My Mobile Use, and the mobile Divide

How indispensible are mobile devices in my life? That all depends on the mobile device I suppose. I love my I-pod, but I suppose I could live without it, I got along ok without one for the first three decades of my life. My cell phone I would love to get rid of. It isn’t capable of doing any more than my laptop, in fact it does quite a bit less, and since I have that with me where ever I go, my phone is just added weight. The only reason I have one is my wife insists that she needs me to have it so she can get a hold of me. I average about 15 texts and 2 hours of talk time on it a month and personally think it is a rather antiquated piece of technology anyhow. I do see myself using devices such as the ipad, but it is still missing some features that I would like see, such as the ability to use a 4G network as opposed to WiFi only. I’d also like to see some more connectivity options in general but, this is more likely to happen on windows based machine, so we will see what the future holds before I go and shell out money on something like that.
As these mobile devices come and go however their prices do drop, and the question remains, can such mobile computing devices be used in disadvantaged or underdeveloped environments? It is said that mobile computing, particularly cellular phones and devices can help close the digital divide. Some even claim that it is closing the digital divide simply because of access to wireless networks. This is all well and good, but having access to the ocean doesn’t mean I have a boat to sail or the knowledge to sail it. “For [manufactures], the most important issue is cost, because that's what's most important to their customer. And if this means providing trimmed-down handsets at the lowest possible prices, then so be it. This current reality sees many of these phones with no GPRS, no browser, no Java, no camera, no color screen -- the very technologies that form the linchpin of our plans to promote the mobile phone as the tool to help close the digital divide” (Banks, 2008). People in low income situations may certainly be able to access inexpensive cellar technologies and service, but they are just that, cheap. People in mid to upper income economical situations are used to their Blackberry and iphone, or other such internet ready phones. These are not the phones of the lower income family; a 200 dollar phone is not going to bridge the digital divide when you can buy a low end computer for almost the same price. Infrastructure is certainly making ground to connecting more people, but steps to put the necessary hardware in the hands of lower income families at a reasonable cost is not.
Banks, Ken (2008) “Mobile Phones and the Digital Divide” PCWorld. Available at http://www.pcworld.com/article/149075/mobile_phones_and_the_digital_divide.html