The Smartphone As A Contingency Device

According to Statista in 2014, almost 22% of the global population used a smartphone. This number has gradually increased and expected to reach 40% by 2019. These days, nearly everyone possesses a smartphone. Whether for business or mere pleasure, the uses and importance of smartphones in our daily lives cannot be underemphasized.

The smartphone however can be used as a contingency for many other activities and processes that high technology and multifunctional devices and systems may be unavailable for.

In the past, when a mainframe computer or device fails to work, everything comes to a standstill. These days however, when mainframe devices and systems are non-functional, there is a contingency device that can handle nearly all of these tasks. Say hi to SMARTPHONES!!!

*Business - Many business people and corporate organizations have their activities centred around laptops or other sophisticated high-tech devices. Sending and receiving emails, scheduling meetings on calendars and reminders, social media marketing and instant messaging with clients and customers were primarily done on desktops and laptops in offices and homes. This only meant that, any employee or worker who didn’t have access to any of these devices effectively had no job to do after the usual working hours.

This greatly reduces efficiency and the speed with which business deals or customers are attended to. The smartphone however comes in as a contingency device to eradicate this huge problem. With the smartphone, nearly all these business processes can be done and successfully executed. No matter where you are, once you connect to stable internet, you don’t need a computer to send/receive emails, schedule calendar meetings or instant message clients and customers. The smartphone can do all of these for you in the absence of the main devices because it is mobile and convenient to carry around.

*Media - Video and picture taking of events and precious moments were the sole responsibilities of professional photographers because only they had good picture and video cameras. This led to many important moments not being captured because when there is no photographer, then there is no picture. Sharing the pictures with those involved was also a challenge. These days, the smartphone compensates for these losses and has come as a stand in device for the absence of very high spec and sophisticated photo and video cameras. As a matter of fact, there are cameras of equally high pixels and resolutions as these high spec cameras.

At a wedding, one doesn’t have to wait for the photographer to take pictures of other people before coming to you. Just pull out your smartphone and “click”. Sharing the contents are also quicker and easier, as one can share the picture or videos instantly via media such as whatsapp, Instagram, twitter, airdrop, bluetooth etc. Alternatively, the smartphone is also used as a voice recorder by many who cannot carry along voice recorders to press events and other functions. In place of all these big, sophisticated items and devices, the smartphone can do the job.

*Storage - You go for an event and take some pictures. You work on some sheets and you need to save them. You have some important documents that you need to keep close to you all the time. Where do you save it all? This used to be a very serious question that occupied the minds of many people. Flash Drives, compact discs and hard drives used to be the ideal places to save data and other files. In the absence of these however, the world cannot come to a standstill. There are smartphones which have very high storage capacities and can accommodate various sizes of data and files. It is also easier to access these files because you always carry the smartphone along with you.

*Internet sharing - Servers, wifi devices, mifi’s and internet modems are the main devices recognized for sharing internet connections with other devices. Most often, these devices are powered by batteries or electricity hence in the absence of power everything seems to collapse. With smartphones, a fully charged device can provide internet via hotspot sharing to other devices around. The phone’s internet connection can also be shared with other mobile devices. Work can still go on even when there is no electricity or battery power.

*Other uses - There are a million other instances where smartphones are used as contingency devices. For instance when we are bored, we use them for gaming. When there are power fluctuations, we use them as flashlights. We also use our smartphones as calculators, music players, to check the weather and do many other things when we do not have access to the devices or items responsible for this.

Technology has come to stay and the mere fact that a main frame device, desktop or laptop is not accessible does not mean that everything has to stop. Life goes on and the smartphone has come to serve as a contingency device when the need arises. If you don’t have a smartphone and yet you know it’s importance, kindly get one now.