The Mobile Phone Is the PC of Africa – The Movie

UZI Magazine has posted a 42-minute documentary on Vimeo called Hello Africa.  It’s about how mobile phone use is changing the business, personal and artistic lives of Africans.  For at least a year now, I’ve been hearing that the mobile phone is the PC of Africa (not to mention Russia and China), and the numbers presented in this doc tend to bear that out.  It’s easily the most ubiquitous piece of technology there, outnumbering and outpacing personal computers, television sets and land lines.  In fact, a mobile phone seems like the only new piece of technology from the past 30 years present in most of the footage.

The film is slow going, but presents some interesting phenomena, like the fact that in Africa, it’s common practice to simply switch out SIM cards to switch between different carriers based on availability.  It also seems like people hang on to their mobiles a lot longer than we do here.  Based on how calling plans work, businesses in Africa have found it advantageous to actually own a different mobile phone for every carrier, and use the right one for whichever client they’re speaking to.

Also, about 24 minutes in, Nokia gets the best product placement I think it will ever have.

You can check out the doc here, or just watch the trailer here.