Apple's embrace of cloud computing and Steve Jobs comment about how this will change the nature of the PC brings up some interesting questions about the impact this may have on emerging countries.
Much has been written about the impact that access to the internet can have in helping developing countries' economic growth so there is no need to repeat it here other than to confirm that I believe this to be true. This is part of my enthusiasm for low cost smartphones and my continued support for a Chinese company, www.maxitech.cn which has exploited the opportunity of turning a very low cost phone powered by a low cost processor into the ultimate 'thin-client' from which functions not dissimilar to those found in a more expensive smartphone.
Unlike energy where I am an advocate for distributed power systems, it appears that there are genuine benefits to have computing power centralised and accessed via a thin client. This brings down the cost of the client which in turn makes computing accessible to more people. It may well render the sub-$100 computer, which received so much attention only a year or so ago, seem easy.
Of course, it is unlikely that the poor of Mali or Sierra Leone will be linking up to Apple Computer's servers anytime soon, but this technology is emerging very rapidly and I believe holds massive potential for continued acceleration in economic growth for developing and low income countries
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