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All the people getting online around the developing world overwhelmingly own only phones. Their phones are the only electronic device they have. Even in develop

All the people getting online around the developing world overwhelmingly own only phones. Their phones are the only electronic device they have. Even in developed countries it is becoming extremely common now for people whose don't create much text content to only use a phone or tablet. Desktops and tablets are something they maybe only see at work.

Retric 8y ago
In the early days aka pre 1990 very few people where online or had access to computers worldwide. In the 90’s access kept increasing but mostly in the developed world which is ~1/6 of global population. New PC sales makes it look like access is dropping, but the reality is people simply use older Computers on average. A 10 year old desktop in 1998 is relatively ancient, but in 2018 it’s not that far behind the curve. On top of that tablets and smartphones often replace secondary computers. If you have a powerful gaming desktop and a tablet then a laptop is less useful.
Pigo 8y ago
But there is a lot of people at work right now, on their desktop and laptop.
rjf72 8y ago
This is going to vary by area. In various locations I've lived, all in the developing world, phones are used for mindless social media and games, desktops are used for everything else. There are some cultural things that might make the numbers look misleading or just generally be very difficult to measure. For instance internet cafes tend to be ubiquitous in many parts of the world which provide easy and extremely comfortable access to high end computers which people in many cases use effectively as their own. With prices that start at some pennies per hour, it also often makes more economic sense in many cases. Another big issue is that 'computer malls' are also still a thing. Think something like Fry's, but 6 stories tall and full of nothing but independent shops. These places drive two confounding issues. The first is that they build [lots] of computers a la carte. PC sales figures only come from major distributors like Dell, HP, etc. So even though there are millions of PCs sold at these malls, it'd count as 0 by most metrics. And another factor is that people tend to repair/refurbish/upgrade their computers rather than buy new ones. These malls again facilitate such things at very affordable prices. I can count the number of tablets I've seen on one hand.
cknoxrun 8y ago
An aside but surely this must be positive in terms of environmental impact. Imagine the millions (billions?) of desktops and laptops that have not been manufactured or powered because of the widespread availability of phones.
- int_19h 8y ago
  Conversely, desktops and laptops can be upgraded much easier than phones, so I'm not sure the long-term environmental impact is necessarily positive, once all those millions of phones end up in landfills.

Retric 8y ago

In the early days aka pre 1990 very few people where online or had access to computers worldwide. In the 90’s access kept increasing but mostly in the developed world which is ~1/6 of global population. New PC sales makes it look like access is dropping, but the reality is people simply use older Computers on average. A 10 year old desktop in 1998 is relatively ancient, but in 2018 it’s not that far behind the curve. On top of that tablets and smartphones often replace secondary computers. If you have a powerful gaming desktop and a tablet then a laptop is less useful.

Pigo 8y ago

But there is a lot of people at work right now, on their desktop and laptop.

rjf72 8y ago

This is going to vary by area. In various locations I've lived, all in the developing world, phones are used for mindless social media and games, desktops are used for everything else. There are some cultural things that might make the numbers look misleading or just generally be very difficult to measure. For instance internet cafes tend to be ubiquitous in many parts of the world which provide easy and extremely comfortable access to high end computers which people in many cases use effectively as their own. With prices that start at some pennies per hour, it also often makes more economic sense in many cases. Another big issue is that 'computer malls' are also still a thing. Think something like Fry's, but 6 stories tall and full of nothing but independent shops. These places drive two confounding issues. The first is that they build [lots] of computers a la carte. PC sales figures only come from major distributors like Dell, HP, etc. So even though there are millions of PCs sold at these malls, it'd count as 0 by most metrics. And another factor is that people tend to repair/refurbish/upgrade their computers rather than buy new ones. These malls again facilitate such things at very affordable prices. I can count the number of tablets I've seen on one hand.

cknoxrun 8y ago

An aside but surely this must be positive in terms of environmental impact. Imagine the millions (billions?) of desktops and laptops that have not been manufactured or powered because of the widespread availability of phones.

int_19h 8y ago
Conversely, desktops and laptops can be upgraded much easier than phones, so I'm not sure the long-term environmental impact is necessarily positive, once all those millions of phones end up in landfills.