Apple’s Most Recent Event Shows The Tech Giant Has Some Similarities To Econet

Econet Connected Car Econet sign, woman on phone

Apple is very much not doomed – but it is no longer growing, leaving Apple no choice but to look elsewhere

Ben Thompson

When Econet
started realising that they had built their fort (the network service) to a
point where growth would be minimal what happened? We slowly but surely saw
them shift from their network service to providing other services. Initially
most of these services were dependant on the network but eventually some were
launched that have nothing to do with the network. Here are some of them (in no
particular order):

EcoLife (now known as EcoSure) – provides insurance solutions that include funeral cover, education cover, and motor vehicle insurance directly from your mobile phone, app or web.

EcoCash – a mobile payment solution that enables customers to complete financial transactions directly from their mobile phone.

Vaya – a ride-hailing app. (Think uber)

Ownai – an eCommerce Marketplace.

There are a bunch more services offered by Econet but these ones illustrate my point pretty clearly. Both companies have pivoted in the face of stagnating growth. Now this is now to say Econet or Apple were in trouble before launching these products but it certainly is where they expect to make more value for existing and potential investors…

A few years from now we will be able to compare if these pivots were succesful or not

Hush…

Before
someone rushes to the comments and cries “How much did Econet pay you to
compare them to one of the biggest companies in the world!!!”, just take a
moment to ask yourself why I’ve chosen Econet and not NetOne or Telecel.

Both of
Econet’s competitors have also pivoted just like Econet but they’ve done it
after the giant has done so and found success. They have been more reactive not
proactive.

The chasing pack in Zimbabwe’s telecoms sectors is still primarily focused on growing subscribers which is evident by their never-ending telecoms promotions. This leads me to believe that neither of the two see themselves as tech companies or are making deliberate pivots, but instead are the guys who started selling chickens because their next door neighbour had made a lot of money selling chickens. And indeed they may find success, but rarely to the extent of the guy who decided to sell chickens first…