Heading To School With A Smartphone

Sunday, September 05, 2010 04:00 AM

David Hannam (left) and Ryan Van Kosky (right) are front line staff at BK Two-Way Radio

Prince George, B.C. - It's a sales weekend that's comparable to the final run-up to Christmas for a number of local businesses selling cellphones, notepads and the other technological 'gotta haves' this fall...

And the big trend for Back-to-School/Back-to-Campus? "The big theme this season is there's been a major increase in people going from the regular cellphones to the smartphones for the social networking and data access," says BK Two-Way customer service rep, David Hannam.

Hannam says, "No longer are we just using our phones as phones -- we need our access to email, our messaging systems, and that's what I've noticed is a big change."

Hannam and colleague, Ryan Van Kosky, say two big sellers are phones with the Android platform -- downloadable apps that use the Google search engine -- and the iPhone 4.

Van Kosky says, in terms of service plans, there are new student plans that include unlimited talk and text to your 10 favourite numbers.

The Back-to-Campus rush is also being felt in the electronics department at Walmart and it is along the same lines. Store Manager, Don Sumanik, says, "Right now, what's hot is the iPhone, also any kind of notepads, any laptop computers -- they are hard to keep in-stock -- we are doing extremely well on those types of sales."

Sumanik (shown at left in photo) says notepads and laptops are in a price range that is affordable this year, more so, than any other year.

Wireless communications customer service rep, Brent Dalziel (at right), says it is the talk-and-text type, social networking phones that are runaway hits this season.

And Dalziel says they're not just for the college students, pointing out a lot of younger students are coming in with their parents because the parents have discovered texting is an affordable way to keep tabs.

"You can get plans now for $25 that will give you unlimited texting and nights and weekends free, so when the kids are out of school and hanging out at a friend's house, their parents can call them for free."

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Posted on Sunday, September 05, 2010 04:00 AM in News by Michelle Cyr-Whiting

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Comments

Posted by: Outwest on September 5 2010 7:50 AM

Don't use the Word "FREE" in any Context if you have to pay a monthly Fee, this is American Sales Garbage like buy 1 Tire get the second one for a Dollar, such simple Minds, 300 Bucks a Year for a Student so he can talk his Head off ?

Posted by: gus on September 5 2010 9:26 AM

You're on the right track Outwest.

These "gads" ("gads" is gadgets as "apps" is to applications) all cost money for the first one you buy and then all subsequent replacements because of the "imps" (you guessed it, "imps" is to improvements as "apps" is to applications) *smile* .. from the first time you buy them to when you die.

When more and more uses are found for them, the more the total monthly bill will likely be. THAT, is the part of the equation that I have never seen an article on.

What is the cost per person or to a family of maintaining such an arsenal of gads with the latest imps to use the apps one wants.

Then compare that over the decades - 1900, 1910, 1920, onward to 2010.

And then compare that for the same decades to the time most families as well as friends are physically together as opposed to virtually together.

Posted by: gus on September 5 2010 9:49 AM

We should consider ourselves very lucky to live in a community with a smartgrowth plan for our downtown, the ability to drive smartcars, use smartphones with a smartplan contract and using smartcards to pay for it all.

Of course as soon as the next imps come along, all those will quickly become dumbgrowth, dumbcars, dumbphones, dumbplans and dumbcards.

The most important thing, of course, is that we do not want to be seen using those.

Remember the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses”? Still very much alive, though that smartphrase has since turned into a dumbphrase and even into a forgottenphrase.

But hey, that is what turns the wheels of the economy. And we all know that without a smarteconomy we would not be able to live.

China saw the consumer economy in the USA and how the USA spread that over America, Europe and Australasia, and knew that was their chance to take over the world. :-)

Posted by: seamutt on September 5 2010 10:20 AM

Gee and all this whining typed on a computer along with a plan over the internet most likely with a television and plan with maybe a landline and plan. Then don't forget the electricity and heating plan along with the mortgage and car payment plans. Whew no wonder I work. Oh this is from my smartphone. Even a horse and buggy comes with a plan.

Posted by: Harbinger on September 5 2010 12:53 PM

In 1961 I was just starting high school. My mom gave me $11 (eleven) dollars to get on a bus and go and buy myself a pair of shoes at Hudson's Bay downtown. Sure hope these kids nowadays remember their first (parent paid) contract with Bell, Telus or Rogers fifty years from now. Ahhh, memories, eh?

Posted by: Harbinger on September 5 2010 12:54 PM

A pair of jeans for $5 dollars and a jean jacket for $7. Life was good.

Posted by: gus on September 5 2010 1:08 PM

"Gee and all this whining typed on a computer"

Yes, and to think that is why we pay all the money to buy the tool and stay connected so that we can whine to an unknown audience that we have in lieu of real friends.

Posted by: supertech on September 5 2010 6:35 PM

Our real friends are tired of our whining. My wife is anyway -- - -

Posted by: Harbinger on September 5 2010 6:51 PM

I do not whine. I make "observations". It's all in the interpretation.

Posted by: SummerSoul on September 6 2010 7:34 AM

Does a child really profit from being in constant "touch" with other children via electronic voice and text rather than face-to-face communication?
Perhaps it would be better in the long run to have them meet and play interspersed with periods of quiet and contemplation.
We all need quiet times to consolidate our thoughts, away from distractions.

Posted by: Outwest on September 6 2010 10:25 AM

Years ago, People who talked to them self walking down the Street or to the Groceries in the Stores would have been locked up.

Posted by: Harbinger on September 6 2010 1:39 PM

Future Shop and Visions sell slide rules? Probably not. Staples might, but I doubt it. Kids smart enough these days to be able to use a slide rule? I bet not.

Posted by: Howrd_B_Stern on September 7 2010 9:18 AM

I'm pretty sure kids today could not make a vinegar paste for a chest cold either, but what is the point?

When did Grandpa Simpson show up in here?