Internet Cellphones

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122844530354182063.html
Poorer Nations Go Online on Cellphones
-Wall Street Journal Online

According to this article, many mobile-technology companies are seeing opportunities for growth due a large influx of people using their cellphones as a means of surfing the internet. Many countries that have poor telecommunication lines have turned to their cellphones as a way of keeping up with the times and internet use. In fact, Opera Software ASA, a company that makes Internet browsers for mobile phones, says that it is growing most rapidly in Indonesia, Egypt, and Russia. Another company that sends ads to Internet handsets, AdMob Inc., reports that Asia has overtaken North America in October as its largest market. One woman from Jakarta, Indonesia said that she uses her cellphone to look at social-networking sites and email, and it costs her $25 a month, similar to a home Internet connection, even though she is online constantly. While Internet connections for phones have been slow in the past, they have definitely approved and are now even faster than home connections in some cases.

While I know several people who do, I do not use my phone as a means of connecting to the Internet. This concept seems to definitely make sense for poorer countries without access to great Internet connections at home, yet I find it a little surprising that it is catching on so quickly other places, too. I don’t want to mess with the small screen on my cellphone and type on the mini keys just to check my email, when I can wait a few minutes or even an hour before I get home to do so. I would think that this would be annoying for users, but I guess if getting the information is urgent, or access to a computer is difficult to find, it makes sense. I think I will just need to be more open-minded I guess to catch up with the times, even though some may think this is odd, as our generation is seen as being so “tech-savvy”. Yet, while I had never thought of this before, I think it is a great resource for other countries who do not have the same Internet access as we do.