Benedict Evans

No one really says mobile internet anymore.

It's like talking about e-commerce.

You're starting to have people talk about physical retail and retail.

But it wasn't clear.

I was a telecoms analyst in 2000, and it was very clear mobile internet was going to be a thing.

It was not clear that there would be basically small PCs.

The fundamental shift to the iPhone is it's a small Mac.

It's not a phone with better UI.

It's a small Mac.

And it wasn't clear that the telcos would get no value.

It wasn't clear Microsoft and Nokia would get no value.

It wasn't clear it would take 10 years before it took off.

And it wasn't clear it would replace the PC as the center of the tech industry.

I mean, everyone was talking about, well, what's a mobile use case?

What would you do?

You'll do some things on your mobile phone, but what?

But obviously your PC will be how you use the Internet.

And of course, that's not how it worked.

And so we kind of forget because now we don't see it, because now it just kind of became part of the air we breathe, how weird and strange and different all these things are.

There's something I love talking about, which is the rise of automatic elevators.