The Use of Smartphones by People Is on the Rise - Term Paper Example

Smart Phones Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Smart Phones Executive Summary Smart phones have quickly broken the traditional barriers that used to separate the computer and phone functions. Their use has significantly increased among people as they offer increased portability and many computing functions, in addition to the normal mobile phone functions. They have increased and developed tremendously, making them the device of choice not only to individual but also in big corporation. This research paper examines their usage among various types of users, the services that they offer and the possible future trend in their use among different levels of users. It explains how they slowly taking over the role of computers as manufacturers compete to bring more and more products. Table of Contents Smart Phones 1 Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Literature review 3 Methodology 5 Findings 6 Individual usage 6 Corporate use 7 Analysis 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Appendices 11 Introduction The use of Smartphone has been on the increase ever since their inception some few years ago. This growth is fuelled by the desire to acquire more features and services for the user, as well as the vigorous marketing campaigned and rapid developments that the manufacturers are putting. Many electronics manufacturers are concentrating their efforts to producing smart phones, as growth in their usage is expecting to increase every year. With their capabilities now almost matching those of personal computers in terms of services, are smart phones going to take over computing? Literature review Since the introduction of cellular mobile phones into the market more than twenty years ago, there has been a phenomenal growth in both their usage and their functions. They have rapidly developed from basic device which initially could only make voice calls without any display, then to the introduction of screens, ability to send short text messages, and later the ability to transfer and display transfer hypertext mark language data. This exponential growth in their technical capability brought them into the neighbourhood of personal computers, both in their use and their capabilities. As demand for more services and increased utility increased, manufacturers have widened their scope to include new features, which were not thought of before. These include digital cameras, personal digital assistant features and higher data transfer capabilities. The resulting device is something, which is more of a personal computer with integrated phone functions, now commonly referred to as a Smartphone (MobileReference, 2009, pp 24). The features that are offered in the smart phones today are far much advanced than what was offered in the early versions of smart phones. The range of manufacturers has also risen, with both the computer manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers racing in to curve a niche in the market. This has also led to an increase in software developers who only specialize in the Smartphone software. Currently, various companies like Google, Microsoft and Research in Motion have developed full softwares, which run in smart phones. Some of these operating systems are proprietary and only run in the manufactures devices, like the BlackBerry for Research in Motion, while others can run on a wide range of devices from different manufacturers like Symbian, Windows Mobile from Microsoft and lately Android from Google (Meier, 2009, pp 13). Almost all the traditional cellular phone manufacturers have joined in the Smart phone market, while others new entrants like Apple and Research in Motion only started with the smart phones. Some of the traditional manufacturers of cellular phones include Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Currently, the biggest market share is held by BlackBerry, being followed closely by the iPhone form Apple. However, the fast-growing number of smart phones are those that are running the Android operating system, which are manufactured by a wide range of manufacturers. What makes these phones to be extremely popular today, despite their cost, is the number of services that are currently being offered. Prices have substantially fallen with time, with the Chinese company Huawei developing the world cheapest smart phone, IDEOS, which retails for only one hundred US dollars and runs on the Android operating system. The range of services that are offered can include almost over ninety percent of the normal office functions that are done on the PC. The traditional features of smart phones include camera and video, QWERTY keyboards, touch screens and applications. The new range of services include extraordinarily powerful cameras, advanced applications which can be customized, full HTML web, update programs, cloud computing support and integration, and fully integrated email services. All of these services have increased the usefulness, making them the devices of choice for the tech-savvy, the normal users and in business enterprises (Sausner, 2009, pp1). In this report, the use of smart phones by individuals and businesses was studied and analyzed, with the aim to find out if the smart phones are taking over computing services, and predict their growth and adoption in the near future. The study included both the individual and even corporate application. The corporation in focus was Unilever, while on personal usage; various people including students and working with people who use the smart phones purely for personal needs were researched on. Methodology Collecting data from individuals was done through the use of questionnaires. These were administered to fifty different individuals, who were chosen randomly but only those who owned computers were interviewed. Out of all these people, twenty of them were college students; fifteen were well-established businesses people while the other fifteen were in some form of formal employment. These people provided a reasonable range of the general technology users, who are all well informed and have the ability and capacity to use ordinary technologies like computers and mobile phones. The questionnaire aimed to find out if the person owned a laptop computer, since this is an indication of need for a portable computing device which can carried out with ease. In addition, the respondents were asked if they owned any type of smart phone, and if so, which model they used. They were also required to describe their ordinary usage of these smart phones to determine what they used these phones for and what for how long they had been in possession of smart phones. Those who did not have smart phones were also asked to explain on why they do not prefer to use the mobile phones. The questionnaires were administered in person and also through telephone interviews. To find out the adoption of Smartphones in corporations, a study on how Unilever company gas adopted their usage was carried out. This involved looking for information on the corporation’s websites and studying the various materials on the website on how the corporation was positioning itself to use smart phones to enhance performances were studied. The information gathered included if the company encourages the use of smart phones for their managers, what they use them for and why use the smart phones. Findings Individual usage The information collected through the questionnaires that were implemented showed that out of the fifty respondents, all of them regularly used computers and they one or more form of a computing device like a laptop, a desktop or a Mac netbook. Out of the total respondents, forty-two of them owned smart phones, and the forty-two also possessed a portable computing device like a laptop or a Mac. There were nine iPhones and twelve BlackBerrys, while the rest were distributed across a number of devices running either the Android operating systems and other key models like he Samsung galaxy. There was a varied range of uses for these phones that the users applied. Although the device served chiefly as a mobile device, the users claimed to use them mostly for various computing functions like word processing and email services. Other functions include web browsing, managing their schedules, organising their programs and also for instant messaging services. The most active users were the students who claimed to use their smart phones every day for almost the same number of hours as if they used their computers. In all of these people, emailing and instant messaging was done using the smart phone more than the computer. Corporate use The Unilever Company is one of the biggest corporations that have integrated use of smart phones especially by their mangers globally. The research found out that in March 2004, Unilever's senior management ordered the company's thousand top executives to be equipped with mobile handheld devices to increase their productivity. The devices had to provide both voice and data transmission, operate on different wire- less networks, be able to view email attachments, such as Word files, and run on battery power for more than four hours. The company selected Blackberry 7100, 7290, and 8700 handhelds from Research in Motion because they were the leader in their category and they worked with heterogeneous email servers and multiple wireless network standards, including CDMA and Wi-Fi (Berger, 2009, pp 4). These devices were to enable managers to run their functions effectively while away from their offices, since they were on the move for an exceptionally long time and were working from various parts of the world. The aim was to increase productivity since a person would be in a position to work irrespective of their geographical location, on condition that there was a brilliant GSM network coverage. Analysis Form the findings above; it is evident that there is a growing use of Smart phones among different levels and groups of consumers. Among the individual users, it was found that those who use portable computing devices also own smart phones. This is probably due to the need to achieve more portability and connectivity, since smart phones provided these two functions better than laptops. In fact, as far as instant messaging and social networking is concerned, smart phones were widely used than computers. This is because smart phones provide these two services in an equally satisfying way just like the laptops. The use of smart phones by students also shows there is increased enthusiasm in adoption of this technology among the more educated and the young people, which can forecast a brilliant future in the use of smart phones. Those who do not own them attribute this to the fact that they have little or no need for an advanced mobile phone. This signifies that they own need a mobile phone for the purpose of call and short text message services. The fact that they do not own laptops indicate that they have less enthusiasm for technology. On the other hand, those who use smart phone attribute their liking for them to the wide number of functions that are available. The users are excited to use the thousands of applications that are available on the various apps stores everywhere in the world. These applications can transform a smart into any device, from a book, a mouse, a modem, a mirror, a word processor or even a wireless access point. This is what makes them exceptionally useful. Some of these functions are tedious to do using a PC due to problems associated with its mobility. In the corporate world, adoption of smart phone is purely based on their reliability and efficiency. There is a significance interest for smart phones for the travelling type workers, who may need to respond to urgent queries while away from the office. This is why Unilever adopted the use of BlackBerry for its top managers all over the world. These phones enabled the managers to have access to many company services even when they are away for other duties. The use of smart phones is also encouraged due to the high level of security that Unilever places on its information. Using the BlackBerry allows them access to the BlackBerry Enterprise solution, which ensures that data that is transmitted using the device is thoroughly encrypted and cannot be intercepted. This advanced security feature would be extremely difficult to implement using a computer, since the computers use some well-known protocols to transmit data. This is why Unilever has invested in Smart phones. Conclusion The use of smart phones seems to be fuelled by the services that they can offer. People are quick to adopt them due to their convenience, portability and their unique ability to offer a wide range of services. This is the reason why we can predict that in the near future, they may overtake the normal mobile phones as new markets emerge and consumer awareness increases. Organisations are also embracing them in order to cut on costs, improve efficiency and increase productivity among their employees. We can project that more, more organisations will embrace them as time technology advances, and prices come down. The race to manufacture better devices by the various manufacturers means that we can expect that the features offered in the smart phones will keep increasing as new models are released. At the moment, smart phones are rivalling the computers in some fields. This raise a possibility that in the near future, we can expect bigger surprises form the developers and many new functions will allow the smart phones to be far much developed than they are now. Basing on their exponential growth in terms of usage and function, we can project that in a short period to come; smart phones will take over computing services from the traditional computers, in the same that laptops have overtaken desktop computers as the choice computing devices in the world (Ślęzak, 2009, pp92). References Ślęzak D. (2009). Advances in Software Engineering. Springer Publications, pp 89-96 Berger R. (2009). Innovating at the Top: How Global CEOs Drive Innovation for Growth and Profit. Palgrave Macmillan, pp 2-18. MobileReference (2007).Electronics Quick Study Guide for Smartphones and Mobile Devices. MobileReference, pp 22-29. Meier R. (2009).Professional Android Application Development. John Wiley and Son, p12-13. Sausner R. (2009). Smart Phones Now Dominate Mobile Usage. Bank Technology News, vol. 22 Issue 1, p1 Appendices Questionnaire Please answer the following questions as accurately as you can. 1. What is your occupation? (Student/ Employed/ Business person) 2. a. Do you own a computer? (Y/N) b. A laptop, desktop or both? (L/ P/ B) 3. a. Do you have a smart phone? (Y/N) b. If so, tell the make and model. ................................. 4. For how long have you owned the Smart phone? ......................... Years. 5. Describe how you use the smart phone in day to day activities. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6. a. If you don’t have a smart phone, briefly explain why. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... b. Do you consider buying a smart phone? (Y/N) Read More