MY PHONE PLAYS FETCH

Mobile Devices – Work or Play?

By Emese Somogyvari

Image by Robert Bejil Photography

In 1973, Motorola’s Dr. Martin Cooper walked the streets of New York City while calling rival AT&T’s Bell Labs on the new Motorola mobile phone, in front of reporters

Image by Yellow.Cat

By 2010 there were 5.3 billion mobile subscribers

That’s 77% of the world’s population

Source: Global Mobile Statistics 2011 – mobiThinkingImage by woodleywonderworks

Before 2007, the main functionality of mobile devices was phone and text

Not only convenient, but also practical

Image by oslay

The appeal

of mobile

devices grew in 2007 with Apple’s launch of the iPhone

Image by Ian’s Shutter Habit

Opening weekend sales of iPhones was nearly half a million

And that was before the App Store

Image by qthomasbower

Google followed in 2008 with it’s release of AndroidImage by topgold

The iPhone App Store, and Marketplace for Android users opened in 2008 and 2009 respectively

Image by nunnui

Over 10 billion apps have been downloaded to date

Games hold their position as the most downloaded app

Source: Global Mobile Statistics 2011 – mobiThinkingImage by Cristiano Betta

This questions the initial appeal of mobile devices: fun or functionality?

Image by JD Hancock

30% of mobile

subscribers are

SmartPhone users

An even smaller

percentage of apps are

business related

Source: Top Ten SmartPhone Market Statistics and Projections – Online Marketing Trends

Image by J_O_I_D

So what’s really making mobile devices so attractive?

Image by webtreats

60% of time spent on mobile internet is spent on social media sites

Source: Staying Ahead by Being Mobile – Ground Truth

Staying connected is now easier than ever

Image by Radar Communication

And there’s something for everyone….

Image by Mike Licht

Schools are now embracing mobile devices as

learning tools

Image by mortsan

iPads come naturally to infants and toddlers

Image by novemberwolf

And now they come in a wide variety of

colours

Image by Incase

Cell phones have become fashion accessories

Image by Ivonne (bijoux and crafts)

It seems as though the “cool and

wow” factor is triumphing over convenience and functionality

Image by Ralph Hockens

1 in 4 apps, once downloaded, are never used again

App-athy?

Source: Global Mobile Statistics 2011 – mobiThinking

So then why not go with a basic cell phone?

Image by JD Hancock

Image by Pink Sherbet Photgraphy

All images are Creative Commons-licensed requiring attribution and

sourced from Flickr