Mobile phones have revolutionised the way we carry out our work. Modern technology allows business users to perform a number of tasks using their mobile phones. Mobile phones enable businessmen to be more efficient and prompt dealing with their day to day tasks such as answering emails while out of the office. This gives them a competitive edge when finalising deals. Now, people can reply to their mails on the go with the help of smartphones. They can conduct and attend video conferences using their mobile phone. There are also various apps which give them constant updates about the stock market and other news updates. Smartphones have also simplified life and cut out a lot of the hard work by providing apps for mobile banking.
Business Features
There are certain features which are essential if the phone is to be used as a business handset. Business phones require an advance messaging system like push mail. This will make sure that they get a notification as soon as they receive an email and they can respond to it quickly. Also, most emails would contain attachments. Business phones should have software installed to view and edit the attachments. If MS office is pre-installed, then Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel files can be easily viewed and edited. A business phone requires a user friendly and easy to use keypad which will ensure that users can respond to their mails quickly and without any hassles. QWERTY keypads are perhaps the easiest to use in these circumstances.
A good business phone should offer a personal organiser which can be used to note down appointments and manage schedules. The GPS function of a phone is also very useful as it helps the user to get directions when he is out on a business trip. Security features are also very important because a business user may be receiving important and confidential mails and it could cause a lot of problems if that information were leaked to competitors.
Which Phones?
The final choice of a business phone is very subjective and depends on the needs of the user. The best business phone manufacturers are HTC, Apple, Samsung and Blackberry. Blackberry’s USP is that it manufacturers only business phones and was the leader in this market until recently. The major advantage of a Blackberry phone is that it has the most secure and effective push mail system. However, recently it has lost popularity. They are just about to release their latest handset, the Blackberry 10, so for business users wanting a Blackberry with the most up to date software and features, the launch is imminent.
Apple has come out with the iPhone 5 and this is a very good phone with a large screen and excellent resolution crating sharper images. It also has a faster processor. However, most of the apps for the iPhone must be bought and some of them are expensive compared to their counterparts with Android software.
Samsung and HTC offer Android based smartphones which provide a wide range of apps to choose from. Most of them are either free or cheaper than those available on the iPhone. Samsung, HTC and Apple manufacture touch screen phones for business. However, Blackberry phones have a real keypad. So people who aren’t comfortable typing on a touch screen phone or using a stylus should opt for a Blackberry.
Phil Turner has looked at Talk Mobile contracts and thinks he will be going with the company.