Swedish internet monitoring and analytics firm Royal Pingdom posted some great metrics today on which countries are the largest in terms of internet users and speculates on what the future might hold.

While the primary chart in Royal Pingdom’s post is simply a ranking of the top 20 countries on the net in terms of users, the chart you see here is far more interesting when you contrast such numbers against population size.

China is the obvious one to note, with its huge population and relatively high number of internet users. The country that attracts my attention most, though, is India with its huge growth potential.

But that’s not the key reason I think it’s worth giving some attention to. It’s more to do with connectivity – not only the obvious meaning of the word (networks, etc) but also the fact that India is an open society when compared to China, where anyone connected online has the ability and opportunity to connect to anyone else online wherever they are in the world. And we know that people like to connect to other people (that’s no different in China).

And look at the $35 laptop that may come out of India. Imagine if that actually gets developed along with wireless networks that you can connect to.

• [Later] Soon after publishing this post, I saw a tweet by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague who’s currently in India on an official visit as part of a trade mission led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Hague tweeted “I am visiting India and would like your questions on India – UK ties #fsinindia – I will answer soon.” I replied, “@WilliamJHague how can we help India make the $35 laptop a reality?#fsinindia.” Wonder what/if anything will come out of that.

   

  

What’s your take on Royal Pingdom’s metrics? If you whipped out your crystal ball, what would an internet future look like to you?