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LOCAL entrepreneurs should seriously consider flocking to the industry that develops cellphone and tablet applications.

This is the view of Pratapa Bernard, vice president and head of Vodafone emerging markets.

Bernard said entrepreneurs aiming to venture into the industry should have a vision of building products centred on addressing various needs of consumers.

"The industry is not really looking for a particular profile of entrepreneurs. It does not matter whether you are a small or big business," Bernard said on the sidelines of the Vodafone App Star competition.

The international inaugural challenge attracted 3,000 developers from the Middle East and Africa.

The first and second prize of the competition went to developers from Kenya, while the third prize went to a South African, Rudolph Joubert.

The Kenyans designed an adventure game focusing on the country's heritage and an app that solves mathematical challenges.

Joubert came up with a Ster-Kinekor app that helps movie-goers book seats from their mobile devices.

Bernard said although there was a hugh role South African entrepreneurs could play in the app development space, many developers struggled to exploit the feature phones market.

"If South Africans focused on feature phones apps that could solve consumer needs, build mobile services through the understanding of the local context, they could make money from the industry."

He said potential app developers could freely register with Vodacom to take advantage of the opportunities presented by app industry.

- sibanyonim@sowetan.co.za

Comments

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Wed Jun 19 01:18:43 SAST 2013 ::

Dec 14, 2012

CYBORICO

just what i was thinking of yestenight after taking a look on my sons's kid laptop, i had this view that VB programing can covers almost eveything in that laptop, also thought about a number of other applications that can be done using simple programing languages, i am taking a software engineering coarse next year, while i plan todo a computer version of the kidies laptop using VB as my december holiday project
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Dec 14, 2012

kgoro

@CYBORICO

Go for it my man**put your heart there and you will make it...I like people like you**the days of being exploited by our employers is over**
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Dec 14, 2012

CheeseBoy

eish, not every one is a developer you know. but thats correct. mobile apps is the way to go. there is still a great potential for innovation.
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Dec 14, 2012

Moffdat

Simplest apps are the best.
Keep it simple and proudly south african then anything is possible!
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Dec 14, 2012

wikipedia

You don't need VB to develop app for phone but you need to study JavaScript, html and xml.
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Dec 14, 2012

CYBORICO

@wikipedia
is that fact or just the norm for programers to use java, i think some symple apps for phones can be done by VB, but the main point here is formal software development qualification, which will include a number of different languages,
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Dec 14, 2012

wikipedia

I'm a developer so i Know for sure. If you look @ VB is it is limited and phones like samsung galaxy and apple do not support them cos i have developed same of the well known app's
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Dec 14, 2012

CYBORICO

@Wikipedia
thanks for the enlightment, do u maybe know any credited institute localy that offer online software enginnering,
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Dec 14, 2012

wikipedia

It depend on what you wanna specialise in. good on line training for IT is "nugget training" and after completing the course you can go to comptia website and book for an exam. on there site you will find places that offer exams and pls make sure you write microsoft exams
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Dec 14, 2012

wikipedia

they website is www.cbtnuggets.com
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