More than three billion people worldwide now possess a mobile phone and the figure could rise to six billion by 2010. The mobile phone has increasingly become a means of social interaction and not just of communication.
Manufacturers and service providers are constantly expanding the range of possibilities offered by their cell phones (access to the Internet, television, etc.), and Apple has just launched its iPhone, a combination of cell phone and iPod, among other things.
However, Gérard Blanc argues, the industry’s search for new functions for cell phones should not be made without regard for what users really want from their phones. Here he offers a brief survey of the spread of mobiles around the world, especially in France, and of how they are used. He also presents the scenarios of the Seville Institute for Technological Forecasting as to possible trends in mobile telecommunications between now and 2020.
The Invasion of the Cell Phone
Cet article fait partie de la revue Futuribles n° 328, mars 2007
