The UK Mobile Phone Blog

Wireless and Mobile Technology - For Better or Worse?

August 19, 2008 at 11:49 am by Jack | In Mobile News

As mobile phones and wireless technology rapidly make advances over our social and working lives, we at Mobiles.co.uk pose the question, has this altered people’s lives for the better or worse?

In 2006, Mobile life was established and over 16,500 people were questioned on the four major areas of their lives; Family, relationship, society and work. Following vast advances and breakthroughs in technology Carphone Warehouse decided this year it was time to review employees as well as the general public. Two thousand CPW employees answered questions set by the London School of Economics on the impact new wireless technology and mobiles phones have made on their everyday lives.

The survey was conducted in two parts; by first questioning employees of the Carphone Warehouse and then comparing their answers to those from the general public in order to see if there was a distinct difference between people working with the technology on a regular basis and those who don’t.

As technology advances it has become apparent that wireless is the way forward. Most of us find it very important that we are kept in the know 24/7 wherever we are and the only way we are able to do that is mobile devices with access to the net. This has led to a big push for Wi-Fi to be included in both laptops and mobiles. Similarly the new HSDPA phones such as the Samsung Tocco and Nokia N95 8GB with increased browsing and download speeds have recently come onto the market to satisfy consumer demand.

The results from the survey showed that the following were perceived to be the most significant benefits of wireless technology within the house:

1. Allows you to access the internet via your laptop anywhere in the house.
2. Less clutter and a more organised home, technology looks sleeker, no wires trailing across the house.
3. The freedom and flexibility to work on the go and manage a better work/life balance.
4. Allows you to utilise the multi-media potential of all your electronic devices by transferring data easily around the house.
5. Easier way of getting technology to work together – no need to worry about connecting and downloading – it sets itself up
6. Being at the forefront of cutting edge technology.

So the most popular benefit of wireless technology is the obvious one – it lets you go online from anywhere in the home. Many people also felt going wireless meant the house looks tidier and a smaller but still significant number of respondents said they simply liked using the latest technology on offer.

Another insight, from the answers to ‘which of the following have you done online using a mobile phone?’, shows how many of those high-spec features we are actually using:

	UK Average	CPW Employees
Send and Receive Email	17%	41%
Obtain the latest news/weather	14%	41%
Access a social networking site	5%	36%
Access maps	7%	35%
Download and share photos	11%	27%
Download music	11%	14%
Banking	3%	13%
Pay bills	2%	10%
Shopping	2%	9%
Watch television	2%	8%
Use Chat rooms	2%	5%
Blogging	1%	4%
Gambling	1%	2%

CPW employees are somewhat more welcoming when it comes to the internet, with a huge 41% having sent an email and obtained latest news via their mobiles in comparison to the UK average of 17% and 14% respectively. This was probably not a surprise given that CPW staff handle the latest phones day in day out.

In the past, some people have raised concerns that this time spent online will eventually undermine our ability to form face to face relationships and that people will retreat into a virtual world however I believe this to be the opposite… with all the time saved via our mobile devices surely we have more free time? And with the ability of wireless devices at our fingertips, enabling us to work outside our home or office, does that not put us in a more sociable position? In any case I am sure you are as excited as me to find out what the future holds for wireless technology and what boundaries we may push next.

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