Their impact on society and community connectivity
We are seeing the emergence of a new trend that is changing the way people organize and communicate with the goal of achieving things in common.
This is made possible through the proliferation of smartphones. Today more people are discovering the Internet for the first time on their mobile devices than from their laptop or desktop computer. User time, which seems to be the most valuable currency in Silicon Valley for consumer apps has shifted from TVs, laptops and console to the smartphone screen. Smartphones have become the most powerful device: they can compute, store, sense and transmit data independently. The power of these on device radios is being harnessed to form new connections. The magic is that when communities, groups or crowds use these wireless interfaces, they form a free network, an instant social network. A whole that is more powerful than the sum of its parts. The final and last link to a user is not necessarily the access provider, the platform or content provider anymore. Connectivity can be provided by someone like you.
For the first time ever in history, these networks have begun to form globally. I experienced this while I was in Hong Kong when students used FireChat as a symbol of freedom, to organize and support themselves as mobile networks were congested. Students in Taiwan formed these peer-to-peer mesh networks for the same reasons during the sunflower movement. During BurningMan, burners were able to share information while everyone was stuck in the mud because of a storm. Since then, this phenomenon has been occurring again and again through out the world. From music festivals in India to demonstrations in Moscow, communities empowered by these technologies have been disrupting the normal course of events.
This is inevitable and opens up the way to the next stage of human communications. Modern history is filled with examples of new information technology outpacing the old. The telephone did this to the telegraph, and the Internet outpaced the telephone. Demand for accessing information is growing exponentially and modern infrastructure can’t keep up. The entire world is going to go from consuming about 2.5 Exabytes a month in 2014 to 25 Exabytes a month in the next 5 years. Peer-to-peer mesh networking can move a big part of that data to the edge of the network, bringing more people online than never before.
What will be the impact when the number of smartphones users will have more than tripled in the next 3 years?
Nobody knows. This new network opens up a new era, which is often called the Internet of Things. I call this the Internet of Us. The denser the population is, the more impact this network will have. The next 5 Billion smartphones will be shipped in emerging markets in the next 3 years, most of which in urban areas with a high density population. This trend will affect the way people learn, communicate and engage with business.
The next 3 years will be fascinating, as smartphones penetration ratio rockets in emerging markets. Many of these smartphones’ owners won’t be able to pay for a data plan. In these markets it is common to have up to 70–80% of smartphones users who don’t pay for data. This is going to affect the mobile Internet and to force the market to find new ways to bring Internet to people. Google has already started with the Loon project and more recently their investment in SpaceX. Facebook has well understood the barrier of access to mobile data. More than 150 mobile carriers worldwide have already open up access to Facebook for free as part of Internet.org or simply to onboard more users onto mobile data plans.
Percent of global Adult Population Without a Smartphone
Smartphones are the new infrastructure, and you are the carrier.