From BDlive

Research group International Data Corporation (IDC) expects locally produced digital media to accelerate next year driven by strong demand for content.

The strong growth in mobile data usage and smartphones as well as advancement in communications infrastructure act as the catalysts for this trend, IDC says in its latest report about telecoms and technology predictions for 2014.

According to the report released this month, the number of mobile connections in the three major sub-Saharan countries — South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria — is expected to grow 28.2% next year to reach 55.8-million.

According to IDC, smartphone spending in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase by 5.9% in 2014 while feature phones will decrease by 10.9%.

Adding to this is the increase in international bandwidth availability to Africa as eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa already offer high speed wireless network called long term evolution (LTE) services while five others are actively exploring it.

“These factors are driving the content creation and new business models based on digital media provision is sprouting across Africa,” said IDC.

Written by Thabiso Mochiko | Read more at BDlive