ABSTRACT
This case study describes how, by understanding the use of mobile phones in emerging markets and in unsafe environments, Experientia ended up designing functionalities for mobile phone services. The theme of mobile services in emerging markets is the focus of a software development centre that a software development centre that Google opened in Nairobi. Finally there is remote ethnography, observing people from afar using the mobile phone itself as the tool. A mobile ethnographic research study that Experientia conducted for Samsung in South Africa and Senegal involved extensive ethnographic observations by teams of local researchers. Indeed, some of the more exciting and innovative technology-based services actually stem from bottom-up innovation within emerging markets and ingenious indigenous use of technology. Remote research allows companies with smaller budgets and fast development cycles to get quick input from users in emerging markets without the investments that ethnographic research and local design centres require.
