Mobile computers are much more than a phone

The rush is on to be the first company/organization to have people paying with their phone.  Mastercard, Paypal, Square, are just a few of the businesses competing for the consumer to buy and spend using their smart phones.  But, as the name of this blog implies, a smart phone is a mobile computer in your pocket.  What can we do now because we have a computer in our pockets and access to all the information on the internet from anywhere in the world?  At least anywhere we have cellular service?

Some examples of how the world has changed our ordinary lives:

• 1)      Phone books do not exist any longer.  Oh, every now and then I have someone drop off a phone book on my front porch which these days I just carry right to the recycle bin.
• 2)      Getting directions to or knowing where a business is located is now the sole domain of cab drivers.  All of us just enter the business name into apps like Google Maps or AroundMe and we have access to their website, directions to their business, and customer reviews at our finger tips.
• 3)      When was the last time you printed and framed a photo or placed a picture in a photo album?  Film has long ago met its demise as digital cameras emerged, but now we have online photo albums, re-live memories as we swipe through photos on our phone. 
• 4)      Your smart phone has emerged as a universal remote that can program your thermostat, record TV shows, act as a coupon wallet, scan prices at the mall, and even order coffee for you at Starbucks.
• 5)     Your phone has become a bank teller, able to accept your check deposit anywhere there is a cellular signal. No more long lines at the bank on pay day, the full functions of an ATM are not there yet, but coming soon i'm sure. For now, you can transfer money between accounts, but no cold hard cash yet. 
• 6) We now have our own personal shopper constantly scanning for sales of items that i want to buy. With apps such as Hukkster that search websites and retail catalogs for sales and price changes and send you an e-mail when your desired price has been reached. 

And today, Facebook announced a new way to become a part of the computer in your pocket.  Instead of having to select the Facebook App to check on the newsfeed from all my friends, I now can have Facebook as part of the operating system of my phone.  Facebook has taken over the home screen of a cellular phone and will run Facebook apps within or in the background of all other apps because it is part of the OS.  Just as more than half the internet users of the late 1990s used Internet Explorer and MSN for e-mail because these two icons were on the desktop of every Windows computer, Facebook is hoping that they can see the same level of success by owning the home screen of mobile phones.

Originally, there was a race to have consumers use their phone for payments, now the race has shifted to how many times a day can you get a consumer to open you app, or visit your online store.