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Comment by dannyr | Hacker News Reader

"This is a good example of trying to create demand where there was none before."

In the article, they are conducting user interviews to figure out demand. They are not creating demand themselves.

"Also, I see your survey results on smartphone usage but I'm not convinced. In my experience poor people have spotty data plans - either no data or very limited, and only use their phone for sms and voice."

WiFi is also pretty prevalent here in the US. Even when I traveled to other countries, WiFi can be found in most cities.

It's possible that your experience may just be yours and other people's experiences are different.

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I can't remember the last time I saw an open access point. You can't expect someone to buy a cheeseburger or coffee everytime they want to check their smartphone app.

Most people on hn have no idea what it's like to be poor. Checking your email is an ordeal - have to go to the library for example - and infrequent.

But everyone has a cellphone and even tracphones can do SMS (but can be costly so you want to make it count)

What? Where I live every library, McDonald's, and Tim Horton's has free WiFi no purchase necessary, so if you want to check something it's at the nearest plaza.

(too cheap for overpriced Canadian data plan)

You're showing your ignorance of what it's like to be poor. It takes time and money to get to those locations, two things the poor don't have. The bus trip, or train, or gas in a car that's used has to cost less than what the app would gain them and that money/time needs to not be slotted for anything else (such as making it to and from jobs until payday).

Someone elsewhere in the thread said that the poor aren't good with managing money. From my experience, it's the opposite. Imagine you're behind on every bill, with less money coming in than it costs to have electricity, get to and from work, eat and pay rent. You literally rotate which bills get paid based on what will be shut off next. If someone gives you $100, you could pay more of the bills, or put it in savings, or spend it on entertainment/something fun. In 3 months, no matter what happens, you'll be back in the same state you are now. Spending it on entertainment to feel like a person isn't a bad decision at that point. It's just not one that those who live privileged lives would make

You can't expect someone to buy a cheeseburger or coffee everytime they want to check their smartphone app.

That depends on the app, no? "EasyFoodStamps" is not exactly something that needs to be checked every 10m, but it can still be very useful. And some apps can be very useful without requiring internet access at all.

It's definitely true that many people on low income don't have a good data plan. That's why they sometimes have a smartphone they only use on Wifi as pointed out in the survey results.

I may have misread, but my reading of the article was that they conducted the user interviews after deciding on the app that they were going to write.

Hi! I'm the cofounder of Significance Labs. Just wanted to point out that all of our teams did extensive user interviews before landing on a product idea as well as usability tests during the development process. Some of our teams pivoted substantially as a result of the tests they ran.

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