Smartphone Technology and the Designer

Smartphone technology is one of the single fastest growing technologies afforded to businesses today and has changed the way many businesses operate. More and more firms are turning to Smartphone Applications to enhance the way customers interact with their products and services and even boost their bottom line. In today’s world, customers expect to have everything at their finger tips and receive feedback on a timely manner, if companies can’t provide that information quickly the results can be devastating. Providing an application for clients will assist in keeping companies on the mind of your customer and give the company a modern, up to date appeal.
A modest Smartphone Application can cost between $6000 to $8000 dollars to create and implement, and most companies will see this as a wise investment for improving Company Client relations. Even Small business can have an application with less features and buttons for around $2000 dollars.

History

Smartphone Technology emerged in 1993 with release of the Simon by IBM; this phone contained a calendar, email, world clock, calculator, notepad and a couple of games. Since that day Smartphone Technology has evolved into what are basically, small computers, offering the same characteristics as your desktop or laptop. In the mid to late 1990s PDAs became all the rage and the technology advanced to start offering applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, music, cameras, wireless Internet and so on. Today there is not much a Smartphone cannot do and the technology is advancing with leaps and bounds every year.

Benefits of Smartphone Technology

The benefits of using Smartphone’s are enormous to any company large or small and offer tons of features and applications that can assist you in your daily business or private life.

• Keeping you organized - Smartphone handsets can function as personal organizers, with electronic diaries, contact lists, and automatic reminders
• Flexible working - as with a PDA, you can use your Smartphone to take notes, review and edit your appointments, contacts and documents, all while you're on the move.
• Information at your fingertips - Access to maps and directions to television transmissions with news coverage or weather reports to traffic information and scheduling alerts - which means your business can always stay one step ahead of what's going on.
• Never out of touch - you can connect to the internet for e-mail and web access 'on the move', or connect to your computer network to access relevant data, wherever you are, making it easier for remote workers, or a mobile workforce to stay in touch with the business.
• Faster communication - web access is quicker, making it easier to access e-mail and information from the Net. Some models and carriers offer an 'always-on' internet access service making connection easier.
• Sell and Promote Products – Personalized Applications for companies allow mobile users to browse and purchase products from any location via a wireless connection. The power is in the hands of the consumer which holds the Smartphone where ever they go.

Who is using the Technoloy

Many Companies are already using this technology already, Pizza Hut, Amazon, Dell just to name a few. Break Down Way, a small company from Pomeroy Ohio is an online company that provides guitar and bass lesson to their clients. David Wolff, owner of the company has found a new way to attract customers by offering an application that will provide lesson via Smartphone technology. The plan offers 5 free lessons and for those who wish to continue to use the service a small $29.99 monthly fee will be charged which will give customers access to the full catalogue of lessons taught by artists including Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane and Michael Falzarano from Hot Tuna. That’s just one small example of the technologies many uses and the best part is that any company can benefit from it.

Problems Associated with Smartphone’s

As with most technology Smartphone’s due have some problems and business and consumers need to be aware. The most pressing issue is with security and if plan to do online banking or transferring data be cautious, stealing IDs and data transmission is a common type of fraud. Another concern is that in todays fast pace world people are using Smartphone’s while driving and it has been a factor in many auto Accidents and Fatalities. Many States are now passing legislation to ban there use while driving in effort to reduce such accidents.

Smartphone’s and the Designer

As a Designer understanding and being able to design applications for customers will afford us a means of revenue, far into the future. Smartphone Applications are not trends that will go away in the near future, they will continue to grow and evolve as the needs increase, which by all predictions are immense. Smart Designers will take the opportunity to learn and become fluent in this technology so that they can keep ahead of their competitors and offer clients that extra touch that is so valuable in today’s economy.

Flash CS5

The upcoming release of Flash CS5 will incorporate many features for designers to create all types of mobile phone applications for a wide range of phones including the iPhone. Designers will be able to create applications and compile them to run in apples native code for the iPhone, other Smartphone’s will be able to load SWF files in regular Flash format through the web browser. Some of the many features are listed below

• Accelerometer Input – A new class allows developers to read acceleration values in X, Y and Z axes and control them with Actionscript 3.
• Screen Orientation – SWF content adjust automatically between Portrait and Landscape modes or remain consistent with the way the application was built.
• Graphics hardware acceleration – a GPU based vector renderer replaces the software renderer on the Smartphone resulting in faster rendering performance while using less power.
• Reuse Action Script 3 Code – You can use existing code long as the phone supports the functionality on available devices, Just make sure it is web optimized adjust for mobile

Designer who take the time to learn this technology will reap the benefits of an ever growing market and the market is one of the fastest growing technologies of today. Some say that Smartphone’s could replace computers altogether for the regular person and business, I don’t think that will happen, however; I do feel that it is wise to understand and offer this technology as a service in my business for future success and stability.

Links of Referenced Material

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125071635069144197.html
http://www.laptopxl.com/devices/smartphone/
http://www.is4profit.com
http://www.scmagazineuk.com
http://www.taterboy.com