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Because the Next Billion Users (basically all of India and Asia) does not own a computer or a full keyboard. The only computing device they will ever own in th

Because the Next Billion Users (basically all of India and Asia) does not own a computer or a full keyboard. The only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone.

ohazi 7y ago
But I don't communicate with any of them! I'm an American living in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Everybody I interact with has a computer and uses it extensively. Yet still, somehow, SMS messages everywhere. I don't mean to come off as callous, I'm just genuinely surprised that there are computer literate people in Silicon Valley who prefer SMS over just about anything else. There are messaging systems that treat both mobile and desktop as first class citizens, without using a harebrained sync-to-browser-by-routing-through-your-phone-after-scanning-a-QR-code scheme that doesn't work when your phone is offline or you're visiting a different country. I don't understand why one of these systems can't win over something that locks you to your carrier of all things. Don't people hate carriers? I totally accept that I have weird idiosyncratic preferences that others don't share, but this one honestly has me stumped.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
johnchristopher 7y ago
That doesn't mean the rest of the planet has to downgrade their experience to the lowest denominator.
- sandGorgon 7y ago
  That is the rest of the planet. The number of computers are a sheer minority compared to the number of phones used as primary internet access devices for the rest of the planet. We have more users coming online in a YEAR in India than the whole of the United States desktop population.
esotericn 7y ago
I take your point to an extent, but this is a bit dramatic, don't you think? > The only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone. Computers effectively didn't exist for the general public when say, my mother was born. The world will change dramatically over the next 50 years.
- sandGorgon 7y ago
  This is the current state of affairs. And it is so impactful that when these people are given a laptop for the first time, they try to swipe up on the screen. They don't know how to type on a full size keyboard ...they know how to swype-type. In fact, Indian search traffic is heavily leaning towards voice typing (and we are already the world top 3 bandwidth consumers) India is the first market where Netflix has a smartphone-only plan. So yes, the world will change dramatically in thw next 50 years - but that's why the next evolution of computing devices will be foldables and the like. The laptop based interaction will be restricted to developers and the like. The keynote of Android Dev summit (happening right now) started with foldables. They are making this a key part of the developer push as the next upcoming haptic interface.
  - esotericn 7y ago
    Sure, all that makes sense, 'the only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone' is simply not accurate, though. What you really mean is that the only computing device they have owned so far is a smart phone. You can't claim that in multiple decades smartphones will be the dominant computing platform. It could be anything; AR goggles, brain implants, hell, we could have gone back to the stone age and be mucking about with abaci. ;)

Because the Next Billion Users (basically all of India and Asia) does not own a computer or a full keyboard. The only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone.

ohazi 7y ago

But I don't communicate with any of them! I'm an American living in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Everybody I interact with has a computer and uses it extensively. Yet still, somehow, SMS messages everywhere. I don't mean to come off as callous, I'm just genuinely surprised that there are computer literate people in Silicon Valley who prefer SMS over just about anything else. There are messaging systems that treat both mobile and desktop as first class citizens, without using a harebrained sync-to-browser-by-routing-through-your-phone-after-scanning-a-QR-code scheme that doesn't work when your phone is offline or you're visiting a different country. I don't understand why one of these systems can't win over something that locks you to your carrier of all things. Don't people hate carriers? I totally accept that I have weird idiosyncratic preferences that others don't share, but this one honestly has me stumped.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

johnchristopher 7y ago

That doesn't mean the rest of the planet has to downgrade their experience to the lowest denominator.

sandGorgon 7y ago
That is the rest of the planet. The number of computers are a sheer minority compared to the number of phones used as primary internet access devices for the rest of the planet. We have more users coming online in a YEAR in India than the whole of the United States desktop population.

esotericn 7y ago

I take your point to an extent, but this is a bit dramatic, don't you think? > The only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone. Computers effectively didn't exist for the general public when say, my mother was born. The world will change dramatically over the next 50 years.

sandGorgon 7y ago
This is the current state of affairs. And it is so impactful that when these people are given a laptop for the first time, they try to swipe up on the screen. They don't know how to type on a full size keyboard ...they know how to swype-type. In fact, Indian search traffic is heavily leaning towards voice typing (and we are already the world top 3 bandwidth consumers) India is the first market where Netflix has a smartphone-only plan. So yes, the world will change dramatically in thw next 50 years - but that's why the next evolution of computing devices will be foldables and the like. The laptop based interaction will be restricted to developers and the like. The keynote of Android Dev summit (happening right now) started with foldables. They are making this a key part of the developer push as the next upcoming haptic interface.
- esotericn 7y ago
  Sure, all that makes sense, 'the only computing device they will ever own in their life is a smart phone' is simply not accurate, though. What you really mean is that the only computing device they have owned so far is a smart phone. You can't claim that in multiple decades smartphones will be the dominant computing platform. It could be anything; AR goggles, brain implants, hell, we could have gone back to the stone age and be mucking about with abaci. ;)