I like the concept of “configuration management”. It’s a term I picked up in a past life as a provider of Navy engineering services. It’s quite elegant, really—it essentially means that the more you keep things the same, the easier it is to maintain them en bloc, especially in the areas of cost, parts interchangeability, and training.
I applied this same logic to the acquisition of cell phones for the family six years ago, which resulted in five Motorola Razrs in our collective hands. I liked the logic because they all used the same chargers and batteries, and it was easy to get everyone from 16 to 80 up to speed on them. A few of the Razrs died and were replaced with identical units over that time frame--and they served us well.
It was challenging to make the leap to something “smarter”. We recently did it with two of the five units—my sweetie and I now have iPhone 4s. I think my son (who drives over his cell phone fairly regularly with his crew cab 4x4 pickup), as well as grandma and grandpa will be with their Razrs for a little while longer, but the inevitable will soon occur.
In all honesty, having owned a smartphone now for about a month, it’s hard to imagine how I lived without one for so long. So here you go--the 10 reasons why you need one:
1. You will no longer be a slave to your PC for checking email. I’ve integrated my personal and business email accounts into one email exchange on my phone. I can check ALL my email before I get out of bed in the morning—and even check it between workout sets at the gym. Updates are instantaneous; email is now as simple as sending/receiving a phone text message. It works everywhere your phone has signal. I no longer sweat being away from my PC—and it’s far, far faster than using a laptop with an air card.
2. You will never be lost. (Well, almost never.) I downloaded the free MapQuest GPS app; I now have turn-by-turn voice navigation wherever I go (if I want it). You will no longer have the excuse of “I couldn’t find the location” when you miss your next important meeting or job interview.
3. You can do several things at once—and all of them well. You can talk to people while at the same time pulling up and viewing their LinkedIn profile (yes, there’s an app for that), a resume you’ve stored, plus any number of interesting and useful internet-based things.
4. You will never be bored. Farmville, Angry Birds, and various shoot-em-up games are always at your disposal in living color. I myself do not play the games. Honest.
5. You will never be at a loss over how much to tip at the restaurant, or how to figure base 10 logarithms in conjunction with y-to-the-x functions, or trigonometry. Yes—my iPhone has two (count ‘em) two calculators depending on how you hold the screen. Portrait screen gives you the good old standby keys; landscape gives you a fully-featured scientific calculator. If this doesn’t bring out the “geek” in you, nothing will. If only it would graph...
6. Instead of bringing the business-like black zippered portfolio to your next meeting, you can just bring your mobile device, because it has a note taking function that works as fast as your little thumbs will keystroke. You can even email your notes to your secretary when you’re done. The only downside I’ve found is that you look like a sixteen year old girl texting her boyfriend(s) while you’re taking notes. Oh well…
7. Voice memos. Yep, you can even talk to yourself. “A dozen eggs, creamer, two bell peppers and holy crap that Camry almost hit me”.
8. Steve Jobs needs more money. O.k.—not really a reason for you to own an iPhone (there are other manufacturers of these things and I came really, really close to buying a Windows phone from Bill Gates instead) but it does keep some jobs in America (the designers in Cupertino) and will help bring economic parity to a lot of skilled Chinese factory workers.
9. Face time chat. Yes—your sweetie can give you a “kiss” goodnight when you’re on the road. Requires that your phone be on wireless internet at the time (won’t work on 3G or 4G phone signal). Kind of like Dick Tracy’s TV watch—but be careful how you hold it or your significant other will get a great shot of the inside of your nose. TMI…
10. This is the big one: You look a lot smarter, and are in fact far more useful to your employer when you carry and can fully utilize a smartphone. The days of having to go back to the office to check your email are gone, as are the days of lugubriously slinging around a 25 pound sack of laptop gear while wasting 12 minutes booting it up and taking it down.
It’s about $200 for the 16-gig iPhone 4 at ATT as of this writing, plus $18 to activate and you’ll owe your soul to them for two years. Verizon offers similar numbers. If you want to use it as an iPod, consider the 32-gig unit for $300. I’m sure the prices will drop like a rock after the iPhone 5 becomes available around July (or whenever)—so my uber-geek friends tell me.
Will Baumann is a recruiter specializing in difficult to fill technical and leadership positions.
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/willbaumann
Company site: http://www.anrgroupinc.com/
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