The Impact Of Smartphone Technology On Society, ICT Professionalism, And Future Predictions

Evolution of Smartphone Technology

The recent advancements in technology has made such an impact on the society that most of the people have the tendency to carry their cell phone 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. They do not prefer to leave their home without their cell phone and the time they tend to spend in their home is mainly spent on their computer and thus both the computer and cell phone has become their best friend. This is the reason why the Smartphone technology has become a life-changing piece of technology for most of the individuals (Aldhaban, 2012). The Smartphone provides them with all-in-one portable device that strives to integrate the functions of a cell phone together with the functions of a computer.

The report mainly focuses upon the history of Smartphone technology, the impact of Smartphone technology on the society, future prediction of the Smartphone technology and its impact on ICT professionalism issues that include the ethics, security and privacy.

Smartphone can be considered as a relatively new piece of technology and with the passage of time the Smartphone are being introduced loaded with several new features. The evolution has been described below:

1992

IBM invented the first Smartphone nicknamed Simon and was loaded with features like email services, touch screen, address book, calculator and calendar.

1996

Series of Smartphone were launched by Nokia which were looked upon as a cross between a cell phone and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

2000

R380 was launched by Ericson which was a touch screen Smartphone that used Symbian operating system.

2002

Blackberry was launched with its email services and QWERTY keypad and was loaded with various features that included MP3 player, camera and wireless technology. Again it also popularized the exchange email.

2005

Sony Ericson launched the N-series Smartphone targeted towards the business people since it was loaded with computing capabilities.

2007

Apple iPhone was introduced with massive app store.

2008

Android operating system was introduced in the market which was supported by developers like HTC, Google and various other developers.

Now

The major players in the market are continuously introducing new and updated version of the Smartphone with main focus upon offering high internet speeds.

The main features of the Smartphone that are widely appreciated by the individuals include Push Email services, Exchange that provide assistance in updating the information once and having it shown up on the other devices that are used by the individuals, the ActiveSync and many others. These features provide assistance to the people to access their emails and conduct their business while they are on their go.

With the rapid progress of the individuals into the uncertainty of future, it is observed that people are becoming more and more technology savvy and it is mostly observed in the younger generation of the society (Joo & Sang, 2013). Something new is introduced in the market every now and then and thus the dynamic nature of technology is progressing on a continuous basis that has made the Smartphone a symbol of modern identity.

Features Appreciated by Individuals

While focusing upon the impact of Smartphone technology on the society it can be said that it has led to an increase in social networking. Even though social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace exited before the introduction of first Smartphone but the essence of social networking was felt when the various Smartphone apps made it possible for the users to share the news and events, update their statuses and use the information shared by the others from the portability of mobile system. Thus the individuals with the help of Smartphone technology and social media have learned to execute the things at the right time. Thus the integration of Smartphone and Social Media strives to offer:

• An enhanced way to communicate with others.
• Exposure on a global scale.
• Business development.
• Career and learning growth

In addition to the above facts, the diverse applications of the Smartphone also help the individuals to keep a track of their daily lives and thus they can rely on their Smartphone to make them wake up from the sleep which can be looked upon as a much better and sophisticated programmable alarms in comparison to the traditional alarm clocks. On the other hand the nifty reminders and the To-Do list apps also keeps on reminding the individuals regarding what is important (Xu et al., 2011). It has made the lives of the individuals easier by introducing a shift in the paradigm from using traditional pen and paper system of recording the data to recording the data with the help of the Smartphone technology. So these features are used by the business professionals to remind them of their important seminars and meetings.

Again the Smartphone has also transformed the individuals into avid readers. The individuals are no longer required to carry the bundles of books and magazines or stay tuned to get the latest headlines. The individuals can easily access the various magazines and news headlines with the help of the applications of the Smartphone technology. The SIM powered phablets and tablets that make use of the Smartphone technology facilitate the individuals with wider screens to read the stuffs. The Smartphone technology strives to provide the individuals with high speed internet connectivity with the help of which the individuals keep themselves updated with the changes that take place in almost all the spheres. Irrespective of the fact that whether an individual is a businessman who seeks latest information on stocks and shares or a science-savvy student who seeks the latest pierces of information that have been released by NASA, the Smartphone technology has an application that can serve the individual purposes.

The Smartphone devices also facilitate the individuals to book their air/rail tickets in a hassle free manner. Again the rapid digitization in almost all the fields of the modern life has been possible due to networking and the benefits of networking have been multiplied with the help of the mobile internet connectivity. The Smartphone technology and the devices have made the lives of people easier and comfortable and has also improved the living standards of the individuals.

Thus it can be inferred that the Smartphone technology leads to a change in human psychology and thus the individuals are becoming more social organisms. This has led to discovery of the latent “Hive Mentality” among the individuals (Luxton et al., 2011). The recent advancements in neuroscience also provide evidences of this kind of mentality among the individuals where the group of human beings are advancing towards the state of being a super-organism.

Impact of Smartphone Technology on Society

Observing the rapid advancements that are taking place in technology it can be predicted that super smart Artificial Intelligence would make the Smartphone even more powerful than today for business purposes. The future predictions have been described below:

• Surroundings Analysis

At present the Smartphone can connect to a Bluetooth signal and thus stream the audio to the car but in the coming 30 years the phones are going to become more self aware. As for example the phones would connect to the thermostat and thus the temperature would be adjusted according to the preference of the individual. It would also help in gaining instant information regarding the available connections, the hotel bill and the weather.

• Information Recording

In the future it can be predicted that the Smartphone would morph into digital recorders that would record every place, events and experiences. As for example when an individual would walk into a conference room, the sensors in the Smartphone would tap into the phones of other individuals preset at the conference and thus record their names, professional experiences and their recent travels. Again the Artificial Intelligence would know what the individual want to record and thus would perform the action without the intervention of the individual.

• Familiarizing the world

The Smartphone help the individuals to understand the world around them but in the future it would go much further as a intelligent agent of learning. The individual would speak into their phone and it would translate it into any language in real time. There are some apps that perform the action at present but they do not function properly. The phone would have an idea of the preferences of the individual and thus would connect them to the neighbourhood services. As for example if an individual likes soccer then the phone would let the individual know about the city that has recently improved a soccer field in the nearby area.

• Associating with others

In the future it is predicted that the Smartphone would scan the people with same mentality and it would facilitate the individual to hold multiplayer matches with the nearby gamers. The future Smartphone would gamify the situation on the preference of the individual.

In addition it can also be predicted that the Smartphone would also become paper thin ad would charge wirelessly and the individuals would be capable of projecting a high definition screen on a wall to enjoy a bigger screen.

It has been observed that even though the Smartphone technology has enhanced the lives of the individuals and has improved the living standards but it also has some negative impacts taking into consideration the factors like privacy and security of ICT professionalism. With the emergence of Smartphone, the individuals tend to store their personal data and information in their cell phone and also conduct their business transactions over their phone (Kratzke & Cox, 2012). So this may put their privacy and security at risk as the information may be hacked by the cyber criminals. Again since the individuals tend to carry their phone with them at all times it may get lost and stolen which may put the individuals at risk.

On the other hand it becomes important on the part of the ICT professionals to be ethical in the operation of their business. So with the emergence of Smartphone technology, it has lead to an increased pressure on the part of the IT security specialists to take care of the valuable data since they are responsible for keeping all the technology within their company secure from cyber attacks. The cyber attacks are targeted towards collecting private and personal information and gain control over the internal systems. Thus since the Smartphone are being used by a large number of individuals the pressure on the IT professionals to maintain the privacy and security of the data and information is increasing on a continuous basis.

On the other hand the use of various Smartphone apps by the individuals facilitate these applications to have an access to the personal information of the individuals through “all or nothing” permissions model where the users have to agree to a set of requested permissions to allow an access to the information and resources of the individual on the phone. These models lack transparency and also pose barriers to effective privacy regulation and poses threat towards valuable information of the individuals being hacked.

Conclusions

Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that Smartphone technology have changed the way people function and it is very rare to find someone without a Smartphone in his or her hand. So this technology has not only helped the individuals to lead an easier and hassle free life but has also improved their living standards. With the integration of Smartphone, internet and social networking sites the world is becoming more and more connected on a continuous basis and the rapid advancements in technology also acts as a catalyst (Kim, 2008).. But again with the rapid increase in the use of Smartphone technology on the part of the individuals and digitization of the various departments have made the lives of the individuals easy but it also tends to pose the risk of information privacy and security due to increase in the cases of cyber crimes. But again the IT professionals who are responsible to maintain the security and privacy of the data are continuously striving toward formulating ways to prevent these crimes and protect the individuals from such cyber attacks and help them to enjoy the features and facilities that are provided by the Smartphone technology.