In the push to develop mobile applications for our libraries, should librarians be paying more attention to the technological differences between mobile and smartphones, especially with low smartphone penetration in Canada?
As explained by Mac Slocum of O’Reilly TOC,
Comparing a basic mobile phone to a spiffy new smartphone is like comparing a circa-1993 desktop computer to a Macbook Pro. They’re related in a basic sense, but the discrepancies are immense.
If we focused more on mobile phones, what would this mean for the services we chose to offer? Would it make us more creative in our response to user needs? Is there a danger that we could compound the digital divide if we fail to pay attention to this issue?
Arthur Attwell, CEO of Electric Book Works in South Africa, explains some the problems faced by digital publishers as they try to move into a new market while still accommodating the dominant devices.
