2012 saw mobile developers outdo themselves, producing a range of innovative and quirky applications to assist mobile users in their professional endeavours and provide ample entertainment via mobile devices. HumanIPO picks out a few favourites.
Inflow
Winners of Cape Town’s Sanitation Hackathon, Inflow advanced sanitation in South Africa with their SMS-based app which allows users to report broken or unusable toilets in the city, contributing to the overall goal of ensuring universal access to clean sanitation facilities across the country.
Agro-Hub
Cameroonian farmer’s son Valery Colong’s SMS-based app made significant headway this year, receiving funding from UK-registered non-profit organisation the Indigo Trust. The application allows the Cameroonian authorities to disseminate important farming information – such as product market prices, weather forecasts and the extent of crop diseases – across the country’s agricultural sector 5,000 SMSs at a time, revolutionising the farming industry.
“Raila for President”
In a quirky app innovation for 2012, Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga launched an augmented reality (AR) application, providing voters with information and videos on the candidates and information on the electoral process. The app also features advanced image recognition technology, and is available on Android, Blackberry and iPhone devices as well as via a Mobi site.
Afrinolly
2012 saw Afrinolly expand its horizons, announcing plans to bring the app, which has thus far been exclusive to MTN Nigeria, to a range of new devices, including handsets running iOS and Windows, as well as tablets. Afrinolly allows users to watch African-produced film trailers, full-length films, music videos and comedy productions.
Google’s Santa Tracker
As we’re enjoying the festive season, Google’s Santa Tracker definitely wins a spot on the HumanIPO Top 5 Apps list. This year, Android users could follow Santa’s gift delivery progress across the world on the app, while users could also keep up-to-date with Santa’s activities via a Google Chrome extension, Facebook, Google + and Twitter.
