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2007 through my eyes January 11, 2007

Posted by Angus in South Africa.
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As is customary for this time of the year, my 2 cents worth:

  1. SA gets at least 5 great tech podcasts (2 are around….)
  2. Google SA arrives – finally
    1. Adds streetmap detail to Earth and Maps
  3. Apple moves closer to the mainstream in SA for PC and laptops using BaseCamp as the beachhead
  4. MTN gets acquired
  5. Neotel stays under the radar and makes no difference to mere mortals – ie no cheap broadband for the public
  6. The MyWireless customer base is sold by Sentech to iBurst (ie Vodacom) or MTN
    1. This will leave them to focus on getting Digital Terrestrial TV done in time for the soccer
  7. WiMax remains hype with plans to launch in 2008
  8. DVB-H will only trickle into the market with 2/3 phones being available from Samsung and Sagem – probably just in time for World Cup Cricket
  9. Phone manufacturers will respond aggressively to Apple’s iPhone
    1. We’ll see 15-20Gig flash memory phone from Samsung
    2. Sony Ericsson will launch a kickass Cybershot + Walkman phone – ie 4MP camera + 8GB flash memory
    3. Nokia remains an enigma. They need a serious release of hot phones before mid-year
    4. HTC/iMate will continue to launch nifty PDA’s with full QWERTY’s
  10. The networks will block Skype from handsets or do what MTN did and charge R25/MB for VOIP traffic
  11. Mail and Guardian Online will be the first mainstream media company to add social news capabilities to their site
    1. They will be shortly followed by News24
    2. IOL is too much of a newspaper
    3. ITWeb take too long to respond to changes
  12. The media blogging platforms – like ITWeb’s will continue to struggle to get traction and possibly die. They just cannot compete with WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.
    1. Media24’s may become the leader for South Africa’s casual, gossip, diary type blogs.
  13. Yahoo will be acquired or make a significant acquisition (possibly AOL?)
  14. Digg will add regional Digg sites – come za.digg.com
    1. This means that Muti needs to get big and strong quickly
  15. There is at least one campaign that both MTN and Vodacom will claim that they are the first to market/launch
    1. Summer will still be owned by both Yello and Blue
  16. Now for the self-serving prediction:
    1. Corporate SA adopts social media in principle, and gets really stuck in in 2008

Any more out there?

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Comments»

1. Andre SC - January 11, 2007

re point 11, depends how you define ‘their site’. Johnnic Media is pretty mainstream and they’ve certeinly started shuffeling towards social news media with http://www.reporter.co.za – now if they would only tear down those sillo walls, e.g. why aren’t their author names links?

A prediction… sociall media starts to become a reality for younger sections of the ‘masses’ in South Africa, but not in the desktop pc context rather over cellphones and shared infrastracture.

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2. Goose - January 11, 2007

Hey Andre,

Thanks for the feedback.

11.I’m looking at the main news sites and how they add the user rated story capabilities. The New York Times has recently added ‘Digg This’ to their site – so when Digg ZA becomes available – I think MG will be the first to join that party. They have already added del.icio.us to their stories – so they lead the pack.

Agreed on Mobile Social Media for the youth. Good one.

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3. Matt - January 12, 2007

hey angus. well what can I say but that I agree with point 11. Watch this space for a new blog strategy from us too, specifically overcoming the limitations you mention above. Matthew Buckland (M&G Online)

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4. Vincent Maher - January 12, 2007

Andre, I have a lot to do with point 11 and all I can say is you are right on the money. There are some things in the can that will change everything, esp for the other three so watch that space.

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5. Malcolm Mac Donald - January 12, 2007

Some nice insight. I was just chatting with Mike Wright this morning and he put me onto your blog. Will be following this with interest.

Reply
6. Goose - January 12, 2007

Malcolm. Thanks for visiting – will try to keep it insightful! :)

As a banking man, you might find this post interesting reading. Its about banks and Web 2.0/social media.

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7. links for 2007-01-14 | Mike Stopforth - January 14, 2007

[...] 2007 through my eyes « Goozeberry: A Blog for the Future Some relevant, realistic and most likely reliable local predictions for South Africa by goozeberry – I hate prediction posts but loved this. (tags: 2007 Africa blogs predictions South trends) [...]

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