Chinese mobile users skipping computers?

Have a read of this one in the LA Times. Although much of the evidence in the article is anecodotal, the underlying message — if it’s anywhere near accurate — is fascinating.

The concept being put forward is that email is being retired amongst upwardly mobile (no pun) Chinese who ‘treat Email with the same contempt as an answering machine’. The article goes on to suggest that the Chinese are demanding immediacy — via text messaging, or real time mobile-to-mobile messaging.

Link: Chinese get the message on texting – Los Angeles Times

The 20-year-old from China’s rural Henan province doesn’t own a computer. He visits the local Internet cafe to check his e-mail every couple of weeks.

That’s not to say Xu is out of touch. He just prefers tapping out text messages to his friends on his Lenovo cellphone — the most expensive piece of electronics gear he owns — over typing an e-mail on a computer keyboard.

“When I communicate with my friends, I use short messages,” Xu said. “I send messages in mornings and afternoons, asking, ‘Do you want to come out to eat?’ “

Just fascinating to consider.