The Top Ten Reasons Why Mobile Phones Haven't Changed The World

[slitchfield]

For all the bright lights, technology and potential, has the smartphone really changed how we live in the world? Ewan, with his tongue in his cheek, says that they haven't really changed anything. Look for a followup piece next week from me in which I'll disagree, putting forward the top ten reasons why mobile phones have changed the world. Comments welcome!

Read on in the full article.

Hmm interesting but I agrree it may not as yet in a developed country but in the future . Maybe

look here http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/c...nclick_check=1

[krisse]

Well, obviously this is a rather splendid comedy piece so no one should take it too seriously.

It is rather amusing that the SMS is as limiting as the telegrams of old, and it's interesting to note the same kind of strategies being used to shorten messages as much as possible.

Apparently a lot of telegrams were charged by the word rather than number of characters, so some people would bunch the message all into one word with no spaces. Even with modern character-based charges, people still do that bunching up now with texts to avoid paying for the spaces.


Incidentally, if anyone DOES seriously believe mobiles haven't changed anything, they should take a look at things like this (and remember that the majority of mobile phone sales are in poor developing countries, not rich developed countries):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6339671.stm

A ground-breaking study led by an expert from the London Business School in 2005 concluded that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people in African developing countries would increase GDP growth by 0.6%.

...

One of these studies (on behalf of the mobile phone industry), carried out by consultancy Deloitte, says the increase in GDP today could be as much as 1.2%.

For those who don't follow economics, those GDP growth numbers are very very significant. If the figures are accurate, mobile phones are helping the poorest countries in the world tremendously.

Also, as the article mentions, mobiles are allowing many people to open their first ever bank accounts, because mobile networks are relatively secure so they can allow transactions to take place. Many poor regions are receiving their first ever phone lines thanks to mobiles.

[davidmaxwaterma]

This is a list of things/aspects that haven't changed and not really a list of reasons why mobile phones haven't changed the world...

I mean to say, although Ewan had his 'tongue in his cheek', the list is actually a valid list of what hasn't changed, and, on the whole, they are interesting observations. However, I would be more interested in *why* these things are still the same, as well as a list of them.

So before the mobile phone we were all conected !

No we was not , its made the world a smaller place

[bills2north]

In the old days I didn't feel so guilty when I lost someone's phone number in the wash...but now it's like taking a pill when I delete them from contacts. Why do I feel so bad?

[gavc_uk]

First class article Steve. Highly amusing! I think one or two contributors are taking this a bit too seriously.