David Lehr's blog

Earlier this year Motorola began shipping $40 Cell Phones and expects to begin shipping $30 phones in the first quarter of 2006. Anecdotaly, I hear that these phones are being perceived as to be of very low quality and that is holding back sales. Status and 'perceived price' are key criteria in end user's purchasing decisions.

This is a very interesting article on how cell phones are being used for Mobile Banking in Africa. This is also a hot issue here in the US and there are several companies such as Visa International focusing on using the cell phone as a tool for making international remittances from the US.

As the Following article in the Associated Press points out, cell phone use in Kenya is having a profound impact on lives in Africa. Equally interesting in this article is the caveat from the director of Safaricom in Kenya:

Mobile phone use in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, according to a report by Vodafone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4331863.stm

This a very ambitious attempt spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Details are at:
http://beta.news.com.com/The+100+laptop+moves+closer+to+reality/2100-1044_3-5884683.htm

The rapid spread of mobile technology has brought significant social and economic benefits. The challenge is to ensure that the benefits are spread as widely as possible while minimising negative impacts.

Here are some links and background to Project Market Light:

World mobile subscribers top 2 bln: study

This project seems very closely related to my work at Stanford. Does anyone have any contacts there or more information?

Their web site is limited, although the description is very interesting.