--Growth of innovation hubs

Last year, Hivos, a Dutch humanitarian agency, indicated that it would be focusing its support on funding technology projects that show business potential and the ability to have an impact on people. The decision to bring together venture capitalists and innovation hubs under VC4Africa seemed to be a sharp contrast to the agency's humanitarian roots but the opening of an innovation hub in Somaliland showed that the region's ICT sector was just taking root and was able to use such a project With innovation hubs in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria, techies in the region have found new spaces to innovate and organize community activities that have resulted in new funding opportunities. Activities like Human IPO, organized in several hubs, have resulted in funding opportunities for winners. With mentorship and collaborative activities being encouraged by hub founders, it is expected that more hubs will come up, learning lessons and building on successes of existing ones.

--Chinese influence taking root

For the past few years, Chinese telecom companies have been taking over infrastructure business from Western companies in Sub Saharan Africa. Affordable solutions have coincided with falling Average Revenue Per User, forcing mobile service providers to opt for ZTE and Huawei for core network and maintaining towers. Chinese imports have had an impact on Africa's manufacturing sector, leading to struggles for a handset manufacturing plant in Zambia to struggle. The plant was targeting the regional market but high production costs do not allow it to compete with Chinese imports. Corruption has been a common denominator when describing some of the contracts awarded but last month's admission of improper payments by Alcatel Lucent in Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, Uganda and Mali highlighted that Africa's corruption problems go beyond Chinese companies.

--Launch of IDEOS at $80

Nokia's focus on entry level handsets meant that Africa was its largest market but IDEOS proved that smartphones could be made available for less than $100. With the Android platform, IDEOS caused a stir when it was launched in many markets. With a touch screen and fewer functional apps compared to other smartphones, IDEOS gripped the low end market segment and marked an end to Nokia's domination. In 2012, Samsung is expected to perform better with its Android phones, targeting the low end segment.

--Cloud infrastructure

After connectivity costs declined as a result of new infrastructure, ISPs and independent data center providers have launched new cloud infrastructure targeting small and medium-size enterprises. Previously, Kenya Data Networks, Teraco data centers, Internet Solutions, Dimension Data, Safaricom, MTN, and Vodafone, among other providers, had targeted cloud solutions for enterprise clients who could afford the high costs. A flurry of new launches, however, seem to indicate that companies are able to accommodate small businesses who may not afford high monthly costs. There may be a limit to how low costs can go, however. Given setup costs and the pressure to return investment within short periods, analysts do not expect providers to provide cloud services at lower than $2,000.