Monday, February 27, 2012

Smart Phones - Crippling Humans & Hurting Businesses

     I was looking for an article for my second blog project, so I looked up things I am interested in, at last I chose the topic smart phones.  The article that caught my attention was an article about how mobile phones are disrupting the retail environment. I chose this one, because I recently had a discussion with my aunt about how smart phones are crippling us a people. We talked about how memory is one thing having these phones hurts. For example, she was about to call her husband, when she realized she didn’t know the number and her phone was dead. Normally, she just goes in her call log on her phone and presses his name, (meaning she doesn’t have to memorize it, because it’s in the phone.) Therefore, this topic really stood out to me. In the article on dmn.com “Mobile computing will disrupt retail sales funnel”, it talks about how smart phones are hurting businesses that are brick-and-mortar. One way they are hurting the these retailers is customers now have the tendency to consult their phones for prices while in the actual store. The article displayed the following numbers for this, as well as insight on how smart phones has changed our world.

 “The report notes how in December 2011, 28.5 million consumers used their mobile devices to find online retail content; this is an 87% increase from the previous year. Overall, comScore noted a spike in mobile access to commerce-related content. Electronic payments increased 80%; classifieds increased 72%; auction sites increased 70%; and shopping guides increased 67% compared with the previous year. Moreover, comScore found 1 in 5 US consumers used their smart devices to photograph a product; 1 in 5 US customers scanned a barcode; and 12% compared in-store product prices with online lists.” (Joe 2012)

     Another big hurtle brick-to-mortar businesses have to deal with when it comes to the outlet is the online outlets. Stores like Aquino have come up with things like deals and incentives to make customers want to shop in the the actual store. All in all, I must say that smart phones have a way of benefiting and crippling us, but I for one am not ready to give mine up. I mean…Are You?

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