Technology spawning business opportunities in Jamaica
Published:Sunday | September 26, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Business Reporter
As the digital divide between the developing and developed countries closes, Jamaica has continued to make significant progress.
From the IBM PCs, Intellivision video games, and Motorola 'brick' cellular phones of the late 1980s, and even though believed to be lagging behind the First World by five to six years, more and more Jamaicans have become technologically savvy, seeking to acquire the latest innovations.
The liberalisation of the market, which led to the entry of Irish company Digicel, and most recently Claro, opened the market to even more competition as the mobile firms sought to lure the consuming public with signature handsets. This created the opportunity for a whole new market in phone accessories.
Technology is spawning several creative business openings here, from the man who has no overheads because he patrols the busy intersections in the city selling phonecards and accessories, to the man who sells from the trunk of his car, or the one occupying space in the regular commercial districts.
Cellphone accessories
Jonathan Davis sells cellphone accessories from his handcart in the North Street area of downtown Kingston. He refused to have his photo taken because he resides in one of the most crime-infested communities in St Catherine.
Years ago, the 47-year-old Davis was employed to one of the biggest distilleries in Jamaica, but he lost his job in a redundancy exercise.
"Those days, Digicel just come and everybody want a Digi phone, so I used my redundancy money and buy some phone card and start to sell in Spanish Town," he recalls. In no time he would sell five dozen cards, which saw him going back to replenish his stocks four five times for the day.
Things got even better for Davis, and not long after he decided to expand into accessories, with savings from his phone card business.
"I buy my stuff at a business place that imports accessories from China, and put my little mark up on it and business is good, right now I am thinking of getting a little shop and doing an online course on fixing phones, because my customers not only buying the goods they want me to unlock or repair them as well."
But, Iraqi war veteran, Ralph Brown has no such concern, he concentrates on phone repairs, but has no plan to move from his spot, at the bus stop in the vicinity of the Victoria Mutual Building, Half Way Tree Road, anytime soon.
Brown was not prepared to tell Sunday Business too much about himself, and from the number of clients who were waiting on his services, he did not have much time to talk either.
From what he offered, we did learn that he acquired his craft while serving in the US Army. He was adamant that he was the only man in Jamaica that can fix anything digital.
Quantum Concepts (QC) is located on the Mall Plaza, Constant Spring Road, and is operated by business partners Jermaine Rowe and Sally Chung.
It would be hard to believe that the company that began with Rowe and Chung driving around the neighbourhoods selling phone accessories and doing minor repairs is just seven months old.
Determined to capitalise on the opportunities made available by the Blackberry craze, Rowe resigned from his job in the media fraternity, sold his car and along with his partner pooled all their resources and expanded their operation.
"We did not start with a lot of stuff, " Rowe tells Sunday Business, "but as we grew we saw that there is a real market out there for services like this, and decided to dedicate ourselves to it."
Huge market
Today, QC not only offers services relating to the cellular phones, but services computers and video games, creates graphic and web designs, does outdoor advertising and indoor displays.
"The demand for these kinds of services is very big," he continued, "there are not a lot of persons out there who can do major repairs to Blackberry and iPhones, nor provide the respective accessories."
Quantum Concepts has not left its fate to the old fashioned word of mouth to market its business, but has also invested into advertising through the media and other innovative means.
The company sources its goods directly from the Orients and has now established itself as a distribution centre for a number of other businesses.
But for these young entrepreneurs the dream does not stop there, as with shrewd and disciplined business practices both are of the view that their little business that start out on wheels can expand to other locations both in the urban and rural areas.