IBM CEO seeks huge African growth

Chief Executive of IBM, Virginia Rometty, says the American Multinational technology and consulting corporation sees Africa as a huge growth opportunity over the next decade.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress, Ms Rometty said what sets Africa apart from other markets is its infrastructure, which was built with mobile in mind.

Payments and communications are already built on top of a booming phone market; and incomes continue to rise, driving demand for better gadgets and services, she added.

The American Multinational has already established its presence in 20 of the 54 countries in Africa, and last year opened the first of its 12 major research labs across the world in Nairobi, Kenya.

In addition to pushing its mobile, IBM will also be deploying its Watson supercomputer in Africa -- where it will be put to use in education and cervical cancer research.

Watson is a supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a “question-answering” machine. The supercomputer is named after IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson.

Rometty's statement reflects a common thread that runs through presentations given at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: the rising importance of mobile in low-income nations.

This year’s event has created much buzz about certain breeds of smart-phones coming in the US$25-35 price range that will bring the versatility of the mobile phone market to a price category that is highly ruled by feature (or "dumb") phones.

Nokia, acquired by Microsoft in a US$7.2billion deal, also unveiled three low-cost Android (owned by Google)-backed phones built on top of Microsoft services for release in emerging markets.

It's increasingly looking like Apple and Samsung own the high-end of the smartphone market. With everybody else in the space pursuing the mushrooming low-end, it'll be interesting to see what kinds of services IBM will be able to offer to an unusual but quickly-growing market.

By: Richard Annerquaye Abbey, Barcelona
Courtesy Ghana Chamber of Telecoms