With no surprise, mobile phone usage has increased in these two countries (call it political revolution, social media fascination, and a high concentration of connectors/community-oriented folk). Attached are pictures of mobile phones and a few findings which hopefully informas and maybe piques more interest (like data gathering) on device-use in the Middle East and North Africa.
To start...
In Egypt, there are four main cellular communication services:
One Egyptian professor stated: "The uptick in phone use will cause Arabic readership to increase; writing in Modern Standard Arabic will be helpful or essential for people if they want to participate in the communication wave, whether through texting or emailing. People want to stay informed on the current events happening across the MENA region."
Several thoughts:
- Technology could play a role in resuscitating Arabic.
- Between the varied opinions, and two different economies (Qatar and Egypt), undoubtedly reading and writing in Arabic and English will increase.
- Arabic content on Wikipedia could boost readership on mobile [1] in this region if people have these types of devices.
- On the flip-side, the professor and I discussed that English could also grow as the “lingua franca”, thus decreasing Arabic readership; however, I don't have the modeling tools to predict this. :(
In Cairo, many locals use cheaper, no-name brand phones that have great media functions. For many, capturing the local protests through videos and photos is still important for sharing content with a wider audience. Of course this is just a sample size of the community, but it reflects how people are using technology for another different set of purposes in Egypt. One person commented that some phones look like Transformers: one moment it can makes calls and within seconds, snap into a camera for pictures or videos. In general, Egyptians are heavy users of mobile phones (just sit in the back of a taxi and you’ll witness this).
iPhones would be more popular if priced lower and if data was cheaper. Cairenes use a mix of mobile brands from Korea, phones less commonly seen in the United States. Egyptians primarily send text messages, make calls and use the media function on a phone. Emailing is a lower priority (which explains the lag in response time!).
In Egypt, people tend to browse the Internet less because of the costs of sending data. Another sample size of users owned mostly Blackberries (primarily to send text messages and email). Transferring data also costs less on a Blackberry.
1. Many people don't know that they can access Wikipedia on their phones
2. Arabic script renders incorrectly on certain mobile platforms
3. There is a lack of Arabic content on Arabic Wikipedia so people will search less in this language
4. Data costs are high in Egypt
5. Low literacy rates, especially in the rural areas of Egypt
1. Person 1 (Egypt): uses two devices simultaneously
2. Person 2 (Qatar): one device
3. Person 3 (Egypt): one device