Contemplating Smartphone Business Models & Access

I recently made a trip to the Verizon store that really gave me an in depth look at how the recent "no contracts" and "6 month upgrades" business model changes are influencing the access and affordability to smartphones​. Basically with the trend started by T-mobile, here in the US, all of the other major carriers (AT&T and Verizon) have adopted similar "leasing" business models to entice and facilitate more people to get more smartphones and continue upgrading their smartphones at incredibly high rates (up to 2 upgrades per year as opposed to the traditional new phones every 2 years). Before upgrading that often was a luxury and quiet costly, and now with these new leasing-like business models it's not so costly and much easier. This makes things ever more interesting since with each new phone there is heighten improvements in functionalities and tools, but also the smartphone market is becoming more diverse and less Apple dominated, though iPhones do continue to maintain a huge market share. 

The bigger question that this recent visit has made me think about is how is this going to impact mobility, economic and health access in cities.

Afghan Women Access to Mobile Phones

Check-out the impressive stat's in USAid's cool infographic about Afghan Women's Access to Mobile Technology.

The Mobile Phone Internet Revolution Projections

Here are two a very interesting projections I picked from Al Gore while reading the recent article about him in Time Magazine ("From Chads to Riches" by David Von Drehle). While the focus of the article was Gore himself, Gore provided the author with two projections for the future of Internet use in the 21st century which somehow cleverly made it into the piece:

1. Mobile-only Internet users are expected to increase 56-fold over the next 5 years.
2. Information flow over smartphones is expected to increase 47-fold over the next 5 years.

IBM Smarter Cities Tests and Finds...

Using one of its own facilities to in a way "beta" test some of its new building analytics gadgets the IBM Smarter Cities team found some interesting cost-saving metrics to lure new customers to its portfolio of data-based services. In their Ireland facility they found that replacing paper towels in bathrooms with high-speed hand-dryers saved the IBM Ireland Research Lab building around 5,000 euros a year. In addition, the hand-dryers also reduced the environmental impact involved with processing 400,000 pieces of waste paper.

New Opps in Cheaper Health Care: Smart Devices & Wireless Medicine

My favorite concept that I read about today is about wireless medicine and how smart devices are opening new opportunities to provide better and cheaper health care everywhere, from airplanes to senior citizen’s homes to poor rural communities.

This is just a quick recap summary of an interesting article I read: The Key to Better Health Care May Be Already in Your Pocket and Its Not Your Wallet.

Did you know it's possible to snap an AliveCor device onto an iPhone and perform a cardiogram at 30,000 feet? Well it is. Dr. Eric Topol was recently able to do a cardiogram on a flight from DC to San Diego after a passenger on a flight started to into heart attach-like motions on the plane and a flight attendant asked if there was a doctor on the flight. Dr. Topol was able to assess that the passenger was definitely having a heart attack an recommended an emergency landing. The passenger was taken to the
hospital and survived the heart attack.

Dr. Topol told NBC: “These days, I’m prescribing a lot more apps than I am medications.”

The Original LA Metro Tunnel

From the LA Times archives: here are photos from LA's first subway tunnel from First Street and Glendale Boulevard to Hill street, between Fifth and Fourth Streets that began construction on May 3, 1924. The subway tunnel was a mile long, 28 feet wide and 21 feet high. It varied from 30 feet to 60 feet below the ground.

Source: LA Times

Source: LA Times

Source: LA Times

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