Mobile Computing and Social Networks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Mobile Computing and Social Networks - Essay Example The application can snap pictures of the accident and attach them to the claim data and upload the claim information to a server. This reduces the length of time to process a claim filed this way. Nationwide competitors have followed suit and developed iPhone, iPad, and Android applications of their own. Policyholders can receive messages via Facebook or Twitter.  Other business processes that have been reengineered as a result of mobile computing include Quick Response (QR) codes which have replaced one-dimensional bar codes. They are read using mobile devices, accepting credit card payments from an iPhone, iPad or Android device, depositing checks using an iPhone without visiting a bank, and many more.  Several surveys have come to general conclusions that applications like Facebook are raising as essential application development platforms. Many others find Google to be more significant in this regard. Considering the mobile computing platforms, Apple seems to be the leader in the market (Vizard, 2012). The present study focuses on mobile computing and social networks learning about their effectiveness, challenges, methods and applications as influencing the lives of all human beings. Mobile Based Applications: Effectiveness and Efficiency: Different companies are in the present times trying to organize for innovative mobile applications that exhibits the feature of geo-location. It is a technology that uses data available from the mobile device of an individual and identifies their exact location at a particular point of time. These days this feature can be found in almost all mobile devices particularly enhanced in the Smartphones that enable GPS (Global Positioning System) such as iPhone, Droid and others. The benefits of geo-marketing have already been identified. These applications enable discounts and promotions to the users when they make the purchases and in turn also provide them real time valuable data based on the preferences of the customers. This data may be put together with the profile of a customer providing a personalized experience (Jaiswal, n.d., p.1). Location-aware applications can also be combined with the social media platforms that permit third-party developers to incorporate geo-location apps into their service. This requires lesser technological investment and a company can control the capabilities of the platform services – like Facebook – to advance its marketing approaches by letting them to provide local information and publicity. â€Å"For example, Booyah, a â€Å"location-based video-game company,† is the creator of myTown, one of the most popular iPhone apps. The company recently launched InCrowd, a location-aware app built on Facebook Places technology, which lets users interact with friends and share posts in real-time in real-world locations† (Jaiswal, n.d., p.2). However, although the technology proves to be beneficial, there are certain concerns amongst the customers in regard to the privacy around the use of the apps particularly concerning the collection of the location data, spamming by advertisements, and other associated factors (Jaiswal, n.d., p.3). With the GPS systems being available in the mobile handling devices in the recent times, the use of systems based on location have become more popular. The most recent â€Å"