Google vice-president and chief Internet evangelist Vinton G. Cerf predicted Tuesday that mobile phones, not personal computers, will fuel growth of the worldwide Web, as countries like India snap up millions of handsets monthly.
From 50 million in 1997, the number of people who have logged onto the Internet has exploded to nearly 1.1 billion, Cerf, who is considered one of the founding fathers of the Internet, said.
Yet the Internet only reaches a sixth of the world's population, Cerf told reporters during a visit to Bangalore, known as India's Silicon Valley, where Google has a research and development facility.
"You will get those other 5.5 billion people only when affordability increases and the cost of communication goes down," said Cerf, 63, who joined Google in 2005. "The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution."
Worldwide there are 2.5 billion mobile-phone users, whose numbers are growing rapidly in developing countries, led by China and India, the world's most populous countries, Cerf said in his presentation.
Cerf was the co-designer with Robert Kahn of the basic architecture of the Internet.
In 2005, they both received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the US, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which recognized that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them "at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment."
I cant agree more with Cerf, as its there are more data enabled mobile phones in china than PCs. Long live the mobile phones!!!
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