Cell phones and handheld computers are two important technological inventions that have changed the face of our world as we see it today. Since the emergence of cell phones, many people are able to communicate wireless without having to stay at home communicating through their LAN line phone and don’t have to worry about all of those dangling phone chords that are just unnecessary. Most people use cell phones as an electronic device for mobile telecommunications such as mobile telephone, text messaging, and or data transmission over a cellular network of specialized base stations known as cell sites. The current cell phones of today support many additional services and accessories such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video, MP3, AM/FM radio, and GPS. Cordless phones just seem to pose a big hassle for people who are always on the go and also for many people who work for big time businesses. Handheld computers were the successors for the desktop computers t and are mostly used for in home usage for those people who don’t go out very much are just love doing all of their work and or business from the privacy of their own home. Laptop computers are designed for mobile use and are very small and light enough to sit on a person’s lap while in use. A laptop computer integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, also known as a track pad, and or a pointing stick), speakers, and often including a battery, into a single small and light unit. The older desktops didn’t have as many features as the newer ones which posses most of the features that a current laptop has minus the ability to connect to the internet wireless. It seems like year after year, there are more new technological advances to both cell phones and laptop computers. For example, a newer advancement to cell phones is that most cell phone manufactures are starting to make cell phones that are touch screen. This allows people to be able to not always have to use their keypads to dial numbers or type out messages. The development of Bluetooth technology has also had an impact and has saved many lives by allowing the user to be able to answer thir cell phone without even picking up the phone so they will be able to focus on any situation rather than picking up the phone and holding it to their ears which is sometimes complicated. Also, with laptop computers, the new advancements of bigger and better hard drives and WIFI technology have proven to be the best new advancements. I feel that since new technological advancements are made with these two products every year, it will be very exciting to see what new advancements will be in store for both of these products in the near future.
Cell phones have really made a very big impact on organizations in the way employees communicate, conduct transactions, and access information in the workplace. With the quick development in technology, cell phones are surely becoming more and more popular with each passing day (Sedycias, pg 1). With the invention of cell phones, employees and employers are able to communicate through cell phone technology to receive and send data. Back in the day, people had to communicate through sending messages through mail rather than being able to send messages through the telephone which I find is much easier to do than sending messages through the mail. For example, many of the people back in the day had to send their messages through mail or typewrite their letters in order to try to communicate with other people. Since there were no telephones back then, you had future inventors thinking up ways to improve their technology even back before my time. When the telephone was invented, people didn’t realize how much far in advancement that the telephone would have reached after they were dead and gone and the newer generation started to play important roles in technological inventions. Cell phones have taken over the LAN line telephones of the past and even though many people still use regular phones in their houses, I tend to use my cell phone on a daily basis which I can communicate with my employer or employees in case of an emergency or if I have any data that I want to share with them while I am away from my home. Communication is very important in the workplace and also outside the workplace and that’s when cell phones really come into play. Most employers want to know where their employees are if something happens to them which can prevent them from coming into work. It is much easier to have a cell phone in a situation like this because if you have to call your employer to inform he or she that you will be late or can’t make it to work, you will have your cell phone with you to inform your manager about any situations or incidents that you may have. I’m not saying that this could not be accomplished through a LAN line phone, but it is good for everyone to have their own personal phone due to the fact that a lot of people cannot be trusted and then you are forced to try to use other peoples phones to try to contact your employers or your family members in case of an emergency. Also, companies can use cell phones to conduct business transactions. If companies want to make purchases or conduct transactions, they will be able to without having to leave their desks. They will be able to use their own cell phones and conduct any business related transactions that they may need to do. I feel that it is very much convenient because employers and employees will be able to communicate with people all over the world from the comfort of their own home or at the workplace. Having cell phones makes business people’s lives much easier because they are so much more convenient than regular phones due to their accessibility and that now you can do so much more with a cell phone than a regular phone.
Handheld computers or as some say laptop computers has also made a big impact on society as well as an impact on big corporations. Computers I feel were a big enhancement from the original typewriters which were used back then in order to type and deliver messages. Since the emergence of computers, many people will be able to send and receive messages without even having to leave the comfort of their own homes. It has also helped corporations with preparing presentations as well as making transactions with other business and consumers without having to have a face to face meeting. When laptop computers started to emerge, they quickly became an instant impact because of the fact that people were used to dealing with bigger PC computers which were too heavy to carry around on a day to day basis. By having a laptop computer handy, people and businesses now had the opportunity to actually carry their own personal computer around with them to take care of any business that they needed to take care of. For example, companies use laptops a lot when preparing presentations and for doing business related work outside and inside of the workplace. It has made life so much easier for them because they do not have to sit at a desk all day on a PC computer to do any of their work. Whether they are out shopping or on the road, they can still communicate with other employees and workers through their laptop whenever they feel the need to. I have also started to notice that many people are starting to not buy PC computers anymore and that many are starting to make the switch to purchasing laptop computers. ” For the price of a laptop, you could purchase a desktop, which is faster, easier to expand and more powerful,”(Jasper, pg 2). Laptop computers bring customers and business convenience and immediate access to information whether it’s from saved files or from the Internet. They allow for better collaboration between employees and managers meaning that laptop computers can be flipped open to find a solution anytime and anywhere. For examples, if you are someone you know is in a meeting and had forgotten an important document, they can simply access it at any time and any other information that they have forgotten from their laptop computer.
I believe that both cell phones and laptop computers have both had a really major impact on organizations in many ways and I believe that there is plenty of room for improvement. With cell phones, there are many new technological features which include games, internet, touch screen options, MP3, picture messaging, and also text messaging. These are all really great features that are very beneficial, but I also feel that a new feature that can be added to cell phones that would be very beneficial to organizations is probably a video chatting option. This will enable people who work for companies the opportunity to talk to other co-workers and see them at the same time while they are talking chatting with them. This feature will be able to let business communicate with other business and be able to actually watch them though the telephone or if someone is unable to attend a very important meeting due to delay, they will still be able to listen and watch the meeting form their cell phone. I would really love to see this feature added to cell phones for the simple fact that many employees who work for big companies are faced with transportation issues and issues that may deal with a family emergency which can cause them to be absent for one day or maybe late. The new technological feature of cell phone chatting will be able to place that employee at work without even physically being there which can work out for both the employee and the employer. In the case of laptop computers, I feel that here has been many new technological advances that have really impacted businesses and provided them with easier ways of communications and despite all of the advancements from the original PC computers to the personal laptops, I would love to see better security programs to prevent viruses, hackers, and spyware form damaging the laptop and also placing a built in tracking device for laptops. I feel that with newer and enhanced security programs, this will be able to help business from damaging viruses, hackers, and spyware that can potentially do harm to their laptops. If a computer in general catches a virus, it will cost the company money to get this problem fixed and this could cause that company to lose money as well as important data. Also, by having a built in tracking device located inside of laptop computers will allow employees to be able to track their computer in case of a theft. When working for a business, there are a lot of personal and confidential information that is stored in laptops which if lost without a backup disk can be harmful if that information is lost or is in the hands of a thief. I feel that companies and their employees should always have that extra added protection when owning a laptop computer for daily personal needs and for company matters.
In closing, even though there has been many technological changes in today’s society, I feel that the emergence of cell phones and handheld computers has had the most impact on my life, but I also feel that business were also majorly impacted by the emergence of cell phones and handheld computers as well. Such advancements as E-Commerce, Intranets and Extranets, and distance learning all aided in the way businesses operates, but I feel that all of these did not make a bigger impact on our society as the cell phones or handheld computers did. I feel that technological advances are really hard to follow especially if you are working in a business environment and knowing that whenever technology changes, that you must change also. One of the major things about on-demand is that it helps a business become not just more innovative, but also much more efficient and much more responsive to change (Wladawsky-Berger, pg 1). I try my best to stay prepared for any new technological advancements or any new changes that are bound to happen whenever I am working for any company. I feel that since our world is filled with the ability to develop and manufacture newer and more innovative products every year, it is very important to try to adapt to whatever new technology that is created especially when working in a business environment because the one thing that businesses likes are employees that catch on and adapt to their surroundings quick and are able to do whatever is necessary to take their company to the next level.
Resources
- http://kb. wisc. edu/showroom/page. php? id= 3044
- http://www. inc. com/telecom/articles/200802/cellphone. html.
- Valencia, Gina. ” Convenience Main Benefit of Laptops.” Daily Trojan. 1999. pg 2.
- http://www. buzzle. com/articles/benefits-of-using-a-cell-phone. html.
- http://www. businessweek. com/technology/content/dec2002/tc20021231_1219. htm.