Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
19 years ago in the aftermath of 9/11 all the landlines into New York were dead, cell phones were the only way to get a call through. I was living in California and my uncle was NYPD. Email wasn't ubiquitous back then. Cell phones were literally the only way to find out which relatives had perished and who was still part of the present tense.
But I think his point was more along the lines of how much value he derives from Strava vs from having a device that allows communications with the outside world. I can't speak for @
Bah Humbug but for me, I haven't used Strava this year, I mostly use my phone to talk to all my friends at Bike Forums, plus my family, and I use the mobile hotspot feature to work from home and sometimes from a park.
Strava is a really unique thing. I can't think of a lot of for profit companies that people give their money to and describe it as a donation. That's incredible good will. I don't understand how they haven't been able to leverage that to make a profit after ~15 years.
Bingo bango.
It doesn't matter whether we say cell phone or landline - it's not an option or a frivolity or entertainment (at least, one is). Connectivity to work, family, doctors, etc is not an option and is a major service to my life. Virtual leaderboards? Cool, but I can do that on Garmin, and will now. It's like trying to say "you pay for electricity, why won't you pay for Strava?", except that cell phones are somehow still seen as a sign of elitism or discretionary spending in 2020. Strava, by comparison, is quite clearly not at all a necessity.