CELL PHONE TECHNOLOGY

Cell Phone Technology

Cell Phone Technology

The development of mobile technology has much of its history in the evolution of the cellular phone. From simple cell phones to modern smartphones, this technology still dominates the marketplace for devices used to connect with other phones and to the Internet. Phone technology has evolved through several generations, which has allowed for increasing capabilities. In the earlier days, 2G (known as GSM: Global System for Mobile communication) used digital signals and integrated a modem to call dial-up Internet service numbers provided by the phone carrier. This technology was relatively slow compared to the subset of 2G mobile phones that were able to browse the Internet via a Wireless Application Browser (WAP) installed on the device, which enabled text messaging for the first time. The next generation, 2.5G, or GPRS: General Packet Radio Service, was a significant advancement in data speed network over the previous generation; it more readily supported data-centric applications such as e-mail, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), and Web browsing.

The widespread use of mobile (cell) phones in most countries now affects social innovation and consumer culture in a range of settings including social groups such as family, friends, and intimate networks, as well as across broader social networks including employment, business, and services such as medicine and education. The uses and applications of mobile phone digital content and services are becoming increasingly sophisticated when compared to basic, though popular, traditional services such as short message services (SMS). Multimedia messaging services (MMS) and applications and mobile e-mail and Internet applications along with global positioning system (GPS)-enabled handsets and the iPhone have made a defining impact on the business end and experience end of consumer culture. The growing social, cultural, and economic impact of mobile digital content and services is evidenced in European and Southeast Asian nations in particular and will take on greater significance in the social and cultural life of society in other regions, as the major telecommunication carriers commit to 3G broadband and associated enhanced services in the coming years.

As in the past, the introduction of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT), products, and services evoked changes in existing patterns of employment, family structures, leisure activities, concepts of time, and existing societal values such as privacy and notions of personal and public space, even patterns of human settlement and education. Mobile phones find a distinct resonance with consumer culture given their affinity within both the work and leisure milieu—with fashion and media purposing—and as an expression of style and design.

Personalized devices such as mobile phones are showing similar trajectories in consumer culture but are, however, unique in that they penetrate geographical spaces with existing products and innovations that enable consumption and communication to be applied in new social, cultural, or psychological ways. Such products and services are typified by inputs based on knowledge, creativity, and differentiation. Phone users now have a means of group communication, media content access (entertainment, information, data), and the ability to “synchronise everyday life” (Ling 2001) with home, ...