Freshmen Get Fresh, Free iPhones
News Analysis. Yes, but will they be 3G models? |
Yesterday, my eWEEK/Google Watch colleague Clint Boulton wrote about incoming freshman at Abilene Christian University getting free iPhones. Well, that's one way to shore up admissions. Students can get iPod Touches, too (c`mon, not everybody uses AT&T).
ACU's technology choices directionally show where computing is going. About a year ago, the university started offering students Google Apps, and—whoa, get this—80 percent chose the option from day one, or G-Day. Incoming freshman could use those same apps on their iPhones.
Over at Microsoft Watch, I've repeatedly beat Microsoft aside the head about computing relevance shifting from the desktop to Web services. The iPhone is Web 2.0-device du jour. Everyone wants their information anytime, anywhere and on anything.
PC is the past, and mobile devices are the future. Based on combined analyst numbers, there are three cell phones in use today for every PC. That's a whole lot of pocket computing power for devices that most everyone carries most of the time.
I've owned two iPhones, one purchased at launch—later sold in protest after Apple bricked people's devices—and another picked up about a month ago. I still call the iPhone experience life changing.
Those incoming freshman are the intersection between computing paradigms. Lucky sods.
Comments (1)
[i]PC is the past, and mobile devices are the future.[/i]
Hey, if you wanna pay $50 or more per month to surf the web, that's your choice. If you can't get thru a few hours without your phone, that's sad. This country, nay, this world has become a planet of cell phone addicts. People can't go from their house to the corner store without their phone for fear they'll miss SOMEthing. Pretty sad state of affairs, I say.
Posted by Mark | April 15, 2008 5:17 PM