A blog all about cell phones!

Black Friday is bigger every year, with more stores participating in sales, more people lining up earlier—and this year, with Black Friday shifting into Turkey Day.

In an effort to extract consumer information from mall shoppers that’s comparable to Google Analytics—Google’s service that allows web site owners to see how much traffic they get, from where, and which content’s most popular—marketers will begin testing devices this holiday season that tracks any cell phone used at the mall.

This will tell malls which stores (and parts of the mall) get the most traffic, and will tell stores which departments are the most popular. These new metrics may mean using cell phones will not only help retailers, but enhance consumer shopping experiences.

If you don’t use cell phones in the mall, however, you can opt out of being tracked. The service is supposed to be anonymous (meaning they aren’t getting private information off your cell phone) but you should never assume that any data on your cell phone is private!

A future may soon be arriving where as you shop, services use cell phones to deliver adds straight to tragetted consumers (example: have kid-targetted apps? here’s a coupon for Gap Baby!). But that day’s not here yet.

Remember, with Black Friday coming up you’ll be able to score great deals on refurbished cell phones! Great as gifts, used cell phones are often unlocked, so the recepient will be able to use them on any GSM service.

Browse used cell phone selection early, because demand is expected to be high this holiday season! Make sure you get your top pick!

52% of children between the ages of 5-8 have used a cell phone or iPad, but split that into two groups based on income level, and suddenly a disparity appears. Less than a third of low income families have a smart phone, while over a third have low income parents don’t know what an app is. That means a significant proportion of kids haven’t used cell phones by the time they start school.

Cell phones can be used as a diversion, as an educational tool, and as a way to introduce technology to kids. Low income kids who haven’t used cell phones, however, face a disadvantage.

Schools serving income-disadvantaged children have long since been taking measures to improve the technology available at home. Free dial-up internet (with instructions and school support to help parents), as well as refurbished computers have been supplied through charitable programs, but as new technology appears, not all programs are keeping up.

Used & refurbished cell phones are another step that schools will have to take. Schools have already begun using cell phones in class rooms, both letting kids participate through text, and introducing educational apps, much the way that educational computer games were played in the 90s.

Affordable, and certainly donatable, used cell phones should be collected and distributed through schools so that young kids are introduced to technology early on, as well as able to fully participate and interact with their peers. If kids are communicating through chat, it’s easy to see how economic segregation might quickly occur.