Is it possible that simple tools, such as low-cost mobile phones, can have more positive economic and social impact than our typical large-scale government-to-government and typical development aid efforts? The aid establishment might not like the question, or the answers, but MIT NextLab project staff seem to believe the answer is "yes."
“Traditional aid does little for the very poor,” says Jhonatan Rotberg, founder and director of the NextLab program. “Only a fraction of the donated money trickles down to those who need it most."
"But with a mobile phone, poor people can get ahead," he says.
By any measure, recent progress, especially over the past few years, has been quite dramatic: mobile cellular penetration in developing countries has more than doubled since 2005, when it stood at only 23 per cent.
Last year, mobile cellular penetration in developing countries passed the 50 per cent mark, reaching an estimated 57 per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2009. Even though this remains well below the average in developed countries, where penetration exceeds 100 per cent, the rate of progress is remarkable.
Android might be the next big evolution, not that voice and text messaging are propagating. Using Android, devices could be customized for any number of applications that might otherwise be run on a PC, an important development in markets where device cost and access to electricity are issues.
Already, over four billion mobile phones are in use in the world today. The next billion new users, Rotberg says, will be spread out in the developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. Android could be important in that regard.
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/03/31/mits-nextlab-designing-technology-for-the-next-billion-mobile-phone-owners/?single_page=true
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Mobile for the Next Billion Users
Labels:
consumer behavior,
consumer demand,
mobile
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Consumer Feedback on Smartphone AI Isn't That Helpful
It is a truism that consumers cannot envision what they never have seen, so perhaps it is not too surprising that artificial intelligence sm...
-
We have all repeatedly seen comparisons of equity value of hyperscale app providers compared to the value of connectivity providers, which s...
-
It really is surprising how often a Pareto distribution--the “80/20 rule--appears in business life, or in life, generally. Basically, the...
-
Is there a relationship between screen size and data consumption? One might think the answer clearly is “yes,” based on the difference bet...
No comments:
Post a Comment