Fair enough -- 2005 is a long time from now, in "Internet time".
In fact, I was in China a few months ago. I was working with a bunch of 20-something engineers, and they used the internet only at work. I asked if they had computers at home and they just kinda chuckled. They don't see those $300 computer deals, it's tricky to bring them in if you're coming back from the US (and that certainly would be a small group), and their pay is nowhere near what we get here. If you don't get the internet at your high-tech job, $20 a month (which I doubt you can get) and a thousand-dollar computer is a much bigger chunk of the paycheck.
Another factor, in China specifically, is the political reality of the governmental interference in the internet. (CNN.com and other news sites are blocked, for example, and we've all heard the stories of e-mailers getting thrown in jail.)
"No less sophisticated" (and I am thinking about the ones out in the farmland, not the city folk), indeed, but that still means that they're too concerned with putting food on the table and not getting shot to be counted "en masse" in any near-term sales predictions. |
