Influence of Smartphone in the business sector

Thanks to the advanced technology, smartphone has become a new milestone. It is not only improved on the performance but also the functions. According to Vercillo (2010), there has been 96% increase in smartphones sale between the third quarters of 2009-2010, which is a huge number of smartphone sales ever. In reality, smartphone is widely applied in business world. In this essay, how smartphone is influencing the phone company and business firm and how consumers treat smartphone.

Firstly, phone companies will earn more profit. Smartphone has started to replace the mobile phone market. In the past, the smartphone was not as common as today. The improvement of the internet network, the apps and software of smartphone being introduced and so on are the associated factors that contribute to the popularity of smartphone. In Hong Kong, the population of having a smartphone is double than the global rate, which is 48% (TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010). As Hong Kong is a business city, it is not surprised that there is a high rate of usage of smartphone. Moreover, the quality of the smartphone is being improved, for example he battery life, increased in memory and speed of loading data. More people will tend to get the smartphone, rather than the traditional mobile phone. Therefore, the sale of smartphone in future will definitely be increased, which means the phone company would have more profit. However, there are disadvantages to the phone company with smartphone being more common. Since there would be more smartphone to be produced, it will increase the competition between them. In order to gain the profit, they have to spend more time and money on inventing the new product or improving the quality of supported service, for instance the apps and updating the software. They may also need to have better marketing strategies on selling their product. The sale of the traditional mobile might be affected by the smartphone. Therefore, the mobile company has to work hard on maintain the competitiveness.

Secondly, smartphone assists business companies in different way. Businessman can easily access internet with a smartphone. In fact, smartphone users normally use email, mobile internet and Microsoft Office (TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010). They are no longer limited by the place and time to run their business. Also, the business companies can use smartphone as a channel to promote their company. Most of the banks have made their own apps to serve the customers, like Bank of China, HSBC, and Bank of East Asia. Also, H&M, Chanel, Hugo Boss and Pizzahut Hong Kong allow customers to do the ordering through the Iphone applications. Festival Walk and Langham Place has their own apps as well. In this way, it not only promotes their company, but also increases the sale. Therefore, smartphone is a useful tool for the business company.

Yet, there are technical limitations sometimes. The consumers who use the smartphone would have certain knowledge of using smartphone. The business company would not be able to target the customers who do not smartphone well. So, the business companies need to give clear instructions. Sometimes, even if the business companies provide different services through the smartphone, it might not be used by everyone. The banking application is one of the examples. According to Zetter (2010), there are some banking applications that expose customer data. In order to protect themselves, the customers would not prefer using apps to do any transactions. It is obvious that the technical problems still exits sometimes, regardless of the advanced technology.

Smartphone does bring conveniences to consumers. Consumers can browse all the updated information from the web or apps whenever they need, particular those who are in finance or stock market. They can also contact, send e-mail or even holding video-conferencing through smartphone as it is a reliable tool with high speed. Smartphone’s user is usually businessman (Vercillo, 2010). It can be noted that smartphone does assist customer on their business.
Nevertheless, it is not everyone who would choose to use smartphone. It is more common for people to use smartphone, but it is still more expensive than the traditional mobile phone. Also, consumers do need to be affordable to use some of the services sometimes, like browsing the web or downloading apps. In general, people with older age would not use smartphone since they are lacking of the knowledge or not used to high-tech products. Therefore, financial and age could be the factors which affect people to choose smartphone.

In conclusion, smartphone has become more common and the trend will keep being increased. The sale of phone companies benefited a lot from it. Yet, they still have to spend resources on maintain the competitiveness of their product. Also, smartphone also assists busniess firm in certain extent and the technical problems of using smartphone is still being improved. From the consumers’ side, getting a smartphone or not is still depending on the purchasing power and the background that they come from. Therefore, smartphone is highly related to us nowadays, especially on the business aspects.

Reference

1. TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010, Smartphone usage set to dominate Hong Kong mobile market, Retrieved 20 November, 2010 from http://www.tnsglobal.com/news/news-DB5EF16289044655A787385A433A896F.aspx
2. Vercillo,K. , 2010, Nearly 100% Increase in Smartphone Sales in Past Year, Retrieved 20 November, 2010 from http://www.tnsglobal.com/news/news-DB5E F16289044655A787385A433A896 F.aspx
3. Zetter, K. 2010, Smartphone banking apps expose sensitive customer data, Retrieved 21 November, 2010 from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/ 11/smartphone- banking- apps-expose-sensitive-customer-data.ars

Discuss Smart Phone in a sociology percepts

Introduction

In Hong Kong, It is common to a person using a smart phone, and it is important to state that the popularity of smart phone is increasing. For example, when we are on the street, normally we can see people using Iphone, Samsung galaxy series, etc. It means that smart phone do attract people to use it selves. With the increasing popularity of smart phone , a lot of questions are also raised: Why smart phones are so attractive? How the smart phone change the society? In this essay, this phenomenon will be discussed in a sociology percept. First of all, the reason for the extra high popularity of smart phone will be discussed. The essay will then be followed by discussing the effect of smart phone on the society.

1)The reason for the high popularity of smart phone
There are two reasons explaining why a lot of people choose smart phone rather than mobile phones, mainly ,in terms of security and convenience .

1a) In terms of security
Owing to the fact that Hong Kong is a city of business and a lot of people are working in the business aspect, people need to handle a lot of data of their work and transfer the data to their client through their self phone. Moreover, as some data of their work may be confidential, it Is necessary for the phone to be secure enough so that all the data can be confirmed not to be stolen. For smart phone , since some smart phone are known to be secure, many businessman choose it to help their work. Take blackberry as an example, owing to the fact that the operating system of blackberry are set to be very secure when compared with other phones, blackberry attracts a lot of people to use it . Apart from blackberry, the operating system - Symbian, which is invented by Nokia, is also secure so it attracts many people to use it rather than mobile phone.

1b) In terms of convenience
In the smart phone market, apart from some brands which are very famous in data security, there are also some brands which are famous in the large variety of applications. They are : IPhone OS , Android and Windows mobile. These Operating system provide a large variety of applications. This large variety of applications convince user to do their job. For examples, google maps and bus routes searching application. These applications are very convenient to user to get their job done. Moreover, IPhone OS and Android provide a platform for user to create their own application. This allows applications to have a much higher variety. The characteristic of smart phone that having a lot of applications do attract people very much since it can convince them very much.

2)The effect of smart phone to the society
Since the popularity of smart phone is on the increase, more and more people are affected by this kind of gadget. Therefore, it is important to look at the effect of smart phone on the society.

2a) Boosting the development of application
In the past, application mainly are developed by big companies and people seldom join the development. However, the situation has changed once the smart phone such as IPhone and android system released. Smart phone boost the development of application. The reason is that , as mentioned in above, some smart phone ( IPhone and Android) opens a new platform for user to develop its own application so as to fit their requirement. That is to say, everyone is now have the chance to join the application development. This converge of labor do help the development of new applications.

2b) Open a new market and create new jobs
As mentioned before, some type of smart phone open a new platform for user to share their application. This new platform also create a new market, that is , application market . Take IPhone as an example, Apple company gives a platform called Apple Store for IPhone users to buy applications so as to evaluate their phone. A market is formed which people can buy applications there. Moreover, apart from opening a new market, this new platform also create a new business. Since there is a high demand for applications in the market, some people choose to develop new applications and sell it to other people so as to earn money. This states that Smart Phone do create a new business .

2c) Creating a culture of movable business
Some Smart Phone ,such as blackberry ,are said to be very secure and a lot of businessman to choose to do business through their smart phone. This create a new culture of mobile business that people are now use their selfphone to do business with others. For example, people may sign a contract through smart phone. Therefore, people can now do business everywhere. That is to say, Smart Phone convince businessman to do business in outdoor.

3) Some critical thinking about Smart Phone
Although Smart Phone is said to be very secure, and convenient, it is important for us to think some questions: Do Smart Phone really that good? Do smart phone really secure? Actually, there are many unknown area that we do not know well about smart phone. It is important to state that we should not trust smart phone very much. Even though everyone said that they are secure, it still has the chance of information leakage. Moreover, since your mobile phone always access to the open network, information may be stolen and changed, which may cause a big problem in both economy and personal privacy. Therefore, everyone should think deeply whether they should believe their smart phone too much.