While just 11-13% of cell phone users have a Smart (Internet capable) phone, this micro technical device will change the world like broadband access did. I’m not kidding. 3G networks of smart phones – soon to be 4G, offer close-to-broadband access to the Internet. In the future, our computers will be mobile and we will carry them with us like our wallets – and the smart phone is a window to that life. Remember when cameras were still film and cell phones (in the US) didn’t have a camera? That was just 10 years ago…. While service providers T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon (Blackberry) and others offer smart phones, and the Blackberry smart phones actually out sold it by a nose in 2008, the iPhone transcends them all. Most of my friends who own a Blackberry tell me it’s because it’s paid for by their companies.
If you are a medical recruiter (my area of knowledge) or a recruiter of higher end professional jobseekers, I promise you that a much larger percentage of your target market of new graduates, advanced practitioners, and physicians have a smart phone.
- My studies now show that top-shelf jobseekers today prefer that you text them through your recruiting protocol.
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The iphone is not just a smart phone but an iconic tool that you will agree is the most unbelievable communication and Internet tool you have ever used when (this is my blog, so I am insisting) you get one – in many ways it is already better than your desk or laptop.
It’s about the iphone’s applications – or “Apps”: Applications are “tools” and games you can download – some for free and others for a cost, into the hard drive of the iphone. The App market and makers of Apps, are exploding. From applications such as AAA, which allow you to, at the touch of a button see where all the AAA discounts for your membership are in your vicinity (in concert with your location as the iphone has a GPS system), to Airfare – a free App that checks every single airfare and provides the lowest prices – from the regional carriers to the majors for your date and destination. Bible verses, games of all sorts, such as a “Labyrinth,” which actually moves a ball/marble through a maze as you balance the phone and negotiate a maze. The endless application list is actually in a library on the iphone itself, which is continually updated – all you do is hit an icon and it reveals an “App store.”
I watch (commercial-free) podcasts of TV shows, and I have last year’s National Championship College Football game loaded on my iphone – when I’m feeling blue I can watch Tebow and the Gators (I paid for this podcast). I have an extensive library of music, and if I had more time, I could download feature films – and sync everything with my computer – which doesn’t have to be a Mac.
How awesome is an iphone? Take this example:
I was listing to the radio in my car with my fiancé and a really good song came on the radio which has a very catchy beat to it – I thought it would be one I might like to buy (on my iphone, of course, which is also an ipod, btw). My fiancé, who also owns an iphone, opened an App called Shazam, and pressed a button on the iphone screen – the App first literally listed to the song, and within a minute, identified it, and then the App offered that I could watch the video for the song (for free) or it could be purchased for 99 cents. Remarkable. Thalia learned of the App when she was at City Walk in Orlando and one of her friends used the app by opening it while a song was being played on the PA system.
Within 5 years, you will be driving down the street and your smart phone will beep because you have it on “Real Estate” mode – likely an App, because you are shopping for a house and one that meets multiple parameters and your price range is in the area. When a camera you are looking at drops below a price range, an App will alert you and show you which stores in the area offer it, or when an online store does - you may want to scratch this example because your smart phone will likely have a camera as good as any soon. For Job Searching, this will also happen - and we released a prototype called Online Job Tour Micro in the fall of 2006 in anticipation of this.
Your smart phone – probably the iPhone, will soon talk to you – it will likely converse with you. All this will happen in 5 years or less.
Sure, the persnickety among us have complaints about the iphone –
- There is only a proprietary video player which allows for viewing of only UTUBE videos.
- There is no cut & paste application (yet)
- The keyboard is clumsy and it takes me 2X as long to send texts.
I'm excited to learn of the new iphones, which are now up to 32G vs. my now obsolete 8G iphone - and whether these shortcomings have been addressed.
For hard-core texters who use their smart phones to text as email replacements or for email, you can see why Blackberry still competes with the iphone in unit sales – but all the genius and imagination is in the iphone. Take longer to text or make your texts short. But Blackberry’s are not the future.
Get an iphone. It will change your life for the better. It will promote dreaming. It will inspire you. And don’t forget, soon it will be talking to you.
To contact me directly, email me at carlbrickman@yahoo.com. I am also on Facebook. Learn more about my work at www.onlinejobtour.com
