“Hot smartphones for hot, smart people.”
This headline on a retail poster for Rogers caught my eye.
Not because it’s clever.
The phones are no doubt smart. But how smart are we with them?
If not the smartest, Apple's iPhone is certainly the hottest. It's described as the “first true mobile computer”. As Josh Quittner writes in Time Magazine this week, “Anyone who thinks it's a cell phone with a college education hasn't been paying attention.” He adds “Together with the Apple App Store, which has more than 10,000 free and cheap applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple--that is, Jobs--has built a platform that will generate billions of dollars."
So I checked out the most popular applications at the App Store. I found games, lots of them. And some email apps. “Part fun. Part function.” That sums it up nicely.
I have no doubt that the iPhone and its applications will generate billions of dollars for Apple. However, for now, it’s more about games and convenience than knowledge and skills that would make us smarter.
Ipsos Reid conducted a survey last fall (October 2008) among Canadians and asked “Do you download applications for your mobile device? Applications include things like weather updates and stock market news that you download to your mobile device.” Only 9% of Canadians said yes. 72% said no. Quebeckers were most likely to say no at 84%. And perhaps most telling, 12% said, “I don’t know anything about downloading applications.”
Looks like hot, smart people have some catching up to do.
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