No you read it right , the title is not evolution ‘of’ cellphones , its evolution and role played by cellphones in it.
From the time life originated on earth the process of evolution has been one straight forward yet rough and tough game. Only those who have something special and extra survive , there lot of terms for these like natural selection and survival of fittest which has ensured that all the species which are currently present on earth are there coz they have something which others don’t have. It could some characteristic like the neck of a giraffe or trunk of an elephant or hump of camel or the thick fur coats of animals in colder regions and various other unique qualities in all animals, which helps it in more ways than one and helps it prevail upon on competition. This kind of unique trait ensures that out of same animal family some species which are more developed survive and they hone these traits or features to the level of perfection.
Now you might be wondering how on earth is wildlife and evolution related to mobile phones ?
Well I give you two choices , either I have too much time to spare and love taking people for a ride ! Or that Im going to make an interesting point , I will let you decide which one of these two is correct.
So only the species which have evovled and adapted very well to the evironment has managed to survive , but who rules the earth ? Well , Homo Sapiens ( thats you and me) of course.
Next question would be how ?
I know the conventional answer would be that its because of that highly developed brain of ours and our ability to think or rather out think the competion that we have become masters of the earth.
Ofcourse that is correct , but I would say that this ability to innovate as in “make tools'' and harness energy and all , has actually made us the leader of the pack.
Over the years right from stones which were converted to some forms of crude weapons to the age of metals to much more recent tools like guns gave man a control over all other forces around him. Man got so much control that those forces around him stopped mattering that much. All these tools which made our life easier or helped us survive and overcome competition can be considered to be part of our evolution. The same way an animal which has to hunt faster prey develops and perfects attributes like stealth and precision , we developed things like automobiles and gadgets of precision to make ourselves safe and comfortable .Hence I consider these gadgets as part n parcel of our evolutionary growth.
Let’s get over with gadgets which helped us evolve further and develop as a race and come straight to the gadget which rules in 21st century , which is none other the ubiquitous mobile phone/cellphone ...
The word Cell some 10-15 years would have surely meant confines of a prison , but cell today is gadget for liberation !
Cellphone has truly helped us evolve in multiple senses ... This pocket size gadget has replaced lots of heavy weight gadgets and has captured the hearts ( nay shirt pockets) of millions ranging from Compnay CEOs to peons.It comes in various sizes ,shapes and forms from plain low-end phone to ultra cool i-phones to Blackberry phones , the cellphone market has something for everyone.
Now to substantiate my theory that mobiles have truly helped us evolve or make our lives better , I choose a few real life examples where people used this gadget in their day to day lives and succeded in their business . To drive home the point I choose the common man as focal point of all my examples.
Among the first stories of business growth driven by cellphones were that of fishermen in kerala .
Once cellphone era began these fishermen no longer had to sell fish in the local beaches; they were able to find out the exact price for fish in the various markets outside their home territory and were able to sell their catch at best possible prices.. Overall they ended up making more money and also resulted in the reduction of prices for the consumers as lesser fish were wasted ... more the fish less the price , simple economics...
Basically it eliminated geographical barriers for business and 'where' you were present no longer became a constraint provided you had a cellphone , let me elaborate with a few more common-man examples.
In my hometown , we have an electrician cum plumber who used to handle both house work and do repairs in his shop . As his work was good, he began getting more and more house calls. The only way to contact him was to go to his shop and tell his assistant the nature of the problem. Then we had to wait till he got back from his previous assignment and came to our house. Since he covered a wide area , more often than not if the person was not present in the shop , people would not prefer to wait they would rather go to some other person. Now with a mobile phone, he is just a call away and he immediately tells us where he is and how quickly he can come. This results in more business for him, less effort for us(his customers) also. Same with auto-drivers in, earlier they used to wait in the auto-stand and you had to go to the auto-stand to hail an auto or if you were lucky on the way you might get an auto. Today we just give a call to an auto-driver we know, he will come to our house to pick us up or call any of his friends who might be in the same area and ask them to pick us up !
I was travelling in the local bus in Bangalore 6 months back and a few construction workers were travelling with me and to my surprise I heard cell phone ringing in the pocket of a shabby looking guy next to me and it was a call from some contractor for some work in some other part of B’lore for him and his group. He told me after they got a cell phone they are never out of work. These are just a couple of examples I could remember off hand nowadays everyone from tailors to hairdressers are just a call away and mobile phone has simply changed the way business happens.
QED : Mobiles have become a necessity if you need to stay in the race these days or you get left behind and others march ahead of you.
( this is the first in a series of posts im planning on cellphones and their role in our life ... to be continued )
