For those who can remember a time when it was commonplace to call a fixed-line telephone in the hope of finding someone at home, the proliferation of smartphones in the UAE is truly mind-boggling. Even with an average of two mobile phones for each person in the Emirates already, consumers are now spending more annually on upgrading their handsets than they did only a year ago.
Within this world-leading adoption of technology lies three befuddling conundrums. Even the antithesis of the smartphone – the sub-Dh100 Nokia – has more computing might than Nasa required to send men to the moon. But despite the vast processing power of modern smartphones, they are seen as entirely disposable. Three quarters of those polled said they planned to buy a new one within six months.
That leads to the second paradox: these phones allow users to access nearly everything in the vast panoply of human knowledge, but too often are used to post pictures of one’s lunch.
And the third? The world’s most powerful communication device is often used in a way that decreases direct spoken contact, often when the person involved is right next to us, which sounds like a bad connection.
