Strange name indeed for a phone vendor. They sell all kinds of moderately recent phones there, from 4900 naira (~= 30 euros) up to 45000 nairas. Odd behavior by the guy behind the desk. He did not seem to want to sell us a phone at all. According to Ab, this is a much wanted item among Fulani!
Anywhere you go, people have started their own enterprise by putting down a parasol and a table. When you want to make a phone call but don’t have a phone or are out of credit, you can make one here for 20-25 naira. These guys told me anyone can now start a small business here selling phone calls and cards.
Another great example of increasing value by number: the more there are available, the more it becomes a truly useful service that fills up a need. The whole question of personal possession is perhaps less relevant when you can always use a phone to make a quick call.
Somwhere in Kaduna. The “Xtra Connect” offer by South-African corporation MTN means calling cheaper to family or friends (“Call 3 family & friends @ 25k/sec”). Keeping contact with family that lives far away seems a very important use of the mobile phone here. People I have talked to named this as one of the main benefits of the “handset”. They also mentioned as a negative side postponing face to face contact by keeping in touch via the phone
Advertisement for mobile phone operator, 28 nov. ’06 Kaduna Nigeria.
Interestingly, you hardly see any mobile phone actually being used by people on the ads here.
Pic taken November 27 2006 at Abuja supermarket.
Today we were in Kaduna to meet the folks from Newage Film Company. Nothing spacy in long robes but a professionally looking company. Esther talked her head off…i shot some stuff with the dv we brought. We both have a good feeling about it. Tomorrow to Jos..
oh, and i just posted these last 2 items from my mobile phone…well done MTN for having gprs access in nigeria!
Anybody can upload a short mobile phone clip to the website 15×15.org which is then displayed on the homepage for 15 seconds as one of 15 clips being shown simultaneously.
Interestingly, most people seem to film themselves and then put it online… Affirmation of the mobile phone as a tool for reflexive creation and expression of personal identity?
BTW: I am being eating by a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex…
(Thanks Tim for reminding me!)
Xen Mendelsohn from Xellular Identity has a very interesting interview with Nick Wright from Mobile Youth Trends. Nick is co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report. Some of the good stuff:
- Young people don’t use their mobile phones ‘just for fun’ but also for serious matters: to say something about themselves and their relationships with other young people (self-expression).
- Branded goods play an important role in this self-expression.
- Texting is “a reaffirmation and a reminder that “I’m with you�?.”
- Many young people feel depressed after a whole day without SMS. Some young people even go to rehab clinics for being “text-addicts”!
- The mobile phone has taken over the former position of cigarettes in offering a private space for unsupervised private communication. (And some studies suggest young people are smoking less and less because their money now goes to phone bills – MdL)
- Texting is attractive because the language can be deformed so that no adult can understand it. (This is also pointed out by Mitzuko Ito in an article (in Ling & Pedersen: 2005) about how traditional institutions like family and the classroom are being challenged by the mobile phone – MdL).
- The phone itself allow for personalization (wallpapers, ringtones, etc.) and enables young people to express themselves and “advertise their identity as part of their peer group.” (> Interesting notion “advertizing identity” – we are all designing and branding ourselves to some extend).
- The basic social needs of young people are: “Social Networking, Communication, Status display, Personalisation and acting as a Behavioural Platform.”
- Mobile operators realize too little of these characteristics of young people’s interaction with the mobile phone.
Read the whole interview here!
Hey, there are people inspired by me 
. Check out Darryl Cressman’s article about mobile gifting. Darryl is from the School of Communication, at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. He visited us with Norm Friesen a couple of weeks ago in Rotterdam.
I see my preliminary article is spreading it’s way onto the Internet (a huge link dump here about mobile phone & art). About time for me to finish the paper…
My recent posts on The Mobile City