Anyone born in the 70s can nostalgically talk about the good old days of Nokia 1100 to someone born in the 80s. That has been the speed of development and change that has transpired in the mobile industry.
Have you ever noticed
someone stopping mid walk and doing the weird tap dance of patting all their
pockets? I have noticed a few and been part of the few. This strange dance is
as common a sight in our generation, as was listening to the Boombox in the 80s.
People are just checking if they still have their mobile on themselves. Even
more hilarious is when they are seemingly talking to themselves. It is a little
confusing till you notice their handsfree or Bluetooth earphone. My Dad says
that in the 70s these people would have been targeted for some serious ridicule
for talking to themselves.
What started as a
device which was used for making calls without having to depend on a call booth
or a landline, in last ten years has evolved into one of the basic necessities
of our generation. The evolution and adoption of the mobile technology has been
the fastest of all our modern devices. Anyone born in the 70s can nostalgically
talk about the good old days of Nokia 1100 to someone born in the 80s. That has
been the speed of development and change that has transpired in the mobile
industry. The advent of “Smart” phones and the advancement in the Internet of
Things has transformed the humble mobile phone from being a device
predominantly used for making calls and sending messages to your everyday
companion.
Attached to our hip
(in some case literally) this contraption when it is called a smart phone helps
us play music, watch videos, chat with friends, catch-up on our TV shows,
browse the internet, book movie tickets and cabs, suggest dining experiences,
plan our travel and pay for it all. Given the number of Apps available based on
the smart phone OS, it is surprising that we have time for any activity than
using our mobiles.
The mobile
applications market in itself is scheduled to grow to Rs. 1 Billion by the end
of 2016. This gives a fair idea of the number of applications that would be
available for the users. Statistics state that on an average a smart phone user
has about 41 apps on his or her phone.
The top for categories of application used are for Messaging, Utilities,
Music and Shopping. These categories are scheduled to change with the advent of
virtual wallets and the iBeacon Technology from Apple which will make shopping
and payments as easy as using your mobile. Surprisingly the maximum number of
apps being developed are games and they come a close fifth to shopping in their
usage.
The advent of mobile
gears has taken the mobile experience to a whole new level. The James
Bond-esque wrist watch can monitor your health, provide you with weather
updates, give access to localized news as well as answer calls without having
to touch your mobile phone. With quite a few science fictions coming true in
the mobile technology space, can we expect these wristwatches to help us
teleport any time soon?? Well, we might know the answer to that question in the
next 10 years, I suppose.
