Smartphones, equipped with powerful processors and memories, are potentially capable of reducing the time we spend at work. With screen sizes getting larger with every iteration, smartphones allow you to do everything from write notes, make PowerPoint slides and view PDF documents. Ironically, most smartphone users spend lesser time creating and viewing files and far more time playing games, surfing the Net, chatting with friends and downloading applications.
Tech writer Nimish Sawant says the app market has become as important as other elements of the phone like its OS or features. “The iPhone is so popular today mainly because of the iStore it comes with; its apps make it a market leader. Nobody purchases a phone thinking it will significantly reduce his/her workload,” he says.
Saraswati Iyer-Shah, a self-proclaimed Angry Birds addict and a compulsive user of the Android marketplace, prefers to call smartphones lifestyle phones. “These phones come with a brilliant display. It’s really a travesty to use them only for reading e-mails. Sometimes I end up wasting a lot of time playing games or downloading apps, but some of them do bail me out.”