October 25, 2012--Mobile

Everything these days seems to be about mobile.

Apparently Americans are abandoning their computers--PC desktop computers and laptops--and moving more and more to mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, and Androids. Things you can carry around with you and are thus . . .  mobile.

I need to confess that I am not one of these. I like my 4.46 pound, immobile MacBook Pro and use it only for emails, googling, and word processing; and I have an old fashioned cell phone (not a smart one at all) that I use mainly for emergencies. I do not text (don't know how) nor do I take Instagram pictures (have no idea what they are) and though I am a Facebooker, I hardly know why and have never posted anything on it (again, have no idea how to do it). But I have been following the mobile news.

Most of that news is about how Facebook, Google, and Intel, among others, are having trouble making money from mobile devices. When Facebook went public, allowing people to buy stock, immediately there was bad news. Before the IPO, some estimated that Facebook was worth up to $100 billion dollars. After all, they had nearly a billion subscribers and if and when Facebook turned its attention to making money--in addition to signing up more folks--because of all the information it has about members "likes" and "preferences," making money was thought to be a proverbial piece of cake. But skeptics wondered if there was an easy way to commodify Facebook. Especially as more and more people were switching from computers to smart phones.

This is also true for Google and others. With their relatively tiny screens, mobile devices are not ideal places to run ads. If someone is using a smart phone to connect to Facebook the space left over for an ad is about the size of a postage stamp. Not many car makers, for example, want to send out images of their latest SUVs if limited to a square inch. So almost overnight, the value of Facebook shares plummeted by nearly 50 percent.

Intel is finding that the chips required by iPhones are much less profitable than those they make for PCs and Macs. Thus there has also been downward pressure on the value of Intel shares.

All this talk about mobile products has caused me to wonder more about why I so dislike them. Dislike them, I again confess, based on little direct experience. The closest I come in contact with Androids is when I literally come in contact with them--when walking down Broadway in Manhattan. People who look spaced out walking along plugged into ear pods while texting, oblivious to the flow of traffic or pedestrians, crash into those of us not willing or agile enough to twist out of their way.

I also wonder what all the communicating and social networking is about. What are iPhone users surfing for? What can anyone say that is meaningful by Tweeting? The only thing I can think of in any way interesting when limited to 140 "characters" is the occasional haiku (where one is restricted to up to 17 syllables) or a witticism from W.C Fields.

In only 9 syllables, I get--

old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound

Or, from W.C., in just 53 characters--

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.

When we get back to the city, while jumping out of the way on Broadway, I'll see if I can read a Twitter or two and report back about what I discover.

In the meantime, googling most popular Tweeters, here's what I learned--

Lady Gaga has the most "followers"--nearly 31 million; Justin Bieber is next with 29.3 million; President Obama is in 6th place, right after Britney Spears, with 21.3 million followers.

And one of Lady gaga's most recent Tweets was--

i miss my fans so much, the show too. listening to music and cooking, thinking of you all

#now i get it.