For the first time ever, more than half of American households have dropped their landline phones in favor of using cell phones only. It’s part of a growing trend of consumer preferences in the digital age.
Michael Garfield, the High-Tech Texan, KTRH technology expert, says it’s not just phones. “Technology is actually taking a lot of the devices that we have used all of their lives and really making them obsolete, thanks to apps and thanks to our mobile devices.”
Garfield says TV is getting the treatment too. “Look at television right now,” he says. “We’ve heard of ‘cord-cutters.’ The usage of cable TV and satellite is going down because we’re consuming more television via our apps and via our laptops.”
Radio programming is going digital as well as TV, Garfield points out. “Certainly we can listen to radio online. We love listening to iHeart Radio online,” he says. “You can go to almost any TV network and you can stream their TV shows.”
Garfield says digital options are changing the way people watch movies. “Hardly anybody has DVDs [any more],” he notes. “They don’t use that mail service where they used to get the red envelope and watch the movies right now. And you know at some point, movie theaters may be obsolete.”
Garfield points out that cell phones have taken over for watches and alarm clocks too. “Who really needs to wear a watch when they can glance at the time just by looking at their cell phone?”
“It’s a generational thing,” Garfield observes. “You give this another generation or two, we’re going to see a lot of devices that our kids and grandkids are never even going to know that we used.” Next on the horizon, he notes, are driverless cars, robots, and other types of artificial intelligence.