Deloitte, known popularly in the United States as one of the &#8220;Big Four&#8221; accounting firms, has confirmed that it was the victim of a cyber attack. Not all of the details have been made public, but a Deloitte spokesperson noted that the attacker accessed data from an email platform.
According to the spokesperson, a review of the email platform is now complete. Their findings? While the company didn&#8217;t provide specific information, the spokesperson did say that, &#8220;Importantly, the review enabled us to understand precisely what information was at risk and what the hacker actually did and to determine that only very few clients were impacted and no disruption has occurred to client businesses, to Deloitte’s ability to continue to serve clients, or to consumers.&#8221;
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Deloitte’s response to the attack has included &#8220;implementing its comprehensive security protocol and initiating an intensive and thorough review which included mobilizing a team of cyber-security and confidentiality experts inside and outside of Deloitte; contacting governmental authorities immediately after it became aware of the incident; and, contacting each of the very few clients impacted.&#8221;
The company did not release any hard numbers or indicate whether the attacks affected individual clients. Speculation within the cyber security world has theorized that the attacks were focused on corporate clients and not individual clients but that information has not been confirmed.
No one person or company has yet claimed responsibility for the hack. However, the fact that the attack appeared to target email systems to gain access to client information &#8211; possibly corporate client information &#8211; would suggest that the hackers were cyber criminals looking to steal data that could be sold.
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It&#8217;s the second announcement of a high-profile cyber hack this month. Earlier, Equifax <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/09/07/equifax-says-143-million-americans-potentially-impacted-in-cyber-attack/?utm_source=TWITTER&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=1064233649&amp;utm_campaign=sprinklrForbesMainTwitter#5d45a3a95097" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that hackers had gained access to personal information for nearly 143 million Americans. The hack raised eyebrows about security at the company and eventually resulted in the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2017/09/26/equifax-ceo-out-after-massive-security-hack/#44596f3321ee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resignation</a> of Richard Smith, the company&#8217;s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Deloitte offers audit &amp; assurance, consulting, risk and financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services to clients around the world. Two weeks ago, Deloitte Global <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/global-revenue-announcement.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> revenues of $38.8 billion for the last fiscal year. Among the industries credited with driving that growth? Risk Advisory revenue.
A spokesperson for the company added that &#8220;Deloitte remains deeply committed to ensuring that its cyber-security defenses are best in class, to investing heavily in protecting confidential information and to continually reviewing and enhancing cyber security.&#8221; &#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Kelly Phillips Erb</a>, FORBES STAFF

Big Four Accounting Firm Deloitte Confirms Cyber Attack

Twitter is is a great platform for raising brand awareness and driving traffic to your business.
It can be used to increase sales and to improve your customers’ experience. Yet, there are a lot of businesses that have not yet taken advantage of Twitter to achieve their goals.
Twitter it is one of the best places to have conversations that support, educate, and delight people. It’s a place for authentic business interactions with clients.
Twitter never sleeps. It gives you access to what’s going on in your industry, community, and around the world every moment of every day. People go on Twitter to discover something new, which makes them open to interacting with businesses.
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People often talk about the products they use on Twitter, so it’s a natural place to provide customer service. In fact, 85% of Twitter users say it&#8217;s important that businesses provide customer support on the social network. Twitter allows you to follow and interact with people outside of your personal network. It’s a great way of joining, or starting, discussions with influencers and industry experts to raise the profile of your business and build valuable connections.
Here are steps to set up a Twitter business profile:
Use a unique Twitter @name
Nothing expresses your brand on Twitter more than your account username, your @name is your unique identifier of your business on Twitter. It can contain up to 15 characters and should help people easily find your business.
Use your business’ name as the profile name and avoid using punctuation; it needs to be easy to find and type on devices. If your exact business name is not available, choose a similar name for consistency.
Your profile photo should represent your brand 
Your Twitter profile photo should probably be your company’s logo so people will instantly recognize your brand. Twitter uses your profile image to represent your account. Your profile picture shows the world who you are, and first impressions count. The image should showcase your best content and accurately sell your brand.
Choose a profile photo that visually represents your business or brand and fits well in a small space. This image isn’t just on your profile page; it is the icon in every Tweet you post.
The recommended image size for your profile pic is 400&#215;400 pixels; the image will be resized to fit.
Your bio must tell a story
Use your bio to explain what your business is about and what people can expect from your Twitter profile.
You have 160 characters to let people know what makes your business special, and why they need your products/services. Include useful information, such as what you tend to Tweet about, your location or business hours, and a link to your website. Use a unique link, so you can track visitors to your site from Twitter.
Jon Ferrara, the CEO of Nimble, says that Twitter marketers should make sure that their company’s identity and voice has great branding. It is important that the bio has a consistent tone so that other people can clearly understand what your company is about.
Your header image 
Your Twitter header image is a large background photo where you can tell a story about your business. It’s important that you use this to tell your business story as well.
Consider it a billboard for your company. You can use it to feature your products/services, or highlight your work and team. Change this image periodically to spotlight promotions, events, product news, or just keep things fresh. The recommended size for a Twitter header image is 1500&#215;500 pixels. On mobile, it’ll be cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio.
Your pinned Tweet
Keep an important Tweet at the top of your timeline by pinning it there. Use this feature to make sure visitors to your profile can’t miss the biggest and latest news about your brand. &#8211; Written by Wale Bakare, Digital Marketer and Founder of www.webfala.com

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How To Use Twitter To  Boost Your Business

At Apple&#8217;s last annual developer conference in June, one new tool captured the attention of developers perhaps more than any other product or tool introduced that day. Called ARKit, the tool for iOS 11 enables developers to create augmented reality applications that place digital objects in the real world.
With a new set of iPhones announced on Tuesday &#8211; iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X &#8211; Apple now offers the best hardware and software platform for developing AR applications.
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/09/12/live-blog-all-the-news-about-apples-new-iphones-watch-and-more/#8791c005f8e9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(Read more: Apple News Wrap Up: IPhone 8, IPhone X, Face ID, Wireless Charging, Animated Emojis And More)</a>
Developers are jumping on board and spending a considerable amount of time, money and effort to take full advantage of ARKit. Ikea&#8217;s head of digital transformation, Michael Valdsgaard, said 70 employees at the retail giant spent nine and half weeks weeks toiling day and night on an ARKit app. The result, Ikea Place, allows customers to place digital versions of Ikea furniture in their homes before spending money on something that doesn&#8217;t work outside of a store setting.
Ikea starting toying with an AR tool in 2013, Valdsgaard told Forbes. But earlier versions required dedicated AR headsets, which lack the ubiquity of iPhones. That severely limited rollout. The experience was also never very solid. ARKit handles the complicated task of measuring the room and its dimensions to accurately place objects.
&#8220;We never had the vehicle or platform to make AR really good,&#8221; Valdsgaard said. &#8220;This is what ARKit does.&#8221;
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But placing furniture may not be ARKit&#8217;s most compelling use. The Machines, a multiplayer strategy game Developer Directive Games demonstrated at the Apple event, places a battlefield in the real world in which players direct combat by moving their iPhones.
Apple&#8217;s ARKit does have limitations. It can detect horizontal surfaces like floors and tables, but not vertical surfaces like walls. Valdsgaard predicts that Apple will soon add this function.
Although ARKit will support iPhones as old as the iPhone 6s, it looks like AR apps will really shine on the latest hardware announced on Tuesday. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will contain Apple&#8217;s latest chip, the A11 Bionic. It has a six-core central processing unit  &#8211; two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores &#8211; Apple&#8217;s first custom graphics processing unit, and an image signal processor. The CPU core will handle the world tracking, the ISP will do real-time lighting estimation, and the GPU will generate digital images.
&#8220;It’s clear Apple is focused on AR as a platform and is building their phones with the hardware needed to enable great experiences,&#8221; said Scott Montgomerie, cofounder and CEO of Scope AR, an enterprise AR developer.
More important for AR hardware will likely be the iPhone X, Apple&#8217;s highest-end device. Inside the iPhone X is the A11 chip as well as a processor dedicated to neural network computing. The neural network models are supposed to more accurately track faces and the world around them, which could make for some more compelling AR experiences.
Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have competing AR developer platforms. At one point, Google was trying to push its own hardware platform with Project Tango, a depth-sensing camera system it offered to third-party phone makers. Only two phone makers &#8211; Asus and Lenovo &#8211; have adopted Tango, but the resulting phones have been lackluster. Tango received little developer support.
Now Google is trying a similar to approach to Apple ARKit, ARCore for Android. But like everything else in the Android ecosystem, Google has a hard time controlling what&#8217;s happening on the hardware side. Only Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 will support ARCore at launch.
Valdsgaard says he is glad Google decided to move beyond Tango to support AR development, but Ikea has been just working with Apple&#8217;s AR platform for now.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been focusing just on Apple,&#8221; Valdsgaard said. &#8220;Ikea is for many people. How can we reach many people? We need to focus on the biggest AR platform the world.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Aaron Tilley</a>, FORBES STAFF
&nbsp;

Apple, Not Google Or Facebook, Will Define The Future Of Augmented Reality

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Uber&#8217;s divided board managed to agree on one thing over the weekend: Expedia&#8217;s Dara Khosrowshahi <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/08/27/uber-names-expedias-dara-khosrowshahi-as-its-new-ceo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">should be the company&#8217;s new CEO</a>. An official announcement is expected soon.
As of now, there are no signs that a bitter lawsuit pitting two of Uber&#8217;s largest shareholders &#8211; both of them board members &#8211; against each other, is nearing resolution. And that is odd, since it seems unlikely that Khosrowshahi, who is said to be <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1324424/000132442417000042/a8-k8282017.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ready to accept the job</a>, would want to jump into the middle of a war for control of the company.
Yet on Monday, the dispute between Uber&#8217;s former CEO Travis Kalanick and venture capital firm Benchmark showed no signs of abating. In a new court filing, Kalanick accused Benchmark of drawing out its lawsuit only to &#8220;publicly slander&#8221; his character.
&#8220;Benchmark desires to publicly attack Mr. Kalanick, and to peddle its allegations to the media, but that conduct is directly contrary to the interest of Uber, as announced by its Board of Directors,&#8221; the court filing said.
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On August 10, Benchmark sued Kalanick for fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty and breaches of contractual obligations.
As part of the suit, Benchmark wants the court to nullify a June 2016 agreement that created three additional board seats. It also wants the former CEO to be removed from the board and banned from participating in the search for his replacement.
While the two sides are still fighting over whether or not the case should be sent to arbitration, Benchmark&#8217;s argument that Kalanick is interfering in the CEO search is now a mute point.
Khosrowshahi will already have his hands full with Uber&#8217;s other litany of problems, from repairing an internal culture to a <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/08/18/judge-tells-uber-misled-court-slams-waymo-greedy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit against Waymo</a> over self-driving car technology that&#8217;s scheduled to go to court in a month. Having to clean up the board mess would be an unwelcome distraction.
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Also on Monday, Travis Kalanick ally and early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar, who on Friday <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/08/24/uber-investor-shervin-pishevar-seeks-to-intervene-in-legal-case-between-benchmark-and-kalanick/#40d1578b34d8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decided to insert himself in the legal case</a>, celebrated Khosrowshahi with a dig at Benchmark.
&#8220;I applaud the Board’s decision to make Dara Khosrowshahi the next CEO of Uber, and we are gratified that Benchmark did not succeed in subverting the CEO selection process,&#8221; Pishevar said in an statement. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Biz Carson</a>, FORBES STAFF

Uber’s CEO Pick Adds Pressure To Resolve Boardroom Brawl

Elon Musk, a polymath entrepreneur who nearly went bankrupt launching Tesla Motors and rocket company SpaceX, is now worth more than $20 billion.
On Wednesday, Forbes unveiled its annual <a href="https://www.forbes.com/richest-in-tech/#699b58697316" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richest In Tech</a> list, which ranks the 100 wealthiest self-made tech billionaires. Musk placed 12th in the order, at $20.7 billion, ahead of high-profile names including Paul Allen ($20.5 billion) and Eric Schmidt ($12.4 billion).
This week marks the first time Musk’s fortune has eclipsed $20 billion on Forbes’ <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rankings</a> of the planet’s wealthiest people. In March, when Forbes released its list of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The World’s Billionaires</a>, his net worth stood at $13.9 billion.
Much of the increase since then is attributable to the soaring value of aerospace firm SpaceX. The company, which ultimately plans to send humans to Mars, raised $350 million last month at a valuation of about $21 billion; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Musk</a> owns more than half of the business. News of the funding round was first <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/technology/spacex-is-now-one-of-the-worlds-most-valuable-privately-held-companies.html?_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by the New York Times.
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SpaceX has notched a number of significant achievements this year. In March, it sent a cargo payload <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2017/03/30/what-spacexs-successful-reusable-rocket-launch-means-for-the-space-industry/#7217ccae731e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">into orbit</a> with a previously-used rocket, making it the first private company to do so. More recently, on Wednesday, Musk revealed the first images of a SpaceX spacesuit on his personal Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYIPmEFAIIn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">page</a>. He confirmed in February that the company will send humans to space as early as next year.
Progress at Tesla, Musk’s publicly-traded electric carmaker, has also been strong. The company is rolling out a new, lower-priced vehicle, the Model 3, to substantial demand and nearly universal acclaim. The business continues to rack up losses, but Tesla’s stock has nonetheless jumped 55% in the last year.
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Musk, 46, realized his first major entrepreneurial success in 1999 selling software firm Zip2, which he cofounded, to Compaq for a reported price of more than $300 million; he had previously deferred graduate school at Stanford to start the business. He then made an even larger fortune after Paypal, which he also cofounded, was acquired by eBay for $1.4 billion in 2002.
Musk joined Tesla in 2004 as a key investor and became CEO in 2008, when the business struggled to find credit during the global financial crisis. He reportedly liquidated nearly all of his assets to fund continued development at Tesla and SpaceX, both of which were viewed as long-shot ventures by many outsiders.
Now, as SpaceX rockets fly further into space, Musk’s net worth seems to defy gravity as well. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Noah Kirsch</a>, FORBES STAFF

Elon Musk’s Net Worth Eclipses $20 Billion For First Time

Both Uber and Waymo found themselves being scolded by a federal judge who called one side “greedy” and accused the other of repeatedly misleading the court.
During a tension-filled court hearing on Wednesday in San Francisco, Waymo asked the court to hold Uber and its lawyers in contempt for dragging their feet when it comes to disclosing information about documents in their possession.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is presiding over the high-profile suit between the two companies, specifically called out Uber’s lawyer, Arturo Gonzalez of Morrison &amp; Foerster, for misleading the court “time and time again.”
At one point, Alsup even threatened to have Gonzalez take the stand <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2017/05/11/judge-refers-waymos-uber-lawsuit-to-justice-department-grants-partial-injunction-in-case/#67e80a2f41ff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during the upcoming trial</a> to explain why Uber has been slow to respond to request for documents, including the 14,000 files that were allegedly stolen from Google by an engineer who went on to lead Uber’s self-driving car efforts.
“You’ll be a good witness. You’ll be right there explaining to the jury and explaining this story,” Alsup told Uber’s lawyer, pointing to the stand next to him.
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While there’s a chance Gonzalez could still take the stand during trial, Alsup seemed more inclined to let the jury hear about the many deadlines Uber’s legal team missed or dodged in the lead-up to the trial, which is scheduled to begin in October.
“I am concerned that Mr. Gonzalez failed to disclose that he had the documents and took a long time to come clean,” Alsup said. “I am inclined… to tell the jury exactly this scenario: that he was ordered to come clean, did not come clean, ordered to come clean again, and did not come clean — finally in June or July came clean.”
In a heated exchange, Gonzalez fired back at the judge for buying into a “completely false premise” and said there will never be a time when anyone proves that his firm or Uber ever concealed the 14,000 documents.
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While much of Alsup’s scolding was directed at Uber, he wasn’t happy with Waymo either.
In a previous court order, the Google spin-off company had to narrow down its list of trade secret violations from over 100 to nine to be argued at trial. When Waymo asked to retain the right to argue the rest, Alsup said if it wanted the whole lot, he could postpone the case for a year, potentially to Waymo&#8217;s own detriment.
“You can’t have everything,” Alsup said. “You want 121? I’ll give you that. We can push this out another couple of years and they’ll have cars on the street because you’re being greedy.&#8221;
In the end, Waymo acquiesced and agreed to move forward with their limited selection. The case, in which Uber’s lawyers said could involve “potentially multi-billion dollar damages,” is scheduled to begin in early October. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Biz Carson</a>, FORBES STAFF

Judge Tells Uber It ‘Misled The Court’, Slams Waymo For ‘Being Greedy’

In June, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, claimed that more than two billion people now use the social network every month.
Facebook continues to grow at a spectacular rate and is the most popular social media platform. Due to this, Facebook has become a vital tool for marketing. Facebook marketing can target new customers and increase brand loyalty. However, in order to create a successful Facebook campaign, one needs to provide contents that are unique, creative and engaging.
Facebook marketing is essential for both small and large businesses. It helps them effectively and efficiently promote their brand online.
While running a Facebook marketing campaign, one must consider the following seven tips to convert your target audience to customers.
1. Choose the right images for your campaign and obey the rule of 20% image text: Images are essential in creating a Facebook Ad. However, try to avoid stock photos as much as possible. Focus on images that your audience can easily relate to. But bear in mind, no matter the type of ad you want to create, your image needs to be visually appealing.
2. Keep you campaign short and simple: Make the title as attractive as possible, but do not make false claims. In cases where you cannot edit the title (like when advertising a Facebook page), you can enter the URL of the page and then edit the title. However, if you do this, you will get limited Facebook ad analytics. Keep this short and crisp. Always end this with a ‘call to action’. In terms of importance, this is less crucial than images and title. In terms of the entire description, the call to action is the most important part.
3. Run different campaigns for the same product/service: Instead of creating different ads and split testing them, create variations of ad that performs best, and change one element at a time. For example, take your best ad, make copies of it and change the headline of each version. You now have multiple ads that are identical, except for the headline that you can test. After you determine which ad gets the best response, make copies of it and test another element like description or image.
4. Your ad must be relevant: This is the most important factor for an ad to perform well. Your target audience must be able to relate to the ad. Only once your audience connects with the ad, will you gain the most from advertising on Facebook. Relevancy can be obtained in many ways and there are no set rules on ‘how to be relevant.’ You need to ask yourself if the majority of your audience will click on this ad? If the answer is yes, then your ad is relevant.
5. Be engaging with your audience: Don’t automate everything. If you want people to engage your Facebook campaign, you need to create highly engaging content that is simple. “Highly engaging” means the content is relevant to your audience and compels people to click on it. Your content should make people stop in their tracks. When your audience stops to read your content, they should feel encouraged to engage with it.
6. Follow the 80/20 rule for posts: Keep 20% of your campaign content relevant to the product or service of your business while 80% of the campaign content should be social, but relate to your business and the targeted audience.
7.    Use Geo-targeting: If you’re looking to connect with potential customers in a specific location, it’s a must-have to use geographic targeting. To find the right customer base for your brand, provide content to your desired audience and also generate leads, one needs to set up ad according to geographic target areas. &#8211; Written by Wale Bakare
<div id="attachment_33083" style="width: 683px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33083" class=" wp-image-33083" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Facebook-infographic-e1502450117421-300x168.png" alt="" width="673" height="377" />Source: Google</div>

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Back in early July, San Francisco employment law firm Altshuler Berzon LLP posted Facebook and <a href="http://go.equalpayforgooglewomen.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn</a> notices seeking women currently or formerly employed at Google for possible inclusion in a planned class-action lawsuit alleging gender pay discrimination.
Several dozen came forward in a matter of weeks. &#8220;That&#8217;s a pretty high level of dissatisfaction,&#8221; said James Finberg, a civil rights lawyer and the partner at the firm in charge of the matter.
Then <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/08/08/google-fires-anti-diversity-memo-writer-drawing-ire-in-right-wing-circles/#2c6ad9205b07" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">came this week&#8217;s news</a> that Google fired an engineer who wrote a memo questioning women&#8217;s suitability for tech jobs, which thrust the ongoing debate around diversity, women and discrimination in Silicon Valley back onto the headlines.
&#8220;The phone has been lighting up today,&#8221; said Finberg. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t have any control of that guy and his memo or the media firestorm. We&#8217;re going public a lot earlier than we&#8217;d hoped or expected.&#8221;
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Finberg has heard from more than 70 women so far. He has confirmed four for the planned suit, which he has not yet filed, and several others are considering joining, he said.
The class-action would follow a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/07/google-pay-disparities-women-labor-department-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suit against the tech giant</a> filed earlier this year by the United States Department of Labor, which said it found evidence of an &#8220;extreme&#8221; gender pay gap at the company. Finberg said the class-action case will draw on the DOL analysis, which found between six and seven standard deviations between wage rates of men and women based on a snapshot of the salaries of 21,000 workers at Google&#8217;s Mountain View headquarters.
&#8220;How do you explain that?&#8221; Finberg asked. &#8220;The chance of that occurring randomly is one in 100 million.&#8221;
Of the 70-plus women who&#8217;ve so far shared their stories of employment at Google with Altshuler Berzon, common threads have emerged, according to Finberg.
<blockquote>&#8220;Women are channeled into &#8216;softer&#8217; jobs, like design or user experience, versus coding,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Coding is the best compensated.&#8221;</blockquote>
He&#8217;s also heard concerns that women&#8217;s prior salaries were used to calculate their new wages at Google.
&#8220;That&#8217;s institutionalizing gender discrimination, and it&#8217;s against California law,&#8221; he said.
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Google did not respond to a request for comment on this or other points in this story. But the company has <a href="https://www.blog.google/topics/diversity/update-department-labor-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vehemently disputed</a> the Labor Department&#8217;s allegations saying its own analysis &#8220;shows no gender pay gap at Google.&#8221; The company has also sought to explain <a href="https://www.blog.google/topics/diversity/our-focus-pay-equity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it ensures pay equity across its ranks</a>.
The company scored a victory in July, when a judge ruled that the government&#8217;s demand for data on its 21,000 Mountain View workers, which Google had called a &#8220;fishing expedition,&#8221; was &#8220;over broad&#8221; and &#8220;intrusive.&#8221;
Finberg intends to file the equal pay class-action suit &#8220;within the next few weeks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s more likely than not.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Clare O&#8217;Connor</a>, FORBES STAFF

‘One In 100 Million’ Chance Alleged Gender Pay Gap At Google Is Random, Says Class Action Lawyer

In the last few months, three global tech giants have visited Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella; Facebook&#8217;s Founder, Mark Zuckerberg; and Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, have all set foot on Nigerian soil recently. Is Africa really becoming the future hub of global growth, as Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tobyshapshak/2016/09/01/africa-will-build-the-future-says-zuckerberg-visits-kenya-on-first-african-trip/#12517d6f70b2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">asserted</a>?
There are many indications this is so, and the rising focus on the continent’s digital economy is a clear pointer.
While everything is all about helping Africa progress up the ladder of digital opportunities, Google’s visit comes with a pledge to empower 10 million African youths with salient digital skills. &#8220;Thrilled that we&#8217;re expanding our digital skills program to train 10M Africans over the next 5 years #GoogleforNigeria,&#8221; Sundar announced on <a href="https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/890607610423947264" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a> while in Nigeria for the Google for Nigeria Conference at the end of July.
However, one might question the feasibility of this goal. Interestingly, Google has just completed an incredible test run with <a href="http://digifyafrica.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Digify</a>. In the last year, one million Africans (400,000 Nigerians, 300,000 South Africans, 200,000 Kenyans and 100,000 from other countries) have benefited from the initiative poised to entrench digital skills and technological innovations in the sub-Saharan region.
To understand what this means for Africa, here are some important programs/plans to be aware of:
<ol>
<li>Training of 100,000 software developers</li>
</ol>
If Digify has exposed a million young Africans to various digital skills, as stated by Google South Africa country director, Luke Mckend, new plans are now in place to take things a notch higher.
In the next five years, Google plans to prepare 10 million African youth for &#8220;jobs of the future&#8221;. More importantly, the tech giant will be training 100,000 software developers. “We’ll also be providing mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans to develop world-class apps, with an initial focus on Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa,” says Google.
<ol start="2">
<li>Google grants</li>
</ol>
Funding is a tough challenge faced by start-ups everywhere. In Africa, it’s even tougher. Concerned about this, Google is committing $20 million to causes targeted at improving lives across Africa and $2.5 million initial grants, in particular, to the non-profit arms of African start-ups, <a href="http://www.gidimo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gidi Mobile</a> and <a href="https://www.siyavula.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Siyavula</a>.
Google is doing this “to provide free access to learning for 400,000 low-income students in South Africa and Nigeria” and enable them to develop new digital learning tools that would be enjoyed by other users for free.
<ol start="3">
<li>Launchpad Accelerator Africa</li>
</ol>
There’s a strong nexus between “future jobs” and the “future of Africa.” And the boggling aspect of it is the dependence of the latter on the former. As it is, Africa needs to maximize the exponential potential of technology and tech entrepreneurship more.
With Launchpad Accelerator, Google plans to support African entrepreneurs in building successful technology companies and products. This initiative, according to Google, will provide more than $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship, working space and access to professional advisers to more than 60 African start-ups over three years.
<ol start="4">
<li>YouTube Go</li>
</ol>
Data cost is a major hiccup in Africa’s Internet of Things. From one country to the other, there are continuous agitations for low data cost to foster internet activities. Luckily, Google is here to help in a way.
With YouTube Go – a new app that will make watching videos with a slower network a possibility – users now have control over the amount of data used on streaming or saving videos. This means watching YouTube videos won’t be as expensive.
<ol start="5">
<li>Faster web results</li>
</ol>
The previous points are great, but not enough if the benefit is exclusive to YouTube. Great news: Google is giving an additional offer.
“We previously launched a feature that streamlines search results so they load with less data and at high speed. Today we’re extending that feature to streamline websites you reach from search results, so that they load with 90% less data and five times faster, even on low storage devices,” says Google on giving a better experience for users with 2G-like connections or low storage devices.
The benefits for Africa
Let’s put everything into context…
Africa’s growing demography has huge potential. Yet, it’s a cause for alarm. According to recent statistics, there are only between 3 and 4 million jobs created annually in a continent that will have the world’s largest population of youth (1.1 billion) by 2034. Apparently, the creation of thousands of millions of jobs is urgent.
But not just jobs. Africa needs “future jobs” that will meet future needs.
Given this demand, in an evolving digital world, acquiring the skillsets that will empower Africa’s innovative minds and consequently help them grow businesses, create jobs, and boost their respective economies is a viable way to make Africa the true future of global growth. &#8211; Written by Shakir Akorede, writer and founder of <a href="http://501words.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">501Words</a>

What The Google CEO’s Visit To Nigeria Means For Africa

China started censoring certain parts of WhatsApp, according to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40651951" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a>. Though there was no comment from the state, many presumed it came as part of a broader response to outcry over the death of political prisoner and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.
Using the so-called Great Firewall of China, or another part of its vast censorship apparatus, China managed to stop users sending WhatsApp video messages and other multimedia. But, given Facebook&#8217;s added security, including its <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2016/04/06/whatsapp-brings-full-end-to-end-encryption-for-all-one-billion-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">end-to-end encryption</a> of WhatsApp messages, how could the Chinese censor images and video while allowing the app to otherwise function as normal?
Turns out, it&#8217;s very simple, according to computer science student and security researcher Frieder Steinmetz. He put together a video showing the possible method China is using, just on a massive scale. It simply redirects a phone&#8217;s access to the media files server used by WhatsApp, causing video and photo downloads to fail.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How to block WhatsApp media file transmission" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kcdJL2FbJ6g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
He redirected connections trying to reach &#8220;mmg.whatsapp.net&#8221; and &#8220;mms.whatsapp.net&#8221; &#8211; the servers for downloading multimedia content &#8211; to the IP address 10.0.0.1. This was done with his own firewall. Afterwards, he removes the redirection via the web interface of his firewall. That&#8217;s when the images can again be downloaded.
Obviously, this is a small-scale experiment. But it&#8217;s likely China could simply expand it using their control over the country&#8217;s internet. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know the first thing about China&#8217;s censorship infrastructure but I imagine it is pretty easy to accomplish,&#8221; Steinmetz added.
Could WhatsApp do more to fight such censorship? Possibly. WhatsApp&#8217;s encryption is based on that of another popular messaging app, Signal. The creators of that tool have a neat trick for preventing forms of censorship. A source familiar with the app&#8217;s workings said Signal chooses to host services on Google servers alongside a lot of others. No one can see which service is being used by a particular user as the connection is encrypted.
That means that if a country wanted to sensor a unique service, like Signal videos, then they&#8217;d have to block the whole Google server, knocking out all those others running on the same machine. Even for China that&#8217;d be a risky move, causing all kinds of international outrage, beyond that already felt over its latest censorship broadside.
WhatsApp declined to comment for this article. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Thomas Fox-Brewster</a>, FORBES STAFF

Why It’s Really Easy For Anyone To Censor WhatsApp

A House subcommittee approved critical legislation for the fast-developing driverless car movement this week that sets specific rules for how many such vehicles can be on U.S. roads and the federal government’s role in regulating them. While it would give companies developing the technology the national framework they want, it also raises questions over who is best-suited to ensure this cutting-edge technology is safe.
Under <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20170719/106309/BILLS-115pih-HighlyAutomatedVehicleTesti-U2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proposed rules</a> that will come before the full House for a vote in September, manufacturers could put up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles per company on U.S. roads every year, with a requirement that they certify the safety of those vehicles with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. If approved, the proposal would preempt the current patchwork of state-level rules for operating self-driving cars and trucks. They build off a basic set of guidelines <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2016/09/19/u-s-gives-green-light-to-self-driving-car-push-setting-federal-ground-rules/#672c0ad13652" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued by President Barack Obama’s Transportation Department</a> last September.
“The need for this legislation was laid out by the Obama Administration,” said Rep. Bob Latta, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection. “From the front bumper to the back bumper, whether it is a car, a pickup truck or a van, how the vehicle works and is designed should be the province of the federal government as has been the case for more than 50 years.”
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California, which has <a href="https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued permits to 36 companies</a> testing about 200 autonomous vehicles in the state, would no longer be able to set its own guidelines if the federal proposal becomes law. But whether federal safety officials ultimately are better-suited to validate manufacturers’ safety claims for the artificial intelligence, algorithms and next-generation vision and sensing technologies that go into self-driving cars remains in question.
“There’s this whole gray ground about who is in the best position to regulate these new cars, which go beyond the traditional car into almost driving a computer and software,” said attorney Sharon Klein, a partner in the autonomous vehicle practice for Pepper Hamilton LLP. “There’s been this debate about whether NHTSA as an agency should continue to be involved in deployment as well.”
The new rules rely on companies to certify the safety of their systems. The concern is that NHTSA, the country&#8217;s primary auto safety regulator, lacks the software and computer science expertise needed to validate their technical claims, Klein said.
“It comes down to a question of who is going to be watching the manufacturers?” she told Forbes.
Along with the growing number of robotic vehicles in California, states including Michigan, Massachusetts and Nevada are home to ever larger test fleets. Waymo, the Alphabet Inc. unit created last year to commercialize Google&#8217;s self-driving car technology, has already begun a large-scale public test in Arizona that may eventually grow to hundreds of driverless vehicles <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/04/25/waymo-taps-phoenix-for-a-big-public-test-of-google-self-driving-car-tech/#3769032c6141" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ferrying people around Phoenix</a>.
General Motors, Uber, Lyft, Ford companies are following suit, and Tesla intends to give its electric vehicles full autonomous capability within the next year or two via over-the-air updates.
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In 2016, NHTSA and the Transportation Department <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/AV/federal-automated-vehicles-policy-september-2016" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">defined 15 areas</a> that manufacturers need to comply with when they put self-driving vehicles on the road. That basic framework will put the agency in an administrative role, ensuring certain benchmarks are met, despite lacking specific knowledge of the software and algorithms powering autonomous systems.
“There’s no way NHTSA has the technical capability to do this right now,” said Mike Ramsey, an automotive tech analyst with Gartner Research in Detroit.
“NHTSA is really the arbiter of ‘does it appear that you have done all the things you need to do?’ It’s counting on the fear of deaths and lawsuits that could arise to prevent carmakers from doing something egregious,” he said.
Insurance companies will also act as a “shadow regulator” to keep manufacturers honest in their technical claims, Ramsey said. “The fact is unsafe (autonomous) technology would quickly become uninsurable.”
<a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Consumer Watchdog</a>, a safety advocacy group, called on congress to give NHTSA more resources to better address this major technological shift and opposed the reduced role of individual states to regulate robotic cars and trucks.
“Lost in the hyperbole over robot cars is a realistic assessment of the likely costs to both consumers and taxpayers particularly over the coming decades, when robot cars and human drivers will share a ‘hybrid highway,’ John Simpson, director of the Santa Monica, California-based group’s privacy project, said in a <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/consumer-watchdog-calls-california-representatives-oppose-congressional-robot-car-legisl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>.
“Pre-empting the states’ ability to fill the void left by federal inaction leaves us at the mercy of manufacturers as they use our public highways as their private laboratories however they wish with no safety protections at all,” said Simpson, who called on California House members to oppose the subcommittee proposal.
For its part, the California DMV said it doesn’t comment on pending legislation. The department has been tasked with setting regulations for the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles on state roadways since 2014. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alan Ohnsman</a>, FORBES STAFF

Push For Self-Driving Car Rules Overlooks Lack Of Federal Expertise In AI Tech

In a crowded market for recruiting software, Google has helped play hitmaker as strong search results and ads helping differentiate among a field including a host of startups and legacy players. Now Google&#8217;s taking on a new role of competitor.
With a new application announced on Tuesday called <a href="https://hire.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hire</a>, Google is taking aim at the small- and medium-sized business part of the recruiting market. Its pitch is simple: for recruiters who already spend much of their day in Gmail and Google Calendar, they can schedule interviews in Hire much faster and with a lot fewer clicks. &#8220;For people scheduling interviews, that&#8217;s all they do, day in and day out,&#8221; says Dmitri Krakovsky, a vice president at Google Cloud. &#8220;We believe this will save recruiters multiple hours a day copy and pasting things from one application to another.&#8221;
When Google studied how its G Suite customers were using recruiting software, they found that G Suite typically operated in a &#8220;parallel universe&#8221; to the third-party or homemade tools a company used for its recruiting functions. Companies would end up speaking with applicants by email and perform interviews using Google Voice and Hangouts, then log the activity on those tools. But in the interests of saving time, data would get lost routinely in that transfer, causing headaches as applicants moved through the system, Krakovsky says.
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The alternative solution to doing it all in Google would be to schedule calls and conduct more business within the third-party apps themselves. There are plenty of options in the market, from Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/#5d523ce75f94" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cloud 100</a> companies iCIMS and Greenhouse Software to Bamboo HR, part of Utah&#8217;s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2017/07/11/how-utahs-silicon-slopes-became-clouds-new-capital/#1072c1013310" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fast-growing cloud computing scene</a>, as well as Jazz HR, Lever, Workable, Zoho and public companies such as Cornerstone OnDemand, Oracle and SAP SuccessFactors. Google is betting that despite all those options — or even because of how many there are — a big chunk of its 3 million business customers for G Suite will find it easier to put everything in the same place as their work email.
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Hire syncs up to keep emails in one thread in Gmail and attach info such as room availability, contact numbers and interview questions within a Calendar invite. The app is for sale separately as a premium add-on to G Suite, initially just in the United States and for businesses of under 1,000 employees. More than 100 customers are already using Hire, Krakovsky says. The company plans to announce machine learning tools later this year that will allow, among other use cases, for recruiters to resurface strong candidates for previous positions when new ones open up.
The app is the first role-specific attempt of its kind for Google, which <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/search/connecting-more-americans-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced a Google for Jobs initiative</a> at its I/O conference to tackle job boards and listings. The closest comparison may be Google for Education as a set of tools, though that offering is specific to a vertical, not a function. Krakovsky says other role-based applications aren&#8217;t imminently planned.
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For startups in the recruiting software space, the Hire app may limit growth opportunities within Google&#8217;s sphere. For customers who are happy with their existing providers, Hire may be intriguing more as an add-on or extension than as a full replacement.
If the result is happier G Suite customers, Google probably wouldn&#8217;t care. &#8220;Two days ago I was talking to a customer, and she said, &#8216;when I saw what you were doing with the calendar, I wanted to cry,'&#8221; says Krakovsky. &#8220;She had to open 7 different tabs, look at availability, write that down and go back to the app to try to make sense of it all. If we can do that in 30 seconds, it&#8217;s a huge boost.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alex Konrad</a>, FORBES STAFF

Google Takes Aim At Recruiting Software Market With New App Called Hire

The time for an intervention of the workplace has arrived. The traditional office as we know it, bound by a desk with set working hours, being present for meetings, and processing paperwork, is no longer functional. Technological advancements have changed the way people work so that it’s no longer where it gets done but that it gets done. These are some of the key insights shared by Deloitte in a series of reports released towards the end of 2016.
One of the reports revealed that the work place of the future will be mobile and not bound by location; it will be independent (contractors); more people will be working from home; and co-working spaces will be an alternate to working from home; all this ties in with a traditional workplace no longer being functional.
The future is mobile
Technology such as laptops, tablets, smartphones; wireless connectivity; and networking software will be a key driver to this paradigm shift. Mobile manufacturers are catering to this – the new Samsung S8 offers a “Dex” mode that lets you switch to a desktop mode by attaching a few peripherals to its smartphone. According to Deloitte, many workers may still have a designated office space for themselves but they are treating work as something they do rather than where they do it.
Not bound by location
The combination of portable devices, WiFi and modern software solutions, means employees can work from anywhere and don’t necessarily have to come into an office, or sit in traffic to get there – an issue South Africans can identify with. As more companies shift to cloud-based or custom solutions, it means one can work from any location yet still collaborate via shared documents in the form of Google Docs, Office 365 or Dropbox, to name a few.
Co-working spaces
There has been an increase in co-working spaces in South Africa with companies renting out ‘hot-desks’ to freelance individuals. These spaces come with desks, phones, high-speed internet, boardrooms, meeting areas, coffee, and whatever other amenities are required to work from ‘anywhere’. Provided one isn’t bound by specific machinery; one could find themselves sharing office space with individuals from varying industries. Access to a set-up with all amenities is usually tied to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual fee, offering greater flexibility for contract work.
Gig economy
The gig economy is one of the major elements of the workforce of the future. It is where independent contractors and freelancers will be used for short-term projects, and also ties in with not being bound by location. If a job can be done remotely with the right hardware and software, a greater pool of employees are available for the picking. With people changing jobs more frequently, the gig economy is said to be an evolution of this. Additionally, businesses save on other costs such as office space, training, and employee benefits.
No more paperwork
Going digital or moving to the cloud means no more unnecessary paperwork, saving businesses a huge chunk in costs. All it takes is moving to smarter solutions such a digital HR software; electronic contracts; accounting software; online project management tools; collaborating via shared documents, and online video chats instead of face-to-face meetings.
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Could this work in a South African context? Forty-year-old Daniel Calbacho, Managing Director of RED Marketing based in Illovo, Johannesburg, took an interesting, non-traditional approach with his company. He “fired” all his staff and re-hired them as independent freelancers.
Calbacho manages a team of young writers and recognizes that people are all different, have a life outside of standard working hours and want to pursue their passions as part of their lifestyle.
“Each person in the business is encouraged to see themselves as an entrepreneur, and focus on their predominant skillset, which is linked to their passion to earn a living.” His team comprises of individuals who are motoring journalists, photographers, writers, bloggers and even a pop singer.
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They are also encouraged to grow at their own pace, and if they’d like to earn more, they don’t have to wait for an annual increase.
“Millennials are about instant gratification – ‘I want this now’. If someone in the team would like to earn a specific amount, we work towards that. Obviously this means taking on more work, much like earn-as-you-go.”
RED Marketing has offices with all the mod-cons, allowing the team to use its facilities at leisure. Cost saving for the company has presented itself in the form of equipment, bonuses, and benefits. As independent contractors, the team supplies their own laptops, cameras and smart devices, which they’ve insured. “Bonuses are no longer a cost consideration albeit we do believe in sharing the company’s profits for outstanding work, and there are no costs for medical aid or pension.”
Skills development has not stopped, says Calbacho. “Every three weeks the team gathers and a person within the group presents knowledge or a skill they’ve been elected to share.”
Leave has also become a secondary HR issue, with each team member allocated 18 days a year to take off completely. “Days are logged, not scrutinized; and most of them don’t take all of it because they are free to manage their time without the construct of a nine-to-five job.”
Calbacho says what they are doing currently works for the business. “The company is successful because the team is happy. Our main focus is delivering the best product to our clients.” &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

The Workplace Of The Future – Or Now?

When the iPhone emerged in 2007, it came with all the promise and pomp of a major Steve Jobs announcement, highlighting its user interface and slick design as key selling points. We know now that the iPhone transformed the mobile phone business, the internet economy and, in many ways, society as a whole. But technically speaking, the iPhone was not very innovative.
Its software and the interface idea were based on the iPod, which was already <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/itunes-10th-anniversary-how-steve-jobs-turned-the-industry-upside-down-20130426">reinventing the digital music industry</a>. Touchscreens had appeared on earlier phone and tablet models, including <a href="http://oldcomputers.net/apple-newton.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple’s own Newton</a>. And <a href="http://nokiamuseum.info/category/launching-year/2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top-line Nokia phones</a> had more memory, better cameras and faster mobile connectivity. What made the iPhone transformative was the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15782200/one-device-secret-history-iphone-brian-merchant-book-excerpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shift in concept underpinning the entire iPhone project</a>: Its designers did not create a telephone with some extra features, but rather a full-fledged hand-held computer that could also make calls and browse the internet.
As a <a href="http://www.internationalinnovation.com/how-digitasation-is-changing-the-working-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">scholar of management, design and innovation</a>, I find it hard to predict what the next truly revolutionary technological development will be. In the 10 years since the launch of the iPhone, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/when-iphone-met-world-7-years-ago-today/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">so much about modern life, commerce and culture has changed</a>. In part that’s because the iPhone, and the smartphone boom it spurred, created a portable personal technology infrastructure that’s almost infinitely expandable. The iPhone changed the game not because of its initial technology and cool user interface but rather as a result of its creators’ imagination and courage.
<h2>Inventing mobile apps</h2>
As the iPhone took shape, its designers found themselves <a href="http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/the-one-device/9781478915836/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">torn between making a phone or a computer</a>. Engineers and marketing executives alike worried the new device would kill the iPod market that had <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/09/14/without-music-apple-would-be-nothing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">driven Apple’s corporate resurgence for five years</a>. Nokia, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/263438/market-share-held-by-nokia-smartphones-since-2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the biggest player in the cellphone market at the time</a>, had similar technologies and prototypes, and also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304388004577531002591315494" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feared outcompeting</a> its own successful mobile phone product lines that used a simpler and more old-fashioned software platform than that on which iPhone was built.
Apple took the leap, however, by installing a fully capable computer operating system on the iPhone, along with a few small application programs. Some were phone-related, including a program that handled making and receiving calls, as well as <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a new way to display voicemail messages</a>, and a system that kept different contacts’ text messages separate. Others were more computer-like, including an email app and a web browser. Of course, the music-playing features from the iPod were included too, linking the phone with the emerging Apple music ecosystem.
Initially, that was about it for apps. But <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/164137/meet-geohot-guy-who-unlocked-the-first-iphone-and-hacked-the-sony-ps3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skilled computer engineers and hackers</a> knew they were holding a palm-sized computer, and set to work writing their own software and <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/213904/how-far-weve-come-the-original-iphone-jailbreak-took-74-steps-jailbreak/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">getting it running on their iPhones</a>. That was the dawn of the now-ubiquitous app. Within a year, these apps were so popular, and their potential so significant, that <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1134503/iphone2update.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple’s second version of the iPhone operating system</a> made it easy (and legal) for users to install <a href="http://www.phonecruncher.com/features/00942/the-first-ever-apps-on-the-app-store-gone-but-not-forgotten/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">apps on their phones</a>.
<h2>Shifting priorities</h2>
The prospect of making a fully functional hand-held computer changed how users and manufacturers alike thought about mobile phones. For Apple and every other phone company, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-android-smartphones-2011-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">software became much more important than hardware</a>. What apps a phone could run, and how quickly, mattered much more than whether it had a slightly better camera or could hold a few more photos; whether it flipped open, slid open or was a bar-style; or whether it had a large keyboard or a small one. The iPhone’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-reaction-first-iphone-2015-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">keyboard was on-screen</a> and software-generated, making a function that had required dedicated hardware into one running on generic hardware and dedicated software.
At the time of the iPhone launch, Nokia offered about 200 <a href="http://nokiamuseum.info/category/launching-year/2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">different phone styles to meet all the different needs</a> of its hundreds of millions of customers. There was just one iPhone model at the start, and in the ensuing decade there have been only <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">14 major styles</a> – though today they come in different colors, not just white and black as the original did. This is the power of software functionality and related simplicity.
The heightened importance of software on a mobile phone shifted the industry’s economy as well. The money came now not just from selling devices and phone services, but also from marketing and selling apps and in-app advertisements. <a href="https://www.recode.net/2016/6/8/11889298/google-apple-subscription-app-revenue-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">App developers must share revenue</a> with the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14634656/android-ios-market-share-blackberry-2016" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">companies that control smartphones’ operating systems</a>, providing serious earning power: Apple holds <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14634656/android-ios-market-share-blackberry-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">about 15% of the mobile phone market</a>, but reaps <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170308000345" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">80% of global smartphone profits</a>.
Whatever the next tech industry game-changer is, and whenever it arrives, it will likely have some connection to the smartphone and related infrastructure. Even today, <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/13/virtual_reality_is_made_o_smartphones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exploring virtual reality</a> requires only installing an app and connecting just a bit of additional hardware to an existing phone. Similarly, smartphone interfaces and cameras already <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410889,00.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monitor and control intelligent and automated homes</a>. Even as devices are developed to operate all around us, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/alphabets-new-plan-to-track-10-000-people-could-take-wearables-to-the-next-level-76620" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">even in our clothes</a>, many of them will be able to point to the iPhone as a conceptual ancestor and inspiration.  &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kalle-lyytinen-336943" target="_blank" rel="author noopener noreferrer">Kalle Lyytinen</a>, Iris S. Wolstein Professor of Management Design, Case Western Reserve University
Originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a>
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