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KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID — SMART PHONES WORDS: KARLIN LILLINGTON
What more appropriate item for a smart businesswoman than a smart phone? If you’ve been put off considering one of these devices because they seem so complex, stop thinking of them as geek girl devices and start thinking of them as handbag liberators. Look at it this way — a smart phone packs into one small device the punch of three or four, and possibly a print diary as well. So get rid of the music player, the diary, the mobile, the PDA (personal digital assistant) — even, in many cases, the whole laptop — and banish heavy, lumpen handbags forever! Consider too, that Irish businesswomen already consider themselves more technically adept than their male counterparts. A recent survey of 300 Irish execs and owners of small to medium sized businesses carried out by O2 found that 22 per cent of women consider their PC skills to be excellent, compared to 14 per cent of men. Only 10 per cent of women consider them to be poor, compared to nearly a fourth of the fellows. The three main reasons a smart woman might want a smart phone are: email, email and email. All of these hybrid devices are increasingly popular primarily for their ability to handle email, say US analysts. And the same holds true here: according to the O2 survey, 49 per cent of women said they most desired email capability in their mobile. This is followed by news access, which appeals to 34 per cent of women. However, O2 note that while 31 per cent of men want to use their mobile for sports news, “just 13 per cent of women require this service.” Only 3 per cent of businesswomen said they just wanted mobiles that could text and make calls. There’s no doubt that smart phones are popular, too. Sales of the devices are expected to nearly double this year to 122 million worldwide, compared with 74 million in 2006, according to technology research firm Gartner. Almost half a billion people will have one by three years from now in 2010, the research firm says. The uptake in the devices is directly linked to the downward trend in pricing. Only a year or two ago choosing a smart phone meant paying serious money — in the €400-500 range for top line devices, making them the choice of a small elite, mostly executives. Now they are tumbling into the medium range. While a stunning high end device like the O2 XDA Exec is still going to set you back about €400, a penny pinching gal can get onto the smart phone ladder for as low as €69 with the Nokia E50 for business users.
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