[vii]

The link between broadband and apps is tenuous at best.

The US has lagged in consumer broadband behind most other countries for a long time. It also lagged in adoption of text messaging and so on. This is presumably due to the weird regulations that the very powerful telecoms companies managed to place themselves under, which stifle competition. The US never led here. In Japan, for example, gigabit to the home has been available reasonably cost effectively for almost a decade.

In terms of apps, there is much freer competition. I think the biggest difference here is that in the Bay Area there is a very high proportion of iPhone users, whereas in the rest of the world Blackberry, Nokia and Android dominate. That explains the success of WhatsApp's cross platform strategy and the relative sidelining of Messages.app!