Smartphones and Personal Communications – what next?
Smartphones and Personal Communications – what next? With Apple officially becoming the largest listed business in the world with a value in excess of $1 trillion, it would be easy to think that we are continuing to become more reliant on mobile devices, in particular smart phones.
But we need to read on, be it on the internet or in papers, and soon we can see that there is also evidence indicating that the usage of smartphones for calls and internet searches is dropping, so does this suggest that the love affair with smart devices is over, I suspect not.
Further reading suggests that whilst “old fashioned phone calls” are decreasing, more people are communicating via social media and as these apps increase their functionality and access to wi-fi gets easier, people are adopting an app of choice to “speak” to each other all the time.
As is the case with most social media channels, the individual population adopts them first and businesses follow as the apps look for way to generate income and offer more services and access to the user base. WhatsApp is a good example, having just announced they are establishing business services to allow organisations to target different segments of the user base. The end result is a population that is still addicted to the smartphone, just using them in different way to five years ago.
As a believer in the value of face to face communication, I absolutely see the value of the mobile device, smartphone and tablet alike, but I also see a time where the honeymoon will be over and people will want to go back to face to face interaction and the relationships it develops.