Via TechCrunch
the Android and Apple ads that clog the streets of Mandalay, the temple shopkeeper I passed yesterday playing a game on his Galaxy Note, the teenage girls riding sidesaddle on motorcycles holding their phones carefully just away from the tree-bark paste smeared in artful wing-shapes on their cheeks, serving triple duty as sunscreen, moisturizer, and fashion.
Points:
- “…the next billion smartphone users will be the second billion most affluent people on the planet, near enough; and their lives are very different from the first billion.”
- “ Whoever manages to become the Craiglist or TicketMaster/LiveNation of developing-world inter-city transit will be a megazillionaire in short order on raw volume alone.”
- “Only a matter of time, and probably not very much of it; and banking — having a savings account and a way to transfer money to and from family and friends — really matters.”
- “…the youth among those second billion smartphone owners will be able to get really interested in, or better yet passionate about, something — and then be able to learn everything there is to know about it, at their leisure, in their homes.”
Ponder:
- If this is happening in Myanmar, where else will technology affect society?
- What will happen to cultural distinctives as the society opens up to the world?
