Smartphones go from toys to teaching tools.
Features keep students informed, organized
By Sarah Berkshire
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 3:24 am (Updated: February 16, 11:26 am)
There seems to be no end to the ways a smartphone can simplify tasks, and no end to the everyday items it can make obsolete.
Data usage is fueling the trend, and evolving technologies are expected to maintain this growth.
Students in an advanced U.S. history class at John Hardin High School, a sample of the young market pushing many national mobile trends, said their phones are not distractions for idle chatter. Rather, these high school juniors said, phones have become essential tools. They are as needed as computers, televisions, books, even pencils.
“My laptop’s been busted for a while, so if I have to write a paper, I write it on my phone,” said Erik Krivitsky. “I can select it all, hit print and it goes to my printer.”
Jazzmon Neil wants e-mails from her favorite stores on the go. Her phone makes it happen.
Michael Gann wants sports scores fast. His phone delivers them.
Nicole Milesko, along with many other students, wants her class notes typed and organized. Her phone, with a note taking app and built-in keyboard, has her covered.
And Catherine Greenwell wants to record the information from classroom visual aids. Her phone’s camera captures it in an instant.
In a recent class, they carried their phones like students of the last generation carried calculators, casually but confidently placed on their desks.
Calculators, by the way, are one of those items some people just don’t need anymore, students said. Calendars or appointment books have the same fate.
“I have my whole calendar on my phone, and if I dropped it, I wouldn’t know where to go or what to do. I’d be lost,” said Allee Williams.
Sure, they text. Some students referenced phone bills listing as many as 7,000 texts per month. On average, an American teen sends or receives 3,339 text messages a month, as reported in October by The Nielsen Company. Nationally, texting is the most common reason teens say they get cell phones. In 2008, safety was the main reason.
Industry research shows more teens are texting because it’s easier or faster, and not just more fun, than voice calls.
Teens’ experiences are largely mirrored in adults.
“We’re seeing a lot of people use smartphones in a lot of interesting ways,” said Barry Nothstine, vice president of sales and marketing for Bluegrass Cellular.
About 30 percent of U.S. mobile users own smartphones. Nothstine said he’s starting to see similar penetration rates in Bluegrass Cellular’s 38-county home coverage area.
Many of the early smartphone adopters were business people and small business owners. A while later, younger users were predominant. But once subscribers realized apps, such as the ultra popular Facebook app, were “things you want at your fingertips,” data started breaking demographic boundaries.
“It’s become more mass market. We have grandmothers on Facebook,” Nothstine said.
While national statistics show younger users are talking less and texting more, Nothstine said he’s seen voice calls stabilize as text messaging and other data uses increase.
As features increase in number and quality, it is likely more people will have their phones handy at school, at work and at play.
Nothstine noted expected growth and improvements in speak-to-text apps, video conferencing and high definition video.
As for what’s next, subscribers can look forward to data speeds 10 times faster than today’s wireless networks.
“People are going to be live-streaming their lives,” Nothstine said.
The News-Enterprise. Copyright © 2011