Tim Berners-Lee vs Steve Jobs: Whose internet works best for African developers and innovators?

Okay am writing this post on a rather boring Sunday afternoon while hunting for what to read online. So chances are that my thoughts might be slightly rushed.

While I found some interesting local reads on Storipot and even subscribed to Marcello Schermer newsletter which covers African startup scene, I landed on this article on iAfrikan. The author Alex Muriu attempts to answer a question that resonates not just in Kenya alone but in almost the entire African continent — Why Are Kenyans Not Downloading Apps Made In Kenya?

As someone who is highly engrossed in the internet space in Uganda, that’s one hell of a question I continuously seek answers to. There are about one million smartphones in Uganda while according to Alex’s post, there are about 4 million in neighboring Kenya. Yet with these staggering figures, only a handful of locally made Apps are consumed by their respective local markets! On average, local apps get about only 10,000 downloads.

Isn’t this frustrating and depressing? Shouldn’t this trend keep the most ambitious App developers and those that hope to made a killing out of the digital space awake? Shouldn’t this be of any concern to our business leader, investors, innovators and governments?

Well, if it doesn’t bother you, well, I’ve qualms with it. And here’s preciously why.

Internet penetration in most African countries is less than 40% of the total population. In Kenya for instance, it is 39% while in Uganda it’s a mere 16% of about a whopping close to 40 million people. Those figures are bound to increase over the coming years which presents a colossal emerging market. If this market is going to be ( as already is) dominated by Silicon Valley big-shots and 5-person startups in the west, then Africa is once again going to be in trouble. But this is not the point of this post, I already wrote about that on @Dignited .

My concern right now is; between Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Steve Jobs’ “internet”, which one does the African developer have a chance in?

By now you should know of course that Tim Berners is the inventor of the web — loosely understood as “the internet”. Tim invented the “http” protocol which your web browser uses to retrieve web pages from the a remote web server. It’s actually what you’re using to read this post.

The web albeit having had a humble beginning has turned into something incredible. Great applications — from e-commerce, social media and blogging, email and Instant Messaging, File sharing among several others have been built on the web. I love the web. It’s free. It’s open. Everyone is invited to innovate the next big product that will change humanity the way that Google, Wikipedia and Facebook did. There are gatekeepers on the web. No editors and reviewers who have to approve or promote your web app or site. It’s a total level ground for everyone — at least theoretically.

African developers have also made a killing with Tim Berners’ “internet”. You know what am talking about — building websites. If you can build a website or actually customize a Wordpress theme, congs bro, you’re officially a “software developer”. But that’s not the best part. The great thing is, you’re going to make money. Yes, lots of it if you’re know your wordpress and a bit of PHP well enough.

If you’re not into building websites for people, just roll out a blog — like Dignited. Don’t worry about monetization. Just create great compelling content which I know you can, then build your audience. Sooner than later, you’ll also be making money from Google Adsense or local Ads. At worst, you’ll get companies running to you to review their products. Of course, you retain the gizmos. Really cool, uh. Thank you Tim Berners.

Now enter Steve Jobs’ internet. Well, you might ask, when or how did Jobs invent the internet? He didn’t. But introduced a new way of using the internet — the “App internet” or what you commonly know as the “App store” or mobile Apps.

The “App internet” uses the same technology stack as the “Web internet”. As a mobile user, I love Apps, don’t you too? Of course you do. Imagine for a second your phone without Whatsapp or Twitter or Gmail App? It would suck right? Mobile Apps are very user-friendly and intuitive. Most of all, they go with us where we go. Good stuff.

The problem is who is benefiting from this “App internet”? As an innovator, just like Alex from Kenya, I’ve a problem with the current state of the mobile ecosystem. The local market barely uses our products. You see, no body is making money developing or running mobile Apps except Silicon Valley big-shots. That’s the problem Steve. Now I’ve written before why we’re screwed on mobile on TechMoran, so I won’t get into the details again. Alex shares some of his thoughts in his article on iAfrikan;

I feel that most app developers in Kenya build the apps they think people want. Worse still are the App developers who build apps that are an exact replica of an app that has hit in the American or European Market hoping it hits here.

This slightly resonates with my feelings on the issue on my previously widely read article;

Being a Tech blogger at Dignited, I see products terribly fail here. Judges and Tech pundits are quick to point at the assumption that they are not “solving any specific local need”. That’s completely wrong. Often times, the local need has already been solved by a global silicon valley giant rendering any local product attempting to solve the same problem completely useless.

You with the “web internet”, you don’t have to replicate another site. So chances of stepping in what I called “the path of the giants” are less. More so, with the web, users don’t have to first download your App before using it. They simply type in a web address in their browser and voila, they see what you have to provide. If they like it, they will come back, if not, they won’t, period.

Secondly there’s no Apple app reviewer who has to first approve your app before it goes live on the App store. No one has to select which App gets the most visibility by posting it on “Editor’s pick” or “Featured” section. There are no annual developer fees you’ve to pay to qualify to be a developer. You just write your code, book a domain and say Hello world in a few minutes.

Mobile is freaking expensive venture moreover with little return on investment. It’s one of the reasons why of all the products I’ve been involved creating, a mobile App has always been our last resort. Developing for iOS requires a different skill-set(Objective C programming language) from Android (Java) as well as Windows Phone( C#). Imagine the time and resources (data?) you would invest in learning and mastering all those languages or pay for someone to develop and the best your app get is 100 downloads on the stores. 100 buddy. You tell me, is it worth it? Meanwhile we are not even talking how you are going to make money yet, we are talking usage first. The App stores haven’t even given much attention to enabling payment platforms that make it possible for local users to pay for Apps.

In the end, it’s not economically viable unless someone is paying you to do it. As I’ve already discussed, the market currently demands websites over mobile Apps.

Look, this is purely from my experiences and perspective. You can disagree with me. I totally respect your position. But get out there and talk to real developers and listen to their experiences. This especially goes to platform ambassadors and evangelists who are luring developers to develop apps on their respective platforms.

So Tim or Jobs? The “Web internet” or the “App internet” ? It’s purely up to you. As for me, am with Tim.

Further reading: Browsers, not apps, are the future of mobile