Musings on Week Four: Mobile Technology and Libraries

As we discussed in class yesterday, and as Aaron Smith notes in "Smartphone Ownership 2013," 56% (perhaps more) of American adults are now smartphone users, while only 9% of the American adult population does not own a cell phone at all.  We talked briefly in class about how mobile web can be helpful in the library setting -- getting overdue notices on one's mobile device rather than through an e-mail, or simply replying "R" for renew, for instance, via SMS.  Smartphones with web-enabled technologies are quickly changing how people communicate with each other and with institutions alike.  Aldrich comments on how the commercial sector has taken the lead in creating mobile websites that capitalize on the capabilities of smartphones, while the academic community has begun to follow suit (MIT and Stanford being among the first), albeit at a slower pace.  Someone in class yesterday (Ben?) also mentioned the similarities between mobile web devices and cloud computing, comparing cloud computing to "Big Brother" in some ways.  Dr. Oguz said that we will come back to this comparison later in the semester.  I am looking forward to that!  I also came across two interesting articles, which I will post below -- the first from MarketingLand and the second from MediaPost -- about how mobile web has invaded the commercial sector in some very useful ways.  Banking, in this case, with close to half of all banking transactions occurring via mobile devices. 

MarketingLand Study

MediaPost Article