4 percent. In the first quarter of 2013, mobile penetration will eclipse 80 percent, according to ABI Research.  

One might predict that, even though Internet usage remains low, and broadband as well, that likewise will change dramatically over the next decade.