Why Smart Apps Are Needed

We're in an age of always being on. By that I mean, always connected. While cell phones have on and off switches, I don't know how often people turn off the phone versus just not answering it when it rings.

We are also living in a time where tecnologies like Find Me/Follow me exist, but they are not yet really smart applications. I find that very humorous considering Microsoft and a bunch of cell phone manufacturers have named them "Smartphones."

The cell phone's no smarter today than when it first really was introduced. Other than having more memory and storage, when you think about it beyond SMS and Ringtones, plus the ability to access the Internet, our cell phone's really arean't any smarter than back in the 80s.

This is even more true with our traditional phone networks offered by the telcos. Not much new or really innovative has come down the pike since voice mail, three way calling, and a bunch of Class V features were rolled out.

So when I read Alec's post this afternoon about Cellphone etiquette I got to thinking that most of that can be resolved with some "smart applications" that could provide the type of intellect that we need to make the problem of "rudeness" that has evolved since the always reachable aspects of society arrived.

Comments

[JimCanuck]

Well, the only solution is to have Iotum's Relevance Engine linked to MovieTickets.com. When you order movie tickets online, IRE will simply add an item to your Iotum "profile and history" that redirects calls to voice mail. OK, so that has the potential to cover about .001% of the population....

As I said in a comment to Alec's post, and as Frank mentions below, those "Silence is Golden, Don't Create Your Own Sound Track" trailers seem to cure the problem, at least in theatres.

And, in restaurants, I wear my bluetooth adapter on the ear hidden from the main area. Then when I am talking, the other patrons don't know if I am talking to my friend(s) at my table or on the cell phone.

Sort of "low tech" but it works..!!

[Frank Miller]

My first reaction to this post is, Good God, talk about a hammer looking for a nail! How about educating the stupid people rather than developing the smart app?

On second read, I realize there's more to this, particularly the last part of the post.

I believe there's a very good reason that the "smart app" has never really happened. It's because to be really "smart", you need to be human. How can an app determine whether you're in a movie theater or not? Well, you either have to explcitly tell it that or the app has to be able to figure it out somehow.

The first will never happen. I mean, we can't get people to turn them off, how are we going to get them to enter, "I'm in a movie theater?"

The second is both hard and expensive. Hard because either the device the app is running on has to have cognitive skills or because every place we go has to provide some message to the app telling it what type of place its in.

The theaters have already solved the problem. They have these slick, humerous PSAs they play now that look like previews that are interrupted by a fake cell phone call. I haven't heard a cell phone call in a theater that had one of these play. Low-tech solution, but it seems to work.

[websetters]

Fully agree with your comment on the value of smart applications.

As the cost of making the telephone call approaches and comes down to zero then the on differentiators between one brand of VoIP against another is the ease of access/use and what else beyond talking you can achieve that is of value. Here is where the smart applications start to add value to the VoIP.

Even the large corporates such as Avaya recognise this as shown by a recent quote from their CEO and Chairman, Don Peterson

Quote: Businesses are beginning to understand that the true value of IP telephony lies in the integration of communications applications and business applications :End quote

Regards
Graeme
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