Dial 'S' for Smartphone Surge

At this point in the academic term, no doubt hundreds of professors are sick and tired of seeing students pull out their smartphones during class lectures. Profs may be fighting a losing battle.

NPD DisplaySearch, a market research firm, predicts some 567 million smartphones will be shipped this year, and that number will nearly double by 2016. Of this year’s shipments, close to 177 million will be to first-time smartphone owners, many of them teens and college students. As the baby boomlet (kids born to the famed Baby Boom generation) begins to peter out in the college enrollment ranks over the next few years, NPD sees the number of new smartphone buyers dwindling somewhat.

On the other hand, the number of people replacing existing smartphones with new, jazzy models will skyrocket. Because many people tend to buy new phones whenever their current two-year mobile contract is up, it’s expected phone manufacturers will work with carriers to offer shorter contract periods to encourage more frequent upgrades.

Faculty might as well get used to the fact that students will bring—and use—these devices in the classroom. But they’re not the only ones who need to get up to speed.

The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Europe blog reports that a study by London-based investment banking firm GP Bullhound shows many companies, particularly retailers, haven’t built mobile apps and optimization into their e-commerce offerings yet. As a consequence, they may be missing out on sales. Purchases from mobile devices, according to the report, accounted for 11% of all 2011’s holiday season sales, almost twice as much as the year before.

Is the Time Right for BYOT?

Making use of the technology many students bring to class each day is a touchy subject. Many educators view it as a distraction and even more see it as unfair to those students who cannot afford electronic gadgets, such as an iPhone or Kindle. But that could be changing.

Eric Sheninger, principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey and education writer for The Huffington Post, makes a case for the idea of “Bring Your Own Technology” in a SmartBlog post,  claiming a BYOT program is a way to “leverage a variety of devices that many students already have.” His school piloted a BYOT initiative for seniors, and then expanded it because he felt the program provided real value for both students and teachers.

Sheninger found that students need to view their devices as mobile learning tools and that the school had to adopt language to promote that notion. It’s also important to have professional development and resources available to teachers so they can create lessons specifically connected to the device.

The New Milford BYOT program increased access to technology and encouraged students to use their devices for educational purposes outside the classroom. Acceptable-use policies were required, but it was found those policies could be aligned with policies already in place a school’s discipline code.

In addition, Sheninger knows equity is a large issue facing BYOT and agrees schools should provide for all. But he also considers it an excuse for not moving forward.

“Instead of bashing BYOT and saying how and why it won’t work or is unfair, we would be best served to brainstorm ways in which it can become an educational component of our schools,” he wrote. “The excuses to write off BYOT only serve to undermine the students that we are tasked with educating.”

More Uses for Smartphones Than Just Calls

News that people are using smartphones for much more than simply calling is not particularly earthshattering. But two new reports have surfaced that put numbers behind the trend.

The London Telegraph produced a chart showing smartphone users spend 24 minutes, 49 seconds every day surfing the Internet on their devices, compared to just 12 minutes, six seconds taking calls. In fact, using the phone as a phone was fifth on the list behind using it for social media (17 minutes, 29 seconds), playing music (15 minutes, 38 seconds), and playing games (14 minutes, 26 seconds).

The Online Colleges infographic below, which focuses on smartphone usage by college students, shows that 52% check their phone before getting out of bed in the morning and nearly half take a look before falling asleep at night. Of the students surveyed, 45% use their phones to help with school assignments and 46% say their phones are often more helpful for work-related tasks. Alarmingly, 35% of the students surveyed say they use their phones while stopped at a red light and 20% admit using them while driving.

Courtesy of: Online Colleges

Smartphones and tablets will become mainstream in 2011

The IDC research firm has released a new report that includes sales predictions for smartphones and tablets. According to a posting on the NY Times Bits Blog, IDC predicts that in 2011 the devices will become mainstream and there will be 330 million smartphones and 42 million tablets sold worldwide. IDC also says that half of the 2.1 billion people who regularly use the Internet will access it from non-PC devices next year.