This Whole Android Vs. Apple Thing Is So USA

We Are The WorldRecently, I’ve been speaking with a few folks in the telecom business in Africa and a $299 or $199 or even $99 phone is not even a starting point. Try $10 or $20 or $30, heck splurge on an old blackberry retrofitted (i.e. someone cleaned the screen) and now you’re beginning to see how THE WORLD really works.

And that’s the same in China, India and other developing countries. (Yes, yes, I know they have smartphones and nice Apple stores but it’s a small part of those markets)

Sure a smartphone is cool, way cool; but being able to actually send a text message to your village telling them about your new job in the big city – now that’s way cooler.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld was fond of saying,  and by that I mean not that there’s anything wrong with smartphones but where are the entrepreneurs that are trying to come up with $99 supercomputers or $10 laptops or $5 solar powered phones that the “rest” of the world could use.

We’re so busy trying to conjure up the next Facebook that we’re missing Facebookx10 opportunities. So start innovating outside the box (e.g. the Fifty States, the EU).  Take a summer off and travel. Heck, take a year off and go study a foreign language. Just expand your horizon.

Maybe you won’t actually invent something you can sell directly to these markets but when you do invent something – you’ll be thinking globally and then instead of inventing the next Google, you’ll invent the next Google AND Baidu all-in-one and not have to deal with the “do no evil” quandary ‘cause you’ll start off from day one doing good for the whole world.

Now, that’s an app I’d like to see on my iPhone.

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