For billions of people worldwide, Smartphones are prohibitively expensive. Nearly 2.5 billion people lived in countries where a mobile phone would cost at least a quarter of a month – to-month or even annual income, according to the Alliance for affordable Internet. Also, data packets could not afford to pay for a lot of people.
The Alliance has compared to Smartphone prices in 70 countries with low-and middle-income and more than five billion inhabitants. In Sierra Leone, in West Africa, so a mobile phone is the most expensive. There are more than six average monthly wages costs, the equivalent of 225 euros. Behind Burundi, followed by India. There, where almost a fifth of the world’s population lives, the cost of the cheapest device two average monthly salaries of almost 300 Euro. In contrast, a Smartphone in Botswana or Jamaica cost only about 20 euros, about five percent of the average monthly income.
For a in these countries the standard of living is higher and people had more money, says Teddy Woodhouse, Director of research with the Web Foundation, the German press Agency. There is data to provide vendors but also devices without a brand name. “The devices are not very smart and often have slower processors and cameras, and smaller memory,” said Woodhouse. As entry-level devices, the rich but.
“The vast majority of next one billion people who go online do so via a mobile device”, – quotes the Foundation Woodhouse. “If we want to make sure that people can take advantage of the benefits of the Internet, we need to make devices more affordable.”
