Quote Originally Posted by JoshuaInMukdahan View Post
I guess the world I live and work in is different from others. A single Rolodex on one person's desk is not acceptable here. A phone with a 200 contact memory will not cut it. Email only when I am attached to a LAN cable at the office will not do. Marketing is not based on word of mouth alone but on Adwords, blogger's, online reviews and who can communicate the fastest. Post-it Notes for information passing is considered an archaic and unreliable means of communication that is not fast enough anymore. Waiting for a bank statement to arrive in the mail is something only senior citizens do. Many times a brick and mortar storefront is now considered a serious waste of resources that could easily be put to better use elsewhere. Garage sale hosts can even accept credit cards in the front yard on these useless gadgets. Depositing a check from your mobile phone's camera prior to signing the title to the car you just sold over happens all the time now.

The smart people (not me but those who hand the programs, devices, training and tools to do it) are those that can take the ancient technology from 10-20 years back and integrate it into their useless gadget toys. Such as faxing an invoice to the client from your son's football game from your smartphone, eliminating the frivolous task of making that last stop at the office. Or the person who gets their voicemail from the PBX system delivered to them rather than having to check it at their desk or even dial into the "access line" and enter their PIN. Or those that have the follow me service automatically forwarding the important call from your daughter's school on your office line, your home line, your personal mobile and the company mobile when you are on your way to the meeting. How about the bad week when you forgot to cover payroll and you can log in with your ipad and move money from your administrative account to your human resources account while sitting in the traffic jam at 7pm after the banks have closed, thankfully getting done before the the last 4 checks have been cashed.

These useless gadgets are rapidly changing everyone and every business model. Nobody is forcing anyone to adapt, but simply because you or your company's are unable to keep up does not mean everyone who might be a few paces or even 10 years ahead is an obsessed fanboy trekkie freak. The mobile phone analogy is the perfect example and I still see people using 3310's when I go to Mexico or Cuba. That does not mean everyone using them is a technophobe, modern technology simply has no bearing on them and they see no use for it. My dad checks his email on Saturday mornings! Totally unacceptable in a business model. I wish my life could be that so simple that I had the option to ignore basic things like email. Perhaps some day it will, but that will not happen while I am working in this field.
Some good points, but not everyone needs to be in contact with a client 24/7. Also, I can't imagine a designer (graphics, web, whatever) doing some serious work at the 'baseball game'.

I bought my phone on purpose. It's a phone, has no touch-screen and while it can do emails and surf the net, I'd rather not.

Each to their own.