"Your phone may be more than just a convenience, it may be your livelihood. Already, this is true for people in many parts of the world: in southern India, fishermen use text messaging to find the best markets for their daily catch, in South Africa, sugar farmers can receive text messages advising them on how much to irrigate their crops, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa entrepreneurs with mobile phones become phone operators, bringing communications to their villages. These innovations will only increase in the future, as mobile phones become the linchpin for greater economic development."
From Google: Your Cell Phone Is More Important Than You
A taste: "Your phone knows a lot about the world around you. If you take that
intelligence and combine it in the cloud with that of every other
phone, we have an incredible snapshot of what is going on in the world
right now."
Yodel Anecdotal