The Wireless Revolution and your Mobile Lifestyle

The wireless revolution can feel overwhelming, between constant innovations and YABA (“yet another bloody acronym” in texting lingo). With so much mobile talk quite literally in the air, you might wonder which wireless devices are best for you. What technology will streamline your life rather than clutter it? What do you need to know to ensure you aren’t left behind in both your professional and personal arenas?

We’ll answer those questions, and lay out where the mobile revolution is going, and how it got here in the first place.

Why has wireless taken off so quickly?

It feels like we first heard the word “smartphone” on a Tuesday and by Wednesday every mall in the country was overrun by texting teenagers. How did it happen so fast? Derek Kerton, a wireless expert in Pleasanton, CA, says the wireless explosion reached new heights by standing on a three-legged stepping stool: content, the network, and devices with a good user interface.

The content – like mobile search and maps – has been ready since 2001. However, you almost needed a Ph.D. in computing to download applications onto clunky mobile devices to get at the content. And, in those early days, mobile networks “would slow to a crawl if more than three people in city a used them,” he says.

As the mobile networks built out, device manufacturers produced devices with fast processors, good screens, and easy-to-use keypads. “The iPhone and other similar smartphones allowed people to access the online content without spending four hours reading a manual or finding applications,” he says. “When the final leg of the user experience was added to the improved network, the stool was completed and wireless data took off.”

Just what are people using mobile devices for?

A year or two ago, people were downloading ringtones and wallpaper for their mobile phones. Now, most folks are less interested in aesthetics than practical uses. A survey last June found utility-based mobile applications like mobile-optimized banking and travel planning appeal more to people in the economic downturn than basic entertainment services.

According to the Kelsey Group, a marketing firm in Chantilly, VA, mobile devices are helping people get on track: 17.6 percent of mobile users downloaded a map or looked up directions in 2008, up from the 10.8 percent who did the year before. Looking for goods outside your immediate area jumped to 14.3 percent from 6.4 percent. And the use of mobile devices to access social networks like Facebook and MySpace nearly tripled – 9.6 percent, up from 3.4 percent.

How much are people spending on mobile applications?

A survey of 235 smart-phone users who installed applications found they spent a total of $100 apiece in one year‘s time — which surprised researchers given that many applications cost as little as a buck. “This means some people are spending more on applications than on the device that holds those applications,” says Jeff Orr, an analyst with ABI Research in New York. How much people are willing to plunk down per app remains a matter of great speculation. When the iPhone app version of the book “iPhone: the Missing Manual” was raised from $4.99 to $9.99, sales dropped 75 percent. The price was put back to its original amount. As a flurry of application stores go up, analysts expect to see a lot of pricing experimentation.

How do the rich use mobile devices?

Frequently. A recent survey by the Luxury Institute in New York found people worth more than $5 million are twice as likely to play games and watch or listen to downloaded content on their mobile devices. The top mobile activities for the upper brackets are decidedly practical, though: checking weather forecasts (68 percent), getting driving directions (58 percent) and viewing the financial markets (46 percent). If you want to do as the mobile wealthy do, use LinkedIn for professional networking; Facebook and MySpace for social networking; and Twitter (about one in four of the well-heeled tweet).

What the heck is Twitter?

Just when many people over 35 became comfortable with texting, this thing called “Twitter” appeared. This service allows people to send and read “micro blogs” (or “tweets”) of up to 140 characters. That’s slightly less than the length of the preceding two sentences. Here’s how it works: Tweeters set up free accounts and post their short blurbs. Anyone with Internet access can log on and see them, as they do with a web page. The difference is that people can elect to have the tweets of anyone they “follow” be automatically sent to their cellphones or computers.

President Obama, celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal and even companies tweet. It’s become a trendy way to stay in touch, safeguard your reputation, or spread breaking news fast. Indeed, a survey of 700 Twitter users by Gravitational Media in Los Angeles found that 56 percent use it for business-related reasons such as tracking consumer thinking.

What are the biggest mobile divides between generations?

It’s not just that younger people are more likely to try new mobile applications, tweet and ring a doorbell with their thumb rather than their index finger, because of all that texting (no kidding). Some of the biggest differences revolve around perceptions of mobile etiquette. In a 2005 survey, 74 percent of people over 60 felt that “using a cellphone in public is a major irritation for other people” – but only a third of those between ages 18 to 27 agreed.

How are people dealing with cellphone etiquette?

U.S. cities are beginning to take a tack from other countries and place cellphone restrictions on public transit systems. Amtrak, the Maryland Transit Administration and Altamont Commuter Express in California have implemented “quiet cars” where yakking on cellphones is forbidden. The city of Billerica, Massachusetts went a step further: The board of selectman voted to ban members from using mobile communications devices during meetings, after a resident complained it was annoying to see one of the youngish selectman text while his colleagues were speaking.

Is texting just for kids?

It’s certainly a way to keep in touch with the kids. A survey by Sprint found that 20 percent of adults age 55 to 64 send texts, mostly to their children. Here’s something else for empty nesters to keep in mind: Those under age 30 are four times more likely to respond within minutes to a text message than a voice message.

However, the use of texting goes far beyond telling someone “gr8 CU tmor.” (Translation: “Great – see you tomorrow.”). Restaurants are replacing clunky pagers and are texting diners when their tables are ready instead. In Miami, Dallas and a handful of other U.S. cities, people even use texts to feed the meter. Drivers register their license plate number and credit card information, and then call or text a number to pay for time for their parking slot. Best part: “You receive a reminder five minutes before your time expires with the option to top up,” says Mark Beccue, an analyst with ABI Research.

How are mobile devices affecting family lives?

If you’ve ever waved frantically to get your teenage offspring to look up from texting at the dinner table, you might wonder if these devices enhance or prevent communication. A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found e-mail and texting actually keep people connected. About 70 percent of couples who each have cellphones call each other daily, mostly to coordinate schedules. And more than one in four parents call their children daily. At the same time, people with many technology devices report slightly less satisfaction with family and leisure time than other people.

Forget all the talk – what about pictures?

Half of cellphones have a camera and one in five camera-phone owners take a picture at least once a week. At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, camera phones were introduced that had snazzy features like face detection, image stabilization and the ability to take better pictures in the dark.

A Sprint survey found that during the last holiday season, one in three people saved money by using their cellphone to photograph the features and prices of products. “When I went clothes shopping without my wife, I sent her photos to get her opinion,” says Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of product and technology development for Sprint.

Even more exciting is the approach of much faster 4G networks, already being tested in some U.S. cities, that will allow videos to play smoothly on handsets.

“When it comes, 4G will open whole new growth areas,” says Gary Grube, president and CEO, Caerus Institute of Open Innovation in Chicago. “You will see group games as multi-player role-playing games move to wireless devices.” If that sounds like Dungeons and Dragons to you, the faster networks will also permit less exotic uses, like allowing field technicians to watch videos of procedures they need to perform.

How do you pick the right mobile device for you?

Experts say to start with the second most important thing you do with the device after making phone calls, whether that’s business applications, entertainment or e-mail. If a device satisfies your second criteria, you’ll likely be happy with it. “The good thing now is you don’t have to worry about decision paralysis because you think a better phone will be just around the corner,” Kerton says. “That was the case up until 2006, but the modern phones have enough horsepower that any of them should serve your needs for at least a few years.”

And if you do a little experimentation, you might be surprised what’s on that mobile phone of yours. “I had a friend who told me he had bought a GPS system for his car,” Packingham says. “I hated to break it to him that he had wasted a couple of hundred dollars because his cellphone already had built-in GPS capabilities that worked just as well.”

Sprint has found that customers who receive just a short tutorial on devices use significantly more features – and express significantly more satisfaction with them.

With mobile handheld devices becoming like computers are laptops doomed?

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, where mobile trend-blazers congregate, much of the attention was focused on “netbooks,” stripped-down versions of laptops that lack some functionality, weigh under three pounds, have seven- to ten-inch screens and cost $650 or less.

Not everyone agrees, though. A November 2008 survey found that only 11 percent of people would use netbooks as their primary computer – 79 percent viewed them as secondary devices. “Frankly, I’d give up my beloved iPhone before my laptop because the laptop does absolutely everything, including placing and receiving phone calls,” says Jonathan Stark, an internet consultant and expert on publishing desktop data to the web.

With all these mobile devices, is anyone going to have a landline anymore?

It may depend on the economy. The Sprint survey found that 18 percent of people don’t have a landline – and 32 percent plan to eliminate them to save money.

What is the most surprising thing that will go wireless?

The electricity that powers the wireless devices. No kidding: “In the next few years, expect to see ‘charging tables’ in your local Starbucks that will charge your cellphone, iPod or laptop, merely by placing them on the surface,” Stark says. Until that happens, companies are touting all sorts of ways to power all these devices, including batteries with almost infinite lives. And if you lose your charger on the road, you’ll soon be able to borrow a friend’s: A consortium of 17 cellphone makers and cellphone companies just agreed to a one-size-fits-all charger that will be ready by 2012.

How do you deal with the strain of being accessible 24/7?

“One thing people often forget about mobile devices is they have an off switch,” says Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA – the Wireless Association. You don’t need to be plugged in 24/7. I tell my wife and children that if you want to be alone, and need some quiet, that comes with a click of a switch.” Does his family adhere to that sage advice? “My wife does. My kids don’t,” he replies. “They want to be wirelessly accessible 24/7.”

 

Via | WSJ