"App"sorbed

In response to our recent class discussions regarding smartphones and our immense reliance on them, I decided to dig deeper into the topic. For about the past ten years laptops have been all the rage. In today’s society, one is considered abnormal without a laptop and the wifi to come with it. The trend is shifting and smartphones are becoming the new laptop.

One definition of smartphone is a phone that has computer like qualities such as internet access. Although the “first” smartphone was released in 1992, what many consider the smartphone revolution started with the iPhone. The first iPhone was released in June 2007. Since the iPhone release, many other companies have developed smartphones similar to it such as the Blackberry Storm, the Android, the HTC Thunderbolt and the Samsung Galaxy. Most of these share common characteristics: internet abilities with access to wifi, e-mail, music players, and a touch screen.

Currently, it is application abilities that distinguish these phones and in general the iPhone contains the largest quantity and most current “apps” of all the smartphones. Some of the most common apps today include GPS, Facebook, Words with Friends, and Urban Spoon. Apps are providing so many resources that are just at the touch of the screen, however soon we may not even need to make the effort. In a recent New York Times article, Jenna Worthman reported on the Mobile World Conference taking place in Barcelona. During the conference, the chief executive of Google, Eric Schmidt talked about the future of smartphones. He explained that smartphones will become more intuitive. Schmidt used the example of a civilian walking through the streets of Barcelona. Using previous knowledge and Google activity, one’s smartphone might alert the individual of something they have expressed great interest in like a Spanish architecture museum.

To many people smartphones may seem excessive but the benefits and possibilities seem to be endless. Any user has the opportunity to create an app, opening doors for a million more ideas in the future. I believe those who do not join in the smartphone revolution will be left behind. In answer to our class conversation; yes we can do homework online but I don’t think that’s even the starting point to where smartphones will take us.

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