The first cellular phones were cumbersome, ungainly things that required strong arms and frequent access to a power point. Then the great shrink happened. By the end of the 1990s, phones had evolved from briefcase-sized to pocket-sized to
Browsing: Opinion
Late last year, I was asked to audit some software that had been developed overseas and bought by a large SA company to launch a new consumer website. It all looked pretty straightforward, until I noticed a strange line in the code: every time a new subscriber signed up, the
Telkom, SA’s incumbent fixed-line telecommunications operator, must face up to the fact that it has reached an inflection point. It ought to invest tens of billions of rand to take high-speed fibre-optics into millions of homes and businesses before someone else does
Former Telkom CEO Reuben September’s ghost loomed large over the parastatal this week with the announcement that the fixed-line operator has lost R9,8bn because of its failed investment in Nigerian business Multi-Links. To put this loss into perspective, Telkom’s
Last week’s purchase by Visa of Cape Town-based mobile payments company Fundamo in a US$110m all-cash deal demonstrates clearly how the race is on to provide electronic financial services using cellphones, especially in emerging markets
Few things incite as much passion among technophiles as their choice of smartphone. In the 1990s, phones were merely functional or fashionable. Now they have been elevated to a quasi-religious status. So the news that Android is “crushing”
Someone once said that a “successful company is one that lays a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at them”. With that in mind, I do not believe it’s too late for Telkom. Recently, Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys
Gareth Cliff is a probably the closest thing SA has to a shock jock — which says a lot about how conservative we still are. He’s always been a polarising figure, but even those who detest him have to concede that he has influence. And a pretty wide influence at
The keynote address by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco was distinctly underwhelming. Is the world’s most valuable technology company running short of groundbreaking new ideas?
It’s one of the most important pieces of technology in the modern world, a secure gateway to all the wonders and conveniences of the Internet. It’s a tool used every day by billions of people for everything from banking to learning to