Smart Phones

Smart phones are phones that have more capabilities than just a standard mobile phone. While smart phones have been around for almost twenty years, they have really taken hold of the market since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. The reason for this was the touch screen capabilities that were brought into the market with the introduction of the iPhone. When we think of smart phones today, we think of a phone that has multiple capabilities for texting, internet capability such as web browsing, music storage and playing capabilities, both still camera and video capability, games, and a myriad of computer capabilities. Most smart phones can now sync with a person’s computer for file storage, can sync with a car for GPS navigation and music playing. With all this technology come a heavy price tag for the user. Most users pay anywhere form twenty to fifty dollars on a monthly basis per person for the right to access this technology on their phones. For a family of four, that represents a cost of over one hundred dollars per month, which is on top of the cost of the mobile phone service.

The explosion in the popularity has been an incredible boon to the information technology field, and has certainly helped the industry in providing job opportunities. The advances that have been made in this type of technology is certain to continue for some time to come. One question for the future is regarding the privacy of smart phone users. Much of the information that individuals either share or look up is being recorded and used as a way to adjust advertising in a personal manner. In addition to that, we now know that the Federal Government has access to everything from our usage of smart phones. Are individuals willing to give up their rights to privacy for the convenience of having a world of information at our fingertips. So far it seems that the answer to that question is a resounding yes. Only time will tell if that will still be the case in a few years.