Internet Browser Inventor: Smartphones a Human Need

Billionaire Internet browser inventor Marc Andreessen tells the New York Times that smartphones have become a human need.

“The P.C. isn’t in the first five rungs of human needs, but the smartphone certainly is,” said Andreessen, a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz. 

Andreessen explained that impoverished rural communities now prize smartphones over basic human needs. 

“Very poor people around the world today are choosing a smartphone even over running water and electricity. The device connects you to the world, gives you access to information, education, price data for goods and services, the ability to report corruption and on and on,” said Andreessen. 

Andreessen’s comments were part of a Times series of interviews with Silicon Valley tech gurus on the role of technology in shaping the future.