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- cross-posted to:
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4.3 Billion People Now Own Smartphones::Find out how smartphone ownership has reached 4.3 billion people worldwide. Dive into the GSMA’s Mobile Internet Connectivity 2023 Report.
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“Why didn’t we sell more phones this year? We are supposed to have infinite growth!”
“Sir, basically every human has a phone and doesn’t need a new one every year.”
“…no, that can’t be it.”
Shareholders: “Then make more people you incompetent fucks!”
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Hopefully this might collaterally improve wearable tech :[
I’m planning to get a second one just for work (and having work pay for it) so maybe that’s the angle they should pursue. Discounts for corporate purchases?
It’s me. It’s my fault. I’m the people.
I’m not surprised though. The utility of a smartphone is absolutely unparalleled but also paramount lately. Lately it seems to be that in most of the world an internet connection is required to get a job. You’d need it to apply for work but you’d also need it to access email to see job offers and other responses. You’d also need a phone to often get phone calls about work. For those two functions alone a smartphone is a fantastic investment. When you add in every other service and utility you can get out of it…
in most of the world
Citation needed.
Most of the world includes Africa, India, China, South America. Places like Western Europe, Australia and the US only contribute a small amount to that world population. I doubt an Internet connection is needed to get a job in Nigeria, Peru or Sri Lanka.
Do you think applying to work for Hamas is as dumb as Walmart? Answer obnoxious questions about your behavior to ensure you act like the programmed soldier they want you to be so you can perfectly carry out their mission with brutal precision and zero regard for anyone else except just for the sole goals of their top leadership? I’m talking about Walmart of course.
Yeah… It’s a tool of capitalism. Nothing you said is a positive reason for the increased ownership of a device that delivers sorrow and does little to enrich a person’s life.
Depends on how you use it. You have access to the knowledge of the world at your fingertips, but if you only use it to shop and Facebook, that’s on you.
No it isn’t. These devices are specifically made to promote behaviors. You’re talking like you’re immune to it, but I assure you that isn’t the case.
These devices are specifically made to promote behaviors
Like what? I don’t think Apple, Google or Samsung care about whether you download Facebook. It’s not like they’re making money off it.
Oh they aren’t? Showing people having a good time, creating feelings of missing out, dopamine hits from cute videos and liking disliking content? Hmm why does Samsung have Facebook preinstalled? For fun? Google doesn’t run ads through nearly everything done online?
I hope you’re young.
Ok I did forget Samsung preinstalls Facebook but Google running ads has nothing to do with Facebook. All the major social media platforms have their own ads. It’s in Googles best interests for people to not use Facebook because it would devalue Facebook ads. Also the original comment was about whether phones are made specifically to “promote behaviors”. You seem to be conflating social media companies and phone manufacturers.
Oh right. Smartphones are only used for calling and texting. My bad. You guys are right. Phones are awesome.
You can modify your phone to undo a lot of that
Yeah… It’s a tool of capitalism. Nothing you said is a positive reason for the increased ownership of a device that delivers sorrow and does little to enrich a person’s life.
It is simply a tool. A large percentage of people have benefits from owning a pocket computer with access to the internet, and this is immediately obvious to everyone.
The companies maintaining the operating systems used in smartphones care more about the mental health of people than social media companies, reason why both Google and Apple added functionality to limit time spent on certain apps, which for me is a huge thing.
And the other 3.7 billion people is glad to have some food for the day…
Smartphones are at a level of ubiquety in many societies where depending on where you live, even the poorest of individuals will have one. It’s not uncommon at all to see homeless people around starbucks getting free wifi to connect online with whatever smartphone they have. It’s really dependent on where you live whether a smartphone is at all correlated with wealth.
All societies changed because of computers and smartphones. Lots of people forget that especially for poor people smartphones brought so much benefits that were not accessible before, such as online banking (not needing to go to a bank branch), being in touch with family even when moving away for work, much more access to information (despite the low barrier of disinformation nowadays), online courses, healthcare tips etc.
But but but the Boomers told me things about having a smartphone and drinking coffee that means you MUST not be poor.
I’m not talking about people who have Starbucks around. 🤣
How many of them are well fed kids who don’t need a smartphone yet?
I’ve been day dreaming about getting rid of mine. Its not going to happen (any time soon) but its a nice dream world to live in.
I just want a small laptop. Not a phone. I hate the why apps and crap work and how files are stored. It’s so annoying to use
Exactly. I keep looking at small Linux devices, waiting for the day when I can replace my phone with one of those.
Sadly, more and more, an android phone is made quasi mandatory for a number of things (like banking auth), and I’m not sure how to work around that yet.
First really important thing to do is to refuse anything that locks you in.
An Android phone is a small Linux device. Just install termux.
It’s not. It just has really heavly modified Linux kernel and the similarities end there. Termux uses a hack that was already patched, so if Termux ever update to newer API level it won’t work.
I hate how files, the UI and overall services managment work on Android. I cannot mount a drive, access app’s files and their configs, I cannot change the UI environment or system theme (besides basic setting of app launcher and dark/light), I cannot update beyond manufacturer support and swap OSes like on PC and the list goes on…
Termux uses a hack that was already patched, so if Termux ever update to newer API level it won’t work.
I got a brand new phone and installed Termux a few weeks ago.
I cannot mount a drive, access app’s files and their configs,
That is a problem on normal Android. But with Termux and certain other programs that have the right permissions, like the “File” app that came with my Samsung, you can access the entire OS and network drives.
I cannot update beyond manufacturer support and swap OSes like on PC and the list goes on…
If you root your phone you can do anything.
I got a brand new phone and installed Termux a few weeks ago. Because of backwards compatibility of Android, you can install older apps. But Termux was not updated in ~2 years and no app targeting modern version can use permissions that Termux needs.
That is a problem on normal Android. But with Termux and certain other programs that have the right permissions, like the “File” app that came with my Samsung, you can access the entire OS and network drives. Also not what I ment, I see you haven’t used Linux for longer, but it has a concept of mounting. You mount some virtual or real drive to a diretory and then this directory behave like a “portal”. By this way you can for example mount online storage drive as it was a physical and for example install programs on it.
If you root your phone you can do anything. Not true. This is in theory, in practice you are very limited by Android messed up nature and lack of documentation from manufacturer side. Look up PostmarketOS, a real Linux distribution that community maintain. You can see how short is the list of supported phones, it needs to be ported for every device separately and takes huge amount of work. Look up PostmarketOS, it is a real mainline (means without much modifications) Linux-based OS. You can plug a monitor in and there would be no difference between PC and this, can install desktop apps.
I see you haven’t used Linux for longer, but it has a concept of mounting.
Dude I’ve used Unix for 40 years since before Linux existed. I had an Android tablet, in which I installed termux on, and mounted my shared network drives using Samba on termux. I literally used the Linux “mount” command to mount it to my termux linux filesystem.
You can see how short is the list of supported phones, it needs to be ported for every device separately and takes huge amount of work
And it was a huge amount of work to port Unix to various hardware back in the day.
Netbooks could have been great if they were started in 2015 and not 2005. Modern day ARM and perhaps future RISC-V could make them miles ahead.
I currently use a Chromebook for “on the go but needing a bigger screen and keyboard”, as my thinkpad is too big for that task. I do however consider getting something like an X230 frequently, so I’m not stuck to Chrome OS because mine is not supported by any of the community “Chromebook to usable laptop with Linux” methods.
I literally just had my finger over the order button for one of these Nokia 3310 Remakes, but I didn’t order
Maybe it’s only because I am a uni student and not full-on working, but I did. IMO it’s improved my overall life, and what little is mobile-only (hi Steam’s trade confirmations) can be used in an emulator/VM.
There are multiple apps I have to have for work. MS Teams is the one I doubt I could replicate. Nor do I really want send a reply to an urgent question using T9 input.
I would not be surprised if some of the data used and conclusions are incorrect. The article said some percentage that are using 4G. I’ll bet all of this is based on active phones. Would not be surprised if they are stupidly presuming 1 phone = 1 person. But the article didn’t clarify that, or much of anything else. Tons of people own/use multiple phones.
I’d like to see an age breakdown.
2.6 billion people are under 20, nearly a billion are over 60. I’d expect those age groups are less likely to own smartphones.
So, the rate for people between 20 and 60 might be closer to 90%.
