03-07-2013, 12:07 AM
Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=silvarios]How do people pushing forward the technology to the masses somehow limit such technology from reaching the masses?
I'm not sure I follow your question here.
Read your post again. I said someone was expressing an opinion and it was interesting to know what kind of technology a tech writer uses for his personal gear. You mentioned something about how tech people prevent the masses from using tech. No idea how that can be true.
Carnos Jax wrote: [quote=silvarios]There was nothing hard about using a Palm phone when compared to the PCs (either WIndows, Mac, or Linux distro) that people were already using on a regular basis.
So says the techie. ;-) Moreover, many people didn't use PC's (like my parents) or were very timid about their use (instead relying on the throngs of geeks/computer specialists at shops or otherwise known to them, to deal issues--which were very common--with or manage their machines). Not an ideal situation.
Disagree. Mass market computer saturation had already happened by the 2000s.
Carnos Jax wrote: The VAST majority had just regular old cell phones.
That was the same, even after the iPhone was released. It is seven years later, 2013, where smartphones are expected to surpass other phone shipments. I know quite a few people who barely use their smartphone as a smartphone, but when smartphones are free on contract or $100 or less off contract, hard to pass up a better device on the rare occasion they actually use the phone as more than calling, messaging, email device. Many non smartphones run apps, do web browsing, email, mapping, data tethering, etc. My S40 Nokias were quite the workhorse and that class of phones still exist. Shoot 9 million full touch Nokia Ashas were sold last quarter alone, that doesn't count other Asha phones or any basic Nokia phones. I would consider those devices to be smartphones because they are darn near close enough, but some people still consider S40 phones to be feature phones.
Carnos Jax wrote:
I didn't (and wouldn't) dispute that. But as I mentioned already, for the vast majority it was 'inaccessible' and hence they stayed away.
Here in the States, they may have stayed away because the free on contract phones were not smart phones for many years. The first iPhone was $500 with a two year contract. Consequently, it sold poorly. Also, data services on phones were limited for a long time. It wasn't hard to have a web browser on a phone, but slow data ensured WAP for browsing, it wasn't all about specs of the devices. As much as the devices improved, the networks made great leaps as well.