iOS 18 And A New Era Of Space Economy

The World Economic Forum's 2024 Space Report predicts that the space economy will grow 9% annually from $630 billion to $1.79 trillion in 2035. The space economy goes far beyond rockets and space stations. It's impact can already be felt in unexpected places: The services of Uber and Lyft, for example, rely heavily on satellite positioning, so both companies can be considered part of the space economy.

For iOS 18, Apple announced a little-noticed innovation: iMessage over satellite. Starting in the U.S., iPhone users will be able to send and receive messages without WiFi or a cellular network. This is the first step in bringing satellite Internet to the masses.

Approximately one-third of the world's population still does not have Internet access and is therefore unable to participate in the digital world. This means that the global economy is currently missing out on about a third of the ideas, talent and entrepreneurship that would unfold if all of humanity were online. Providing ubiquitous Internet access via satellite would open up the possibilities of the Internet to billions of people. The economic power that would be unleashed by bringing this part of humanity online would ultimately be part of the space economy.

To achieve this, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Starlink low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation beginning in 2020, with plans to deploy up to 42,000 Starlink satellites in total to cover nearly the entire surface of the Earth. Thousands of Starlink satellites are currently in orbit and service is available in several countries, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas. The project took on greater geopolitical significance when Elon Musk made it available to Ukraine after Russia's invasion in 2022. With Project Kuiper, Amazon is also planning a LEO satellite internet constellation of over 3,000 satellites to provide global internet coverage.

The launch of iMessage over satellite marks the first major commercial opening of satellite Internet to consumer devices. This represents a paradigm shift that could fundamentally change the way we think about Internet access and global connectivity. For U.S. consumers, satellite Internet may "just" mean being able to stay connected when outdoors. For the masses still offline, satellite Internet will be a seismic shift. It will be exciting to see what ideas, ventures and technologies the Internet makes possible in previously offline regions.