I suspect that the amount of IP space the VPS market consumes is only a tiny fraction of the IP space that consumer devices consume nowadays. Although many of us programmers own multiple servers, we are only a tiny minority compared to the smartphone-toting population of the world.
It has, though, become more difficult to get additional IPs than before. Linode used to hand out one additional IP per VPS on demand, but now they require a justification for all additional IPs.
> Although many of us programmers own multiple servers, we are only a tiny minority compared to the smartphone-toting population of the world.
It's worth noting, though, that smartphone users don't care whether their traffic is carried using IPv4 of IPv6, so you can slowly transition from one to the other without users noticing. 15% of T-Mobile's connections are IPv6: https://conference.apnic.net/data/37/464xlat-apricot-2014_13...
If you started only giving out IPv6 addresses to VPS customers, I don't think they would be as oblivious as the smartphone users.
I suspect that the amount of IP space the VPS market consumes is only a tiny fraction of the IP space that consumer devices consume nowadays.
I agree, although consumer devices - especially mobiles - could be easily NATed by a provider, no? I'm not too savvy on the demands of mobile devices but I don't think incoming connections are a requirement for anything(?)
You're right, consumer devices could be easily NATed, and I've heard rumors that ISPs in some parts of the world actually do it.
But it's notoriously difficult to set up NAT on a large scale without seriously impacting performance, so large ISPs in the developed world tend to avoid it.
It has, though, become more difficult to get additional IPs than before. Linode used to hand out one additional IP per VPS on demand, but now they require a justification for all additional IPs.