Wow... just... wow.

China already has more mobile phone users than the entire population of the United States, but the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (now there's a new twist on an otherwise Orwellian name...) noted yesterday that the number of mobile phone users in China is expected to top 440 million this year. That's a third of the Chinese population.

Anybody want to estimate what portion of Earth's population has a mobile phone?

(Via SmartMobs)

Some other good questions to ask are:

How many of these phones are locally made in China?

Do local and foreign manufacturers of mobile phones have to meet certain requirements to allow easy eavesdropping?

Are the operating systems of these phones open source and thus hackable with a flash ROM update?

Just askin'

Posted by: Pace Arko on February 4, 2006 1:51 AM

1. Do the Chinese phones work?

2. What does this imply for the demand for Columbite/tantalite - coltan for short - and for those places in the world, principally Africa, where the mineral is found?

Posted by: David Foley on February 4, 2006 8:57 AM