Apple Financial Analysis Paper

Apple Financial Analysis Paper Apple Inc. is a unique company in the personal entertainment sector. It has been loyal to its design and marketing strategy over the past 33 years and has been able to position itself as a cult brand that is known worldwide for its innovative and market leading business operation. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. once said: A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets (Warner, 2009). It is this attitude and the provocative but entertaining way the company introduces new products and presents itself to the public that made me want to have a look behind the scenes and into their finances. Background Apple Computer Inc. was founded in 1977 in the United States, in Cupertino, California and renamed to Apple Inc. in 2007 to display its comprehensive product portfolio (Datamonitor, 2010). Today Apple Inc. and its subsidiaries (from here referred to as Apple) operate in the wide field of personal entertainment. This includes designing, producing and promoting a variety of hardware products such as personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players (Apple Inc., 2010, p. 1) as well as software solutions and services around its products. Over the past 3 years the company has raised its resources for research and development leading to expenses of $1,109 million in 2008, $1,333 million in 2009 and $1,782 million in 2010, a total increase of 60% (2008 to 2010). As a result Apple launched several new and revolutionary products such as the iPhone in 2007, the time capsule software in 2008, a new edition of the iPhone in 2009 and the iPad in 2010 which have led to a sustained success that reflects in the financial statements of the recent years (Datamonitor, 2010, p. 9): In the fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010 ending in September of each year Apple increased its revenue by 14,4% to $42,905 million (2008 to 2009) and thereafter by 52% to $65,225 million (2009 to 2010). The companys net profit was $6,119 million, $8,235 million and $14,013 million in 2008, 2009 and 2010 which resembles an increase of 34,6% (2008 to 2009) and 59% (2009 to 2010). The introduction of the iPad, where 300,000 pieces have already been sold on its launch day, April 3rd 2010, and 7,458 million pieces since its launch (Apple Inc., 2010, p. 33) as well as the new release of the iPhone and the third-party offers in the iTunes Stores being music and electronic book downloads are mainly responsible Apples recent success (Dowling, Press Release, 2010). In order to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of the end of year financial results for Apple and its past and future development a critical analysis of its financial statements has been conducted and is presented hereafter. Analysis The critical analysis of the financial statement of Apple includes the general comparison of Apples main financial influencing factors and secondly a ratio analysis which will provide an in depth audit of the financial performance and its effects on the company. Main financial influencers The main influencing factors of Apples financial statements are the revenue, operating profit, net profit, cost of sales and earnings per share. These indicators show the overall financial performance of the company. The overview given in Table 1 (Refers to Appendix V) highlights the superior performance of the company from 2008 until 2010. Apple Inc. is an American based company, which is why the figures are expressed in USD and in the following table in $ million except for the earnings per share, which express the per share amount. Apples financial results are a good indicator for the economys progressing recovery from the financial crises of the recent years. The above-average rise of Apples revenue and profit are the result of its investments in product developments which have met the needs and wants of the target markets. The image of the company was strengthened by its very good sales performance which was influential for the rise of earnings per share. The great increase for Apples costs of goods sold result from the development and production of the iPad, which will also be visible in the result of the financial year ending September 2011, as well as the development and production of the new release of the iPhone. Ratio Analysis A ratio analysis is used to express how the figures in the financial statement relate to each other and by interpreting the ratios to explain how the figures affect each other and the companys development and performance (Dyson, 2010, p. 219). Comparisons of the figures are made within Apples own performance over the past financial years and where appropriate the figures are compared to two Apples competitors. For this critical analysis the competitive companies are Dell Inc. since they compete within the personal computer segment and Microsoft, who are one of Apples main competitors in the computer software sector (Datamonitor, 2010, p. 27). It shall be mentioned that currently there is no other company which provides a similar product portfolio as Apple. Therefore no absolutely satisfactory industry comparison can be made for the ratio analysis but indications on the positive or negative trend on the figures can be made. Liquidity ratios Liquidity ratios allow the assessment of the amount of cash which a company has access to from its own resources within the next twelve months. The two ratios which are put into one context are the current ratio and the quick ratio (Table 2 Refers to Appendix I). The norm result for the current ratio is 2:1 (Hendricks, 2010, p. 6). The higher the current ratio, the more liquid resources are available for the company to pay its short term debts. The current ratio for Apple was higher in 2009 but is still within the industry norm in 2010. By reducing the stock, the quick ratio is considered a more reliable statement of a companys liquidity. A ratio of 1:1 accounts as safe. This again has been greatly outperformed in 2009 and slightly decreased towards 2010 which indicates on Apples good ability to turn assets into cash quickly. The overall reduction of both ratios in the Financial Year 2010 (FY 2010) can be traced back to the fact that the companies liabilities have increased due to RD, production and retail store investments. Profitability Ratios Profitability ratios calculate the earnings a company generates in relation to the expenses and costs it has during the financial year. An increase of the value of a profitability ratio indicates that a business performing well. In order to interpret the companys performance a comparison to two competitors in Apples operating environments has been drawn. Apple has invested in its fixed assets by expanding its retail segment which explains the slight decrease in return on gross assets (ROA). As financial analysts state a ROA should not undergo 5%, Apple is in a very good position with an ROA of 24.66%. (Table 3 Refers to Appendix II,A,B). A high return on shareholder equity (ROE) expresses a companys effective employment of stakeholder investments and in return high earnings for the stakeholders. The figures show that Apple has been able to invest more effectively in FY2010. But the company comparison reveals that even with a great loss in ROE for Dell in 2010 it can compete with Apples performance. Where as Microsofts ROE with 40.6% is much higher. However since the ROE should be interpreted in relation to the debts, and Apple only has short term debts which the company covers quickly, the investment strategy of Apple can be considered as benefiting for both the company and the shareholders. Apples gross ratio decreased in FY2010. This is due to the less efficient use of its fixed assets in raw material and manufacturing. The company comparison shows that Apples gross ratio is at a high percentage a positive indication for profit that is confirmed in Apples overall results. The figures of Apples profitability ratios in relation to its competition display Apples ability to manage its investments and sales lucrative. Efficiency Ratios Efficiency Ratios express the ability of a company to use its resources profitably. An increase of the ratio figures over the years show an efficient management of resources. (Table 4 Refers to Appendix III). The rate of stock turnover (ROST) can be described as the number of times the stock is being replaced per year. A high ROST show the efficient investments and a low ROST can be an indicator stockpiling and poor sales. Since Apples sales have greatly increased in FY2010 the decrease in ROST of 33% from FY2009 to FY2010 most likely result from inefficient stockpiling. Speculations can be made that a too high prognosis on iPad sales in combination with a lower sales rate of iPods may have led to an increased inventory level. The fixed asset turnover (FAT) has decreased by 27% in FY2010 which means that Apple was less successful in using its fixed assets to generate sales. The reduction in FAT is the result if Apples investment in its retail branch and therefore an increase of fixed assets. While the ROST and FAT are decreasing naturally the cost of sales ratio (COS) will increase. Apples has more money tied up in its fixed assets and was not able to handle its stock as efficient as in recent years. The debt ratio expresses the percentage of assets which are financed by debts. Apple only has short term liabilities and no long term debts (Apple Inc., 2010, p. 27). Even though the short term debts have increased to 36.43% which Apples should reduce over the coming financial periods 63.57% of Apples assets are covered by equity. The risk for Apple therefore is low. Investment Ratios This part of the ratio analysis helps to judge how remunerative a potential or existing investment is or might be (Table 5 Refers to Appendix IV). Apple does not pay dividends per share to its shareholders explaining the dividend yield of $0.00. Therefore the company has more financial resources to reinvest in its business and the development of its products to maintain a peer position in the market. The earnings per share (EPS) allot the profit of a company to its number of shares and therefore indicating on the companys overall profitability. Apples EPS increased by 67% to $15.41 in FY2010 which relates to the nearly 60% higher net profit in 2010. It also reveals an increase in investment in the companys shares which most likely result from Apples positive consumer and investor awareness through the introduction of its new product developments. A high price/earnings ratio (P/E) describes the high demand of the shares and therefore the confidence of investors towards a positive future of the company. With the high increase in EPS the P/E has risen as well. Apples market price per share ($) tradedÂÂ  at 14.76x the EPS of $15.41. Over the past years Apple has proven to be a lucrative company to invest in and it is likely that this trend continues for the following financial year. Impact of current event since last balance sheet The publishing date of Apples recent annual financial report is the 25th September 2010. Since then Apple has introduced a new developments of its MacBook, the MacBook Air, a thinner and more powerful version of the Apple laptop (Dowling, Press Release 2, 2010). This will affect the sales of the iPad since it can be seen as a competitive product and it is likely to increase Apples stock turnover ratio because it is an additional product in the companys range. But at the same time Apple has made a move to stay competitive in the personal computer sector and it is likely that the company will increase its total revenue until the next financial report. Conclusion and recommendations Financially the fiscal year 2010 was a very successful year for Apple. The company has increased the investments in research and development of new products and its retail branch. This has led to the launches of the iPad and the new iPhone generation and has brought the focus of public attention to the company enhancing its image and increasing its desirability in the minds of shareholders and investors. Apple has increased its revenue by more than 50% and is taking a leasing position in the personal computer market despite the intense competition and price sensitivity of the consumers. The software and online services Apple is offering through third parties, such as the e-books have gained popularity. A negative affect has been recognized when analyzing Apples efficiency in using its resources. The stock turnover decreased compared to the previous year which affected the cost of sales and fixed asset turnover. It is recommended to continue the trend of high investments in research and development as this is a key success factor for Apple to be one step ahead of its competition. Additionally the service offers though third party suppliers in the range of music, e-books and applications for the mobile phones should be kept up, as they increase the popularity of Apples products. Furthermore Apple could compensate the negative effects of the decrease in stock turnover by introducing improvements in its marketing and promotion efforts to boost sales.

Robert Frost :: essays research papers

Robert Frost Robert Frost (1874-1963) was one of the finest of rural New England's 20th century pastoral poets. Frost published his first books in Great Britain in the 1910s, but he soon became in his own country the most read and constantly anthologized poet. Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1874. His father, a journalist and local politician, died when Frost was eleven years old. His Scottish mother resumed her career as a schoolteacher to support her family. The family lived in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with Frost's paternal grandfather. In 1892 Frost graduated from a high school and attended Dartmouth College for a few months. Over the next ten years he held a number of jobs. In 1894 the New York Independent published Frost's poem "My Butterfly" and he had five poems privately printed. In 1895 he married a former schoolmate, Elinor White; they had six children. Frost worked as a teacher and continued to write and publish his poems in magazines. From 1897 to 1899 Frost studied at Harvard, but left without receiving a degree. He moved to Derry, New Hampshire, working there as a cobbler, farmer, and teacher at Pinkerton Academy and at the state normal school in Plymouth. In 1912 Frost sold his farm and took his wife and four young children to England. There he published his first collection of poems, â€Å"A Boy’s Will† (1913) followed by â€Å"North Boston† (1914), which gained international reputation. The collection contains some of Frost's best-known poems: "Mending Wall," "The Death of the Hired Man," "Home Burial," "After Apple-Picking," and "The Wood-Pile." After returning to the US in 1915 with his family, Frost bought a farm near Franconia, New Hampshire. He taught later at Amherst College (1916-38) and Michigan universities. In 1916 Frost was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In the same year appeared his third collection of verse, â€Å"Mountain Interval†, which contained such poems as "The Road Not Taken," "Birches," and "The Hill Wife." Frost's images - woods, stars, houses, brooks, - are usually taken from everyday life. With his down-to-earth approach to his subjects, readers found it easy to follow the poet into deeper truths, without being burdened with pedantry. In 1920 Frost purchased a farm in South Shaftsbury, Vermont, near Middlebury College. His wife died in 1938 and he lost four of his children.

Filipino People and Beauty Salon

Mario Bellatin’s Beauty Salon, translated elegantly from the Spanish by Kurt Hollander, is a strange and beautiful parable about human bodies living and dying on the fringes of society. The brevity of Bellatin’s novella is deceptive—in just sixty-three pages, the story of this unnamed narrator, a cross-dressing, homosexual hair stylist who turns his beloved beauty salon into a hospice for victims dying of a mysterious plague, prompts us to consider our collective attitudes toward, and treatment of, the human body—in illness, in death, in poverty, and in opposition to dominant conceptions of sexual behavior.Bellatin’s narrator has become the lone caretaker for men (only men are welcome here) dying of a plague that has stricken his unnamed city. â€Å"The Terminal,† as his beloved former beauty salon for local women is now known, has become the last stop for those affected by the plague. As the disease ravages the city, leaving its victims to d ie alone in a society than shuns them, at risk of attack from the predatory Goat Killer Gang, the Terminal offers precious refuge.Curiously—and this is what makes the novella so compelling—the narrator is more concerned with describing the tropical fish he houses in the elaborate aquariums of the hospice-turned-salon than he is with the hospice itself or those he cares for within it. This obsession is a significant part of the structure of the novel: the narrator reluctantly provides information about the daily events of the Terminal in asides that distract him, to his annoyance, from the aquarium, but which he still feels compelled to offer.The narrator’s hesitance, and his unusual priorities, make reading Beauty Salon a particularly enigmatic experience. Bellatin subverts attempts to understand his character’s motivations and psychology by making this psychology opaque to readers. This deliberate opacity prevents the kind of understanding many readersâ €”particularly many American readers, I’ll contend—may be accustomed to.Contemporary mainstream American literature is dominated by a particular brand of psychological realism that rewards readers in a way that Bellatin has no apparent interest in—these novels  carefully track a character’s innermost thoughts, and the smallest of actions is revelatory of character in a strict one-to-one ratio. Bellatin, however, gives us none of this—what we are given is narrative, the narrator’s story, and there is no interceding narratorial presence to account for the protagonist’s actions, or paternally guide our interpretation. According to him Beauty Salon is a parable, but one grounded by its specific social critique.The ill are refugees from the social institutions that purport to care for them, but with a very narrow vision of what â€Å"care† actually entails—hospitals will not allow them to die there, not with any degree of respect or dignity, at least. The narrator’s distrust of religion reflects his belief that religious institutions, too, impose upon the ill, falsely leading them to believe in a fate for the body that is mystical and untrue. It is notable that the owner of the beauty salon is a homosexual man prone to cross-dressing, who occasionally engages (happily) in prostitution—his is a body that acts in discord with socio-sexual norms.Like his patients, who have been shunned and cast aside, he too is an outsider. The confluence of these factors, as well, suggests an allegorical commentary on the HIV virus and AIDS and the history of the treatment of infected individuals in our society. http://wordswithoutborders. org/book-review/mario-bellatins-beauty-salon 2. -According to the U. S. Small Business Administration, â€Å"Inventory refers to stocks of anything necessary to do business† (U. S. Small Business Administration, 2010, pp 1-2). The U. S.Small Business Administr ation publication describes what constitutes successful inventory management (balancing cost versus benefits of inventory), including 1) Maintaining a wide assortment without spreading the rapidly moving items too thin, 2) Increasing inventory turnover without sacrificing service, 3) Keeping stock low without sacrificing performance , 4) Obtaining lower prices by making volume purchases, 5) Maintaining an adequate inventory without an excess of obsolete items. Anyone in business must understand the business of inventory.Below is a look at six different inventory systems as well as a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages. Wal-Mart Inventory System Wal-Mart runs its stores on a perpetual inventory system. This system records the quantity of items sold as items are purchased. The computer system at Wal-Mart constantly keeps up with additions or deductions from inventory and tells management what items are on hand. The organization also conducts counts of employee manual counts of inventory periodically.When an item arrives at the Wal-Mart distribution center it is scanned into the inventory system. When the items are purchased by the consumer, the point-of-sale system reduces the inventory from that purchase. According to Wal-Mart’s Gail Lavielle, a leaner inventory will help clear out store clutter and help Wal-Mart focus on specific brands and products that consumers want (The Associated Press, 2006). http://www. studymode. com/essays/Related-Literature-Of-Sales-And-Inventory-613069. html 3.Janes (2011) stated that computers are extremely reliable device and very powerful calculators with some great accessories applications like word processing problem for all of business activities, regardless of size, computers have three advantages over other type of office equipment that process information because computer are faster, more accurate more economical. 4 -According to Shanker (2013), the main difference between manual and computerized systems i s speed. The processed data through accounting software can create reports much faster than manual systems. A calculation through automation minimizes errors and increases efficiency.The inputted data can easily be summarized in just a few clicks. While the manual computing with paper and pencil is much cheaper than a computerized system, which requires a machine and software. Other expenses associated with computerization include training and program maintenance. http://www. studymode. com/essays/Related-Literature-And-Studies-Inventory-System-1875708. html Foreign study 1 -according to Parisa Islam Khan from Eastern University Ayesha Tabassum, Eastern University The beauty-care service industry is one of the flourishing industries in Dhaka, the capital and largest city, in terms of population density, in Bangladesh.The growing number of beauty-conscious women and their demand for variety of services cater to the growth and importance of this industry. This study aims at measuring the service quality and customer satisfaction level of high-end women’s parlors in Dhaka. Other purposes of this study are to assess the importance of different attributes of customer’s preference, evaluate the service quality level and the extent of customer satisfaction and reveal the final factors that create customer satisfaction.This study includes in-depth interviews of beauticians and executives and questionnaire survey of 260 customers of high-end beauty parlors of Dhaka city. The findings show that customers put utmost importance in issues such as the service provider’s behavior, knowledge, environment, counseling system and affordability of the parlors. The customers of the high-end parlors are highly satisfied with the environment, executive’s politeness, complaint handling system, trustworthiness and materials.The politeness of the service providers, knowledge level of the executives and safety and hygiene issues are also satisfactory. Factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis) has been carried out by taking sixteen variables and the result indicates that four service quality factors are creating customer satisfaction. These factors are Support & Facility Factor and Employee. http://www. studymode. com/essays/Beauty-Salon-1108126. html Local Literature 1. -According to Dean Francis Alfair, Filipino men are spending millions to look — and feel — good.As was stated in his article, â€Å"Machos in the Mirror†, a metrosexual like himself doesn’t generally think of himself as vain, but then there’s this incident where Mr. Alfair remember from high school: some of his friends were assembled at his house so that they could all ride together to a party. As they were getting dressed in their Spandau Ballet-inspired finery (then the height of fashion), one of the barkada produced, from out of the depths of his bag, a can of mousse, which none of them hapless males had ever seen or even heard of before. Naturally, they all had to squirt some into their hands and smear it on their hair.Not knowing that they were then supposed to blow-dry or otherwise style it, they left the house feeling snazzy, while looking pretty much the same as they had prior to applying the mousse — at most, their hair was a little damper, vaguely crispy in texture, and certainly stickier than before. But they felt utterly transformed. They felt really good looking. Mr. Alfair stated â€Å"These days (long past high school, thanks), I don’t exactly wander around feeling guapo, but according to a survey by global research firm Synovate last year, a good many Filipino males do — 48 percent of us, in fact.This is just a slightly lower percentage than males in the United States at 53 percent, and considerably higher than our Asian neighbors: 25 percent of Singaporean men think they’re sexy, and only 12 percent of guys from Hong Kong. Moreover, while less than half of us (whi ch is already a significant figure) think that we’re God’s gift to Pinays, a whopping 84 percent of Filipinos rate their looks as â€Å"quite† or â€Å"very† important to them.Assuming that the survey is accurate, this means, statistically speaking, that there is no male racial group on earth vainer than Filipino men. And, to my shock, I am one of them. † If you think about it, , the evidence is all around us, and has been for decades. Way before the term â€Å"metrosexual† was ever coined (in 1994, by British journalist Mark Simpson, in case you’re interested), Filipino businessmen were going around toting clutch, but which also frequently contain combs and the occasional small mirror.Your average Pinoy traffic cop, while likely to sport an enormous gut that completely engulfs his regulation belt, is just as likely to brandish gleaming, rosy-hued, meticulously manicured fingernails. And practically everyone has at least one uncle or o ther older male relative who keeps his hair so slickly brilliantined that everyone else can conveniently fix his or her own hair by merely glancing at its mirror-like surface. Those are just what we’ll call the â€Å"traditional† examples.Among the younger set, the author recall a time when you couldn’t walk into a classroom of boys without nearly asphyxiating on the overwhelming communal scent of Drakkar cologne. Nowadays the choice of fragrance is more varied, but the rabidly enthusiastic application of cologne, aftershave, or that hybrid substance strangely labeled as â€Å"deo-cologne† remains constant. The Synovate survey tells us that Filipino men bathe an average of 1. 5 times a day.(I’m not really sure how one takes half a bath, but I’m told by informed sources that such regular male hygiene is a source of relief and delight for Filipino women. ) Since the 1970s, the majority of Philippine beauty salons have become â€Å"unisex,â₠¬  resulting in a large and growing number of young men who have never even set foot in a barber shop, which means that most of us go to salons — every three weeks or so, according to salon magnate Ricky Reyes, â€Å"for pampering. † Not that barbershops themselves are exactly bastions of simplicity and pure functionality anymore.High-end ones offer â€Å"personal care† services ranging from facials to foot scrubs to ear cleaning. (Does ear cleaning count as vanity? ) Men also go to massage parlors — real ones, not quote-unquote massage parlors — not just to soothe their tired muscles, but often for skin-improving treatments like mud baths and herbal wraps. And speaking of skin treatments, more and more cosmetics companies are coming out with â€Å"just for men† lines of grooming products, including face scrubs, lotions, and astringents.What’s significant is that more and more Pinoy men are actually buying them: just 10 years ago, me n accounted for only 10 percent of the total Philippine beauty care buying public. That figure has now mushroomed to 40 percent, meaning that there are nearly equal numbers of Pinoys and Pinays out there, snapping up creams and cleansers. Even cosmetic surgery has become not just acceptable, but desirable for many Filipino men — from standard dermatology for simple problems like acne, to unapologetic vanity procedures such as liposuction and â€Å"age-defying† Botox injections.Dr. Vicky Belo of the popular Belo Medical Clinic confirms, â€Å"Before, (men) only accounted for one-fourth of my total clientele. Now they are about one-third. † It’s gotten to the point where â€Å"Who’s your derma? † is a topic that can actually enjoy lengthy discussion time in a man-to-man conversation, and surgical treatment has become something of a mark of status in Philippine showbiz.Actors Albert Martinez and John Lloyd Cruz, as well as singer Janno Gibbs, a mong others, readily (and proudly!) admit to being regular clients at the Belo Medical Clinic. Can all this male vanity be laid at the door of celebrities like these and metrosexual poster boy David Beckham? Apparently not. For one thing, as Mr. Alfair mentioned earlier, the Filipino trait of being vanidoso well predates Becks and his ilk. Besides, a metrosexual, by definition, is â€Å"a male who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance.†While it seems that Pinoys certainly do make the time and shell out the cash for our looks, we don’t always have enough of an aesthetic sense to know what we’re doing†¦ unless there actually is a segment of the female populace I don’t know about that really does swoon over pink, manicured fingernails on a man. I can’t be sure there isn’t, having never tried the look myself. As for why metrosexuals willing to spend so much time and money, it may, surprisin gly, be a product of social and economic factors. During the U. S. recession, it was observed that lipstick sales shot up, only to taper down again once the recession was over.Consistent repetition of this phenomenon led economists to conclude that, when consumers feel less than confident about the future, they tend to purchase small, comforting indulgences such as lipstick rather than splurging on larger items like appliances and electronic gadgets. Correspondingly, Ricky Reyes has noted that more customers flocked to salons during the 1997 economic crisis in the Philippines, turning to relatively low-priced services like haircuts in order to make themselves feel better in an unstable living environment.While the purchase of lipstick per se may not exactly be applicable to the Filipino male, we can obviously draw a corollary with your average Pinoy, who might be understandably reluctant to buy, say, a flat-screen TV in a country where coup d’etat rumors circulate at least tw ice a year. Instead, he might choose to spend his money on his appearance, perhaps subconsciously http://chrisonis. wordpress. com/2012/07/08/chapter-2-local-literature/

Smartphones Are Changing Our Future Essay - 1390 Words

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone back in the 1870s, I’m sure he never expected the telephone to morph into smartphones such as the iPhone a little over 200 years later. The introduction of the telephone to homes changed the manner in which society communicated. Gone were the days where one had write a letter, or go to see a neighbour, simply to communicate. The social change was much greater than technology behind the telephone itself; it changed the landscape of communication. As the telephone progressed into a rotary dial telephone, then to push button technology, the means of communication did not change much from then, until the invention of the mobile phone. The mobile phone freed the user from the ties of their homes†¦show more content†¦The technological development in smartphone technology can be looked at from a Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) view, as the advancement of the mobile phone industry has been driven by its users who have changed not only its shape and features, but also its primary use (Elliott 2012). SCOT is a theory studied by many sociologists in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) which approaches technology from a social approach. In SCOT, it is society which guides technology. Kline and Pinch (1996:765) explain how the creation and modification of technology involves relevant social groups or those who may be involved in the creation of the technology, such as engineers, designers and even the user. SCOT allows for interpretive flexibility, which means that the object may have multiple means to different groups (Novas 2013: 17). 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The actual release of the smart phone in the market was 1994, when IBM combinesRead MoreMobile Phones : The Way We Communicate With Each Other880 Words   |  4 Pagespresent reality. The future touchscreen phones are getting lighter, more extensive, and more capable. With the excitement of the new phones being introduce to us today or in the future. Smartphone users have skyrocketed. In the US alone about 64% of adults own a smartphone and 46% say it is something they â€Å"couldn’t live without† (Pew Research Center). Why so? In this essay I’m going to closely exam the overuse of smartphones and how it can affect us. The book effects of Smartphone Overuse on Hand FunctionRead MoreThe Evolution of Human Communication1217 Words   |  5 PagesTechnology started out as a way to help the human population make life easier on humanity, but once it becomes smarter than us will it really help or hinder our way of life. The definition of technology is â€Å"machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge†, according to Google. When you pick up your smartphone do you ever really think that it may be hurting the human race? Once your child sees you doing this action every hour of every day they wi ll want to also do whatRead MoreCell Phones and Social Media1627 Words   |  7 Pageslife-changing. Cell phones have become the most quickly embraced consumer technology in history. Because of this boom and the monumental popularity of social media; have we lost the ability to communicate without this medium? Smartphones and pocket-sized mobile devices have allowed us to do things that were only dreamed of a few years ago. These new technological marvels combined with the overwhelming wave that is social media are reshaping the way we communicate, and with whom. Smartphones and socialRead MoreSmartphone : The World Of Communications973 Words   |  4 PagesSmartphone have transformed the world of communications. Smartphone offers multifunctional devices and many applications which bring several advantages to both large and small scale business. It is nothing but a portable PC which brings entire world into our hands and made our lives simpler; we can stay connected with our friends and family at almost no cost. It changed the whole world by utilizing different technologies. There are some people who oppose the way smartphone are used in ourRead MoreThe Internet s Effect On State Society Relations979 Words   |  4 Pagescommunication technology in various fields is changing the â€Å"State-Society† relations. It proves that technology is changing not only the personal and social lives of people but also the means of communication between the governments and their people. It argues how the dynamics of a society is influenced by technology. The last source is the article, â€Å"Are Smartphones Replacing Human Memory?† by Nancy Colier. The article ponders upon the fact that smartphones in the modern era have become the source ofRead MoreSmartphones And Its Impact On Society Essay1704 Words   |  7 Pageswrite about smartphones, however I found it more efficient to write also about a particular smartphone to narrow it down from such a broad technology artifact, such as answering who designed it, what for, what their position a nd the impact they want to have on society was, and their future visions. Therefore, I chose the iPhone as the main piece I will be analyzing and an emphasis on applications. However, some of this information is relevant and interchangeable to all other smartphones. IPhones and