Idea #9: Smartphones: The New Automobile
Cars made cities sprawling and impersonal, but that handheld gadget will change them again. Ninth in a series.
By Nigel Dembicki, Genta Ishimura and Ian Lowrie,
Smartphones are changing how businesses reach out to consumers. This is beginning to affect the physical shape of the cities we live in. Need proof? Take a look around your city.
These days, owning a smartphone is increasingly becoming an expectation. A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates shows that 54 per cent of wireless customers in Canada use smartphones, a market share that continues to grow. Logging on to the Internet anywhere, anytime, has never been easier.
The implications of this reach far and wide. The advent of the automobile resulted in sprawling cities and big box stores. Smartphone users, too, enjoy unparalleled freedom and connectivity. But they demand much less physical infrastructure. Quite the opposite: the rise of the smartphone is making cities more dense and accessible. Here are some examples:
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