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The popularity of the mobile phones is constantly on the rise like a snow ball. There are numerous reasons for that and they are well beyond mere communicating with each other.
The development of the cell phones and technology in the past decade along with social and cultural processes as well as sharp decrease in prices contributed to their phenomenon success.
Cell phones have long become a symbol of status as well as a fashion statement. Some manufacturers have started to produce special designed phones for women. Other models are designed with interchangeable facades to cater for the youngsters. A lot of young people are transferring their instant-messaging habits to their cell phones.
The integration of so many different functionalities and technologies into the cell phones is more impressive and beneficial than the all-in-one office devices that integrated a scanner, a copier, a fax and a printer into a single compact space saving multifunctional machine.
The current generation of G-2.5 technology as well as the very near future G-3 units that are starting to emerge right now will carry in it so many functions which are mind blowing. These new Cell phones are going to be a multimedia center, a mobile office, a navigation device GPS (Global Positioning system), a computer with fast Internet access, a text messenger, a high resolution camera and video, a watch, a calculator, a PDA, an MP3 music player, TV and a Wallet! Yes, we will be able to pay with it for things we today pay with coins like vending soda or coffee machines as well as for parking space, trains and buses tickets etc’. It has become our “Swiss Army Knife”...
In Israel they used the cell phone to send SMS message and approval for one dollar donation payment for needy children. I guess that in the future it will be a legitimate tool for voting in contests and may be even in Elections.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, an executive for a wireless company noted that “in Slovakia, people are using mobile phones to remotely switch on the heat before they return home,” and in Norway, “1.5 million people can confirm their tax returns” using cell phone short text messaging services. Paramedics use camera phones to send ahead to hospitals pictures of the incoming injuries; “in Britain, it is now commonplace for wireless technology to allow companies to remotely access meters or gather diagnostic information.” Construction workers on-site can use cell phones to send pictures to contractors off-site. Combined with the individual use of cell phones—to make appointments, locate a friend, check voicemail messages, or simply to check in at work—cell phones offer peoplean unknown level of convenience. (Source: The New Atlantis – Article by Christine Rosen).
Other interesting applications are providing a locating service of your friends, or in other words if one of your friends is very close to where you are right now an SMS massage can alert you of this fact.
Cell phones and Dating Services
Several companies now offer a way to flirt and meet people anonymously. These services offer cell-to-cell texting and PC-to-cell texting. (Text-messaging phones also can receive messages sent over the Internet from a PC.) Companies including UPOC (Universal Point of Contact) and SMS.ac allow users to fill out a profile as they would at any dating service (some dating sites are dabbling with texting) and then search for an ideal match. Profiles can include photos and can be accessed either with a picture-enabled cell phone or through a PC. Say you want to meet a 20- to 30-year-old man in Kentucky who is interested in hiking. Do a search and three names pop up. You can send one a text message without ever exposing your phone number
Cell phones as safety device
One of the main reasons the cell phones have become so wide spread nowadays is that besides convenience it is perceived as a security and safety aid, Parents provide their children with mobile phones in order to track their whereabouts, to make sure they arrived safely to their destinations, to give them a mobile phone to report in real time when in any sort of trouble. Many women feel much safer in the street knowing they can call for help when in need.
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