A friend of the Mac persuasion, who is constantly waxing lyrical about her iPhone and can’t wait to get an iPad (you know how Apple people can be), passes this on:
A new Stanford University survey confirms what many iPhone users may have long suspected: Apple’s smartphone can be addicting.The survey was administered to 200 students with iPhones, 70 percent of whom had owned their iPhones for less than a year.
The most interesting trend was how quickly the iPhone became an indispensable part of the students’ lifestyles, and how many of them openly acknowledged they would be lost without it.
OK, sure, as a Crackberry user, I can see how that might happen. But then they present the basis for these findings:
Nearly 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch, and 89 percent used it as their alarm clock. In fact, 75 percent admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them, and 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning.
Well, now, come on — who doesn’t use even an ordinary cell phone as their watch, and as their alarm clock? I started doing that years ago, and who wouldn’t. Do people still buy watches, except for the really expensive ones that a certain kind of materialistic show-off twit wears as jewelry?
True, it’s a little disturbing that 30 percent of respondents reported that their phone is a “doorway into the world,” but I have the impression the researchers chose that creepy language. And face it; it IS a doorway into the world — several doorways, in fact.
And how often do you use your wallet in a given day, compared to how often you use a smartphone — for your e-mail, for Twitter, for Facebook, for blogging, to take pictures and video, and occasionally make a phone call? I might, just might, pull my wallet out of my pocket twice in a day, but sometimes go all day without touching it.
I mean, hello?!?!? Do you know what century this is, Stanford?
Seriously, I had assumed that would be an actual study of ADDICTION, with measurements of serotonin levels released in the subjects’ brains or something. Not a self-reported survey…
I thought Stanford was supposed to be a serious research university…
I just has batteries put into several of my watches. I probably have ten going right now. I love watches. You can tell time very stealthily with them–no obvious consulting the phone. You can tell time in the middle of the night without even rolling over. I use my watch far more than I use my phone….
I would not be caught dead with an Apple computer, but will not own another cell phone until someone can come up with something better than my iPhone. I know know how the average cavemen felt when the wheel was invented.
I will not buy an iPad, it’s just a neutered iPhone.
My iPhone has a MAGNETIC COMPASS built in. I’m in love.
Just like a Red Ryder BB gun, huh?
And Kathryn — do you still maintain a carriage?
One keeps one’s carriages in Aiken, naturally.
I am the proud owner of a MacBook and an iMac (my second), but just a dumb phone. I keep hoping they’ll come out with a Zoolander phone…I want smaller, not more.
I am just too used to glancing at my watch to see what time it is.
Okay, I’ll admit it; I am a creature of habit.
There are just too many motions involved to reach to your belt, unclip the cell phone from the holster, bring the cell phone into view, flip up or punch a button on the cell phone to see the time.
Seconds have been wasted! I can also tell if a person is right-handed or left-handed if they wear a watch; there are a few odd balls. I’m right-handed, but I mouse left-handed at work.
I like the quick, easy glance.
If you had asked me the time, using the cell phone as a time piece, I would have had to say “Hold on”. If I wore a wristwatch, I could say “It’s 10:21”.
As far as I know, there are no “Dick Tracy” video/cell phone wrist watches on the market.
I may get an iPhone, but it won’t be until Apple unlocks the bounds from AT&T.
Crackberrys? I haven’t used them. I have multiple personal email addresses and all emails are funneled into Microsoft Outlook. I don’t know if Blackberry can do that or not.
I do have a Windows Pocket PC which has my contacts, tasks, and calendar from Microsoft Outlook. My Pocket PC is in my shirt pocket or pants pocket. But, I have to manually enter items from work since my employer uses Novell Groupwise instead of Microsoft Exchange and Novell and Microsoft don’t work that well together.
I went to a store today to buy a replacement Casio watch. They didn’t have Casio watches. They had an Origo watch, which is the same price as the Casio watch of $49, plus another $100. I said “No”. My wife went into the same store, saw the same watch and said “No”
But with the battery dead in my watch, I feel lost and naked.
The features that I like in a watch? time, calendar, stopwatch, sunrise/sunset
Blackberry can do that, although migrating from Outlook would be much safer, and it’s easy to export addresses from Outlook into Gmail, etc. Google calendar, Gmail, and the other Google products are so easy to use and free.
I have soooo many watches, in part because I hate it when the battery fails. I also have a Citizens ecodrive watch that runs on solar power, but it doesn’t glow in the dark–indeed, the face is kind of hard to read…
When Outlook is WORKING, you can get it to backup your Blackberry and vice versa. And if your Outlook is on an Exchange server, the updates are automatic: You add a contact or edit an appointment in Outlook, and it happens automatically on your Blackberry, and vice versa, without having to sync them up physically.
It’s way cool. When it’s working.
And yes, it may be slightly easier to glance at a watch than to slip a phone out of a holster on your belt, but I sort of like the latter — the gesture is very like looking at a pocket watch. So at the same time, you’re being up-to-date, but with a gesture that’s old-timey. I like the irony.