Women's Access To Mobile Phones Increasing in Afghanistan

As of late 2012, 80 per cent of women in Afghanistan have regular or occasional access to mobile phones, found the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In a report released yesterday, USAID surveyed over 2000 women in Afghanistan about their access to mobile phones and the constraints they face. The study found that since 2002, when the first mobile telephone service license was issues in the country, mobile technology has grown rapidly. Almost 48 per cent of the women respondents own their own mobile phones, while another 32 per cent have occasional access to phones.

Strikingly, 67 per cent of the women who own a mobile phone acquired it in the last two years. Women under the age of 25 are the fastest growing group in this sector – 64 per cent of those who acquired a phone in the past year are under the age of 25.

Access to mobile phones is already increasing the economic and social opportunities available to women. Twenty-five per cent of the respondents who own a mobile phone use it to access services such as education, health care and income-generating opportunities.

More than 84 per cent of respondents view mobile phones as a necessity, not a luxury, and 86 per cent of women mobile phone owners believe that increased connectivity enhances women’s lives, making them more secure, better equipped to cope with emergencies, more independent, and more social.

The report revealed some key insights for mobile service providers in Afghanistan. For example, only 71 per cent of women said they are able to read an SMS. According to UNESCO, only one in five women in Afghanistan is literate. This unveils a large market for voice-based applications and services, such as interactive voice response systems, text-to-voice services, and call centres.

While 94 per cent of those who do not own mobile phones are not intimidated by the new technology, the biggest barriers to mobile ownership for women were lack of permission from family members, and the high costs associated with mobile phones. While basic feature phones cost between US$29 and $48 in Afghanistan, offering attractive packages such as installment payments or discounted rates can help reduce the digital divide between men and women.

The Afghanistan government, along with international agencies such as USAID, are accelerating the use of mobile money in the country, improving transparency in payments and expanding financial inclusion. Increased mobile access among women will bring them into this fold, and increase entrepreneurship and other commercial opportunities available to them.

Microsoft Officially Replaced Hotmail with Outlook

The software giant has completed the transition from Hotmail to the new Outlook.com. As a result, the latter now boasts over 400 million accounts overall. The representatives of the company point out that the new Outlook email application has a number of different features from Hotmail. For example, it offers two-factor authentication, an updated calendar and app, as well as integration with cloud service called Skydrive and Skype.

Experts admit that most Hotmail users won’t notice any difference, so you can continue using your account as long as you want. You can also claim an Outlook email address whenever you like. Microsoft mentioned that Hotmail had over 300 million active accounts before its closure. Thus, upgrading had meant communicating with millions of people, upgrading all the mailboxes and also making sure that everyone’s details like mail, calendar, contacts, folders, and personal preferences were all preserved during the upgrade. This process was done live and as fast as in 6 weeks.

Industry observers remind that Hotmail was one of the first Internet-based email services, created by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in July 1996 as “HoTMaiL”. Three years later Microsoft acquired the Internet email service for about $400 million to rebrand it as “MSN Hotmail”. Finally, Outlook.com was launched three months ago, based around the company’s Metro design language. Apparently, the service closely mimics the interface of Microsoft Outlook. Now we can officially say goodbye to Hotmail, which already doesn’t exist.

Microsoft Started Open War against Google

Microsoft has finally started a nasty marketing war directly against the search giant and ended any pretence of niceness between the companies. Microsoft has released a series of attack ads in the United States that have upped the ante considerably in its trade war against Google which commenced 5 months ago.

The advertisements that have emerged on the Internet, on TV and in print demonstrate that Google is more interested in increasing profits than protecting its users’ privacy. This ad campaign was developed by a former political operative Mark Penn, a corporate strategist. He is known as a former pollster for President Bill Clinton and campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for president 5 years ago.

In the advertisements, Microsoft vilifies Google for sharing personal data collected about people purchasing Android applications. That’s a step up from earlier adverts that skewered Google’s long-running practice of electronically scanning the contents of everyone’s Gmail accounts in order to help sell adverts.

Microsoft points out that the company had a better alternative which doesn’t do such kind of nefarious things. Negative advertising isn’t widely seen in Europe and it’s just the underdog who needs to use it. However, it also stresses how the search engine has evolved from an endearing Internet start-up to a scary entity that takes a too close look at personal information. The software giant can get away with its adverts since Google has already been caught a few times and copped regulatory fines and other settlements across the world.

Ironically enough, it’s now Google who is facing complaints about its practices being anti-competitive. At the same time, Microsoft is depicted as fighting for a freer market. A few days ago, a group of companies led by the software giant explained that it has asked European authorities to investigate whether Google is acting unfairly by giving away its OS to mobile device manufacturers on the condition that its own apps like YouTube and Google Maps are installed and prominently displayed. The most interesting part that it’s exactly what Microsoft was accused of in its browser anti-trust cases earlier.

Thus far, the search giant processes about 2/3 of search requests in the United States and handles an even larger percentage of queries in Europe. In the meanwhile, Google’s market value has rocketed from almost $25 billion at the time of its IPO to $255 billion.