China Has More People Going Online With a Mobile Device Than a PC 58
An anonymous reader points out that even though China's internet adoption rate is the lowest it's been in 8 years, the number of people surfing the net from a mobile device has never been higher. "The number of China's internet users going online with a mobile device — such as a smartphone or tablet — has overtaken those doing so with a personal computer (PC) for the first time, said the official China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday. China's total number of internet users crept up 2.3 percent to 632 million by the end of June, from 618 million at the end of 2013, said CNNIC's internet development statistics report. Of those, 527 million — or 83 percent — went online via mobile. Those doing so with a PC made up 81 percent the total. China is the largest smartphone market in the world, and by 2018 is likely to account for nearly one-third of the expected 1.8 billion smartphones shipped that year, according to data firm IDC.
Propaganda for Chinese cell manufacturers? (Score:4, Interesting)
China has a whole bunch of in-state manufacturers that are backed by their government. I'm sure it's also a lot easier for their government to control what goes on with cell phones, because they either own the providers or have total control over their activities. This almost sounds like a "Everyone's doing it, so should you!" kind of thing to get more people to buy state-controlled phones.
Re:So (Score:5, Interesting)
Leveling off surprisingly low (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:China has an internet? (Score:4, Interesting)
for normal people? 2003 or so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
But it's crony captalisim at it's best. First they allow access to a western site to get the feel of it, then they have uncle at the military have the site blocked. Then Jr creates a clone version of that site. The pirate site then gets popular since you can't access the real site, and well billion + people means millions of users which means nice watch, a couple of apartments and shark fin soup for uncle.
It's a joke.
Same is true for all developing countries (Score:3, Interesting)
Symantics (Score:2, Interesting)
Mobile devices are PCs.
Re:Long live the 'desktop' and mobile 'laptop'. (Score:2, Interesting)
You think that is the root cause?
I guess from all the time you spent in China you failed to notice something subtle yet important.
There was never really an infrastructure build-out for land based services (phone/tv).
Since they never wired for cable TV/Home phones how do you suppose they get home-internet working?
Cell phones are everywhere since they are fairly cheap and the primary way they have phone service (unless you want to stand in line at the post office).
PS
I think you are also off on the apartment sizes.
I own what was once a state-owned apartment in a decent sized Chinese city (pop ~ 4.7 Million).
The place has two bedrooms with a combined tv/dining room. Both bedrooms are reasonably sized and both have queen sized beds with space for a desk and chair.
I don't see why they cant put a computer on the desks? Now if I had a computer in my Chinese apartment i'm unsure where i would plug it in for internet access as there are no telephone/cable jacks.
Re:China has an internet? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a joke.
Whoa there, it turns "innovation", "IP", "the free market", and "network neutrality" into sad jokes. And there's not a lot of respect for that sort of stuff in China. The country is still fairly repressive by modern standards.
But it very much funnels users and money back towards China. This sort of thing will not be fought by the officials in China. The minor officials get shark-fin soup, so they're all for it. But the higher ups like it just the same as it keep money from leaving the country. It's essentially protectionism.
China is not alone (Score:4, Interesting)