HHTel wrote:When it comes to mobile phones per capita:
USA is ranked 75th, the UK is 89th.
Thailand is ranked at number 8!!!
I think that among the reasons for this high smartphone market penetration in Thailand are:
. At the advent of mobile phones fixed phone lines were still hard to come by.
. Similarly, internet connections originally depended on fixed phone lines and only gradually the two methods of communication became separated.
. Meanwhile mobile phone usage increased rapidly (because of the difficulty getting fixed lines) and Thais generally skipped the hassle of waiting for fixed lines.
. As the internet grew, many Thais still only had mobile phones and were therefore a prime market for smartphones which gave them access to the internet. Prior to smartphones, feature phones allowed basic access to the internet via WEP but this was rather clunky.
. Most Thai households couldn't afford to buy a PC (and still can't) and without a phone line still wouldn't have internet access. Cheap smartphones (and tablets) have helped mitigate this problem.
Meanwhile in places like the UK a more affluent population already had phone lines and could afford PCs so that this became the usual method for internet access possibly reducing the perceived need for smartphones when voice communication was the primary phone function.
