While the Syrian refugee crisis continued to unfold throughout Europe I was struck by something that I saw being passed around social media. It was a picture of several refugees charging their smartphones, along with the suggestion that somehow because they even had a cell phone they were not truly refugees and didn’t need help. The comments that I saw under these images tended to be–let’s be polite and say unkind. Certainly a fair share of them were clearly racist, but I wonder how many of them were made by people who seem to think that cellular technology is something that is only common in the United States or Europe. But whether the reactions are racist or simply ignorant, reality paints a far different picture.
The UN released a rather telling set of figures that puts into context exactly how common cell phones are. Of the world’s population of seven billion, it is estimated that six billion of them have mobile phones. Now if you compare that with the four and a half billion who have reliable access to toilets, then there are more people on the planet with cellphones than functional plumbing. The idea that only those in the West have cellular technology just couldn’t be any more wrong. And as prices on cellular technology continue to drop, that number simply keeps increasing.
It is interesting watching watching countries that the West often ignores use new technology like 3D printing in ways that we can’t seem to figure out yet. 95% of Americans have cell phones, and the phone case market is already pretty massive, so why aren’t 3D printed cell phone covers more popular? We’ve seen a few attempts to start them up, but they’ve never really taken off. Either the selection is limited, the available options are priced way too high or, if even available, the customization features are hard to use and poorly designed. The US just can’t seem to figure out how to make something that should be a no brainer work.
Will you be 3D printing your own smartphone cover? Let us know in the Novabeans forum thread on 3DPB.com.