WHY IS THE APPLE OPERATING SYSTEM CRITICAL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA?

            The Apple Operating system is critical to the development of Africa because the system revolves around elegant products that make information technology simple to use. At the present time, African economies are on the move. Africa is quickly evolving from being an emerging market into a middle class economy.

            These economies are now called the African Gorillas. The Gorillas are   analogous to the Asian Tigers of the 1980s. These were emerging economies that leveraged a common platform, the Pacific Ocean, to create middle class economies that are major players in the contemporary global market place. The Tigers used the Pacific Ocean to create export driven economies which are the key to their success. The Gorillas have social media. Social Media allows a person or a country that has content of some kind, to move that content anywhere around the world. The limitations of space, time, and capital do not exist in a social media era. What is needed is an operating system that can be used to minimize the limitations that present African economies possess.

            Large amounts of African populations are illiterate. This seeming overwhelming limitation is a non factor if you have an operating system that is based on easy to read graphics and icons. The Apple operating system does this. Apple’s approach to development and design is to achieve the very most with the very least. The system relentlessly focuses on customer experience and avoids anything that will compromise an elegant experience.

            Simplicity and accessibility are the two criteria for the Apple Operating system.  This is why this system is critical in the development of contemporary Africa. This is where Apple’s philosophy is in contrast to a lot of technology companies.

            The products that most Western companies develop do not emphasize user convenience and experience. Apple’s products are not just a collection of parts. In product development every detail is refined and if something does not belong there, it is eliminated. The iPod was not the first digital music player.  The many devices before the iPod had many buttons and dials that appealed to gadget obsessed geeks with the time to figure out how to work them.  The iPod was elegant, attractive, and sleek. It was a digital juke box that held 1,000 songs and yet fit into your hand. If you wanted a song, it was a simple few clicks away.  The iPod was simple, easy, and natural.

            This is the system that Africa needs. They need a basic, open, operating system,  that developers can create applications for as the need develops. The African applications are geared toward African market. The applications are simple and may appeal to a Western market. The applications can then be marketed to Western markets. If the content is popular, you now have a very successful software company operating in Africa, employing Africans at middle class wages.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com