Last week there was an interesting article over at Wired about the apparent death of phone calls. Turns out that according to research by Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls people are making is dropping every year since it hit a high in 2007. Maybe it’s not surprising when you consider how many other ways there are to contact people with your phone.
The oldest option is of course texting. The first SMS was sent in the UK way back in 1992 and contained the words Merry Christmas. The first GSM text message was sent in 1993 on a Nokia phone by the engineering student Riku Pihkonen. Today, it’s estimated that between 4 and 5 trillion texts are sent every year!
Then there’s the instant messaging option with an ever-increasing number of chat apps available. At the Ovi Store alone, you’ll find more than half dozen apps that let you chat across multiple IM protocols.
Add to that the easy connection to email you get with the Nseries and you can see why our devices might be contributing to talk losing ground. That’s not to say phone calls will ever be a thing of the past (can you imagine saying no to your mum!), but maybe they’ll be reserved for those deeper and more meaningful conversations.
But what do you think? Is the fall of the call imminent? Or will video chatting stop talk from taking a tumble?
No comments:
Post a Comment