Availability of cheaper bandwidth and higher penetration of mobile phones has led to more mobile applications in Africa.Symbian, J2ME, Android and iPhone are the most common platforms for African developers, mainly because Nokia is the most common handset and J2ME is compatible with most handsets.

"Africans are beginning to excel in mobile application development simply because it's often all they code for," said Jon Gosier, CEO of Appfrica, based in Uganda.

MXit, a mobile chat platform in South Africa has become an important platform for developers as many companies turn to developers for company-specific applications.

"We are currently working with MXiTelematics, MWeb, CNN and a couple of other companies on other mobile applications. The biggest platform people are targeting is J2ME because of its wide use in South Africa," said Leonard Ah Kun, the co-founder of Cobi Interactive

The entry of SEACOM and TEAMS fiber optic cables has forced bandwidth prices down, although not as cheap as the cables owners had touted. For developers, the bandwidth has allowed more creativity and innovation. Online videos and tutorials have become important sources for developers.

"Cheaper bandwidth allows better online communication and collaboration, and access to various resources on the web for example the iPhone development tools are large- about 2GB," said Wesley Kiriinya, the co-founder of Leti Games.

Kiriinya's emphasis of cross-continent collaboration was demonstrated two weeks ago when Leti Games launched the second version for iWarrior together with Ghanian co-founder Eyram Tawia.

Leti Games developed iwarrior for iPhone and also for J2ME, which will increase user access. Bandwidth availability means the games are accessible in many places in Africa.

"Availability of bandwidth has made African markets more viable for our games since Internet access is important for distribution, marketing and sales," added Kiriinya.

Availability of bandwidth has helped Internet users in markets such as South Africa, which had existing cables, but even for markets in eastern Africa, ability to access online tools at lower rates has been beneficial.

"Internet access is more affordable and faster, meaning tools are more easily accessible, [it] takes a shorter time to download tools updates and Web conferences are now easily available," said Phares Kariuki VMware product manager, Westcon Africa.

With the increase in the number of developers, Africa has been left to address challenges such as expanding market channels with proper revenue-sharing models.

"One of the challenges in Africa is the lack of a payment platform that has reasonable revenue share with the developers and at the same time charging reasonable fees to the buyer," said Leti Game's Kiriinya.

The route to the market has discouraged many developers, but some applications such as iPhone seem to have an edge.

"Currently, Twitter and Facebook help. That is why some developers have a bias towards iPhone apps," added Kariuki.

However, according to Appfrica's Gosier, many developers face barriers to entry and lack affordable PCs, home Internet connections and Web servers. In Africa, many people first come into contact with some of the technology gadgets and services at the university level.

While experience in software development and coding is also usually at that level, developers are expected to perform like their counterparts in the West, who in most cases begin to use technology at early ages.

"There's 'learning it', and there's 'knowing it'. Unfortunately, the only way to truly 'know' something is to be fully immersed in it, which a lot of African developers don't get the opportunity to do.  By the time they do, they're already at the age where they are looking for work," added Gosier.

Even if there has been no culture of investing in technology, African developers are setting up forums to ensure that students have a support system in software development.

"I have started a mobile developer community for mobile developers keen on South Africa -- the first step is to find out how many mobile developers there are and create resources," said Cobi Interactive's Kun.