The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published the Mobile Access 2010 study, and it has generated a significant amount of buzz. The introduction proclaims, “African Americans and 18- to 29-year-olds lead the way in the use of cell phone data applications …”
As insights weave their way through public discourse, they tend to grow in scope. They are attached to other topics in a sort of snowball effect. In this case, the African American mobile-data insight was attached to the topic of the digital divide. Those who still see a digital divide among different ethnic groups see African American mobile-data usage as indicative of the fact that they are still left behind in the broadband-access revolution (as if such a thing is still happening). But this idea is eclipsed by a handful of realities that many pundits either haven’t taken the time to look at or have willfully ignored.
Everyone engaged in this debate should understand that it’s actually a little more expensive to own an Internet-enabled mobile device these days than to buy a computer and get basic broadband access.
If you put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and hunt for deals — either through a catalog, a store or online — you will see that you can get a really good, brand-new laptop for $399. Couple this with basic broadband access now available at around $20 per month, and you are out a total of $640 over the year.
Conversely, you can find a great deal from a no-contract provider such as Cricket for $40 a month, paired with the lowest-cost mobile device costing around $180. Your total annual outlay is $660.
The economies of scale guiding different points of access have essentially flattened the total cost of access between these two platforms. And many of the same providers are also selling mobile broadband access, which essentially removes the geographic elements of the digital-divide argument.
We should also keep in mind that mobile Internet access has made huge leaps in terms of the overall access experience. Most mobile consumers are no longer squinting their eyes at tiny screens with ASCII-text-like WAP pages. As devices continue to evolve, the mobile-Internet experience will gain ground on the standard PC-access experience.
It’s tempting to give in to the traditional digital-divide argument. But the facts and economics tell us something very different. We should stop thinking of urban consumers as “resorting” to mobile Internet access and start following/studying their lead.
