Mobile Web has become a global phenomenon. In Africa, more and more Internet users are acccessing the Web everyday via their mobile phones. In South Africa, there are now at least 9,5 million mobile wap users, according to an article in Bizcommunity published in Matthew Buckland’s blog.

While South Africa and Egypt lead the way for mobile Web adoption (see Admob Report - Sept. 2008), Nigeria’s mobile web penetration is gradually exploding and might soon replace the traditional web. Lately, I’ve been following mobile web trends around Africa and I found that Opera’s State Of the Mobile Web Report for September 2008, indicates that traffic from Nigeria (for usage of Opera Mini), increased by 704.9% and page-view growth increased by 1690.2% since January 2008.

This means that there is a growing number of mobile internet users in Nigeria that are following mobile trends around the world with a focus on Africa. I also found that my.opera.com was ranked 6th amongst the top 10 sites by unique users from Nigeria. Thanks to Opera and Admob for these interesting reports.

In fact, according to Admob’s mobile metrics Report for September 2008, the worldwide traffic shows Nigeria on the 7th position in their top 20 list of countries, just below South Africa at 6th place (which is also in 6th position in Opera’s top 10 Opera Mini users worldwide). Well, time will tell if this trend would be sustainable in the coming months. My guess is: It will.

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I recently got interested in WAP and Mobile reviews, with a special focus on Nigeria and have discovered several sites that track this trend on the web. One of such sites is Wapreview.com, a blog dedicated to reviewing WAP and mobile trends around the world.

In a recent post, Dennis Bournique wrote about Ten African Mobile News Sites which covered news sites about Kenya (4), Nigeria (2), South Africa (2), and Zimbabwe (2) and analyses each of their mobile news sites. Nigerian sites that were analysed include - Daily Trust and Nigeria Best Forum.

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Nigeria’s newest mobile telecommunications company, Etisalat has unveiled a feature on its pre-paid product - the Easy Starter - that allows subscribers to be informed of callers who tried to reach them even when they were not immediately available or while their phones was switched off.

The new feature called, Missed Calls Notification is available to all subscribers on the Etisalat network at no cost. The idea is to help promote better businesses and personal relationships since you are able to find out who tried to reach you when your phone was switched off or not within a network coverage and thus get back to them.

The feature notifies subscribers about those that tried to reach them immediately they turn their phones back on or get back into an area where there is Etisalat’s network coverage. What this means is that all attempts to reach a subscriber on the Etisalat network are registered and a subscriber is notified whenever this is necessary.

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Since the unveiling of the Nokia N79 and Nokia N85 mobile phones on August 26, Nokia fans in Nigeria have been anticipating these new releases and finally they have arrived into the Nigerian mobile market.

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of the N85 Nokia gadget already making a buzz in the mobile industry. As a Nokia fan, I’m always fascinated by Nokia’s usability technology and have recently become more interested in a site for Nokia fans in Nigeria. Nokia is the 8th most searched word in Nigeria within the last 12 months.

According to Nokia Nseries Director, Juha Kokkonen:

The Nokia N79 packs cutting-edge technology into a compact design – a characteristic of the iconic Nseries – that allows people to discover, create and share their passions with others. Behind its sleek exterior, Nokia N79 is a technology powerhouse that offers a full range of multimedia experiences including integrated navigation where available, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia N79, which comes with Xpress-on smart covers that are available in five cool colors: light sea blue, espresso brown, olive green, white and coral red, is perfect for the style conscious. The convergence of photos, music and navigation where available in the Nokia N79 combines with hi-speed 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi to make it quick and easy to share experiences on websites, blogs or online communities.

Also according to the General Manager, Nokia Nigeria, Mr. Phillip De La Vega:

The N85 comes with an eye-catching 2.6” Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screen and smooth, sleek finish, thereby redefining the mobile experience. It boasts of N-Gage gaming, music with in-built FM transmitter, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and geo-tagging capabilities, three month integrated license for turn-by-turn voice navigation where available and high-speed connectivity, all in one device.

N85 is engaging and interactive with its pre-loaded 10 made-for-mobile N-Gage gaming titles that jump off of the screen, thanks to the dazzling OLED display and a voucher to activate one full game license. Dedicated gaming keys light up when the device is in landscape gaming mode to further enhance the action-packed experience.

A state-of-the-art 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and bright dual LED Flash captures clear, sharp images as well as Digital Video Display (DVD)-quality videos at 30 frames per second. Combined with A-GPS it is possible to geo-tag favorite pictures to see where each photo was taken.

I’m not sure what the cost is for these gadgets, but would be sure to provide updates as soon as I have the information. However, if you have any info about these latest Nokia series, you can leave them in the comments.

If you are a Nokia fan, you can also share your thoughts here.

Last week, it was announced that the world’s biggest mobile phone group (by revenue), Vodafone may soon be venturing into the Nigerian telecoms market as it sees a lot of potentials in Africa’s most populous nation.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Annual Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, Spain, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said Vodafone might be interested in expanding into the Nigeria market, noting that “it doesn’t take a very sophisticated analysis to see it is one of the very few large markets with decent GDP, a young population and the classic conditions for being interesting for Vodafone.”

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