UAE’s Apple Mania Recedes
$AAPL, $CSCO
As UAE’s Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) mania recedes, but where is smartphone addiction taking us?
The opening of Apple’s 1st stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month created a real buzz with media outlets tirelessly reporting every small detail and a tech-savvy readership eagerly consuming every bit and crumb of news.
The 2 stores: one in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates and another in Abu Dhabi’s Yall Mall represent the company’s 1st outlets in the Middle East. Some say it is a landmark moment in the region’s technological revolution. Others say the Apple worship could get out of control.
We know that tech spending in the Middle East is projected to reach $214.7-B in Y 2015, with the device market alone set to top $36.1-B according to Gartner. An earlier report by IDC found that Middle East and Africa smartphone shipments were set to total 155-M units this year, an increase of 66% Y-Y during Q-1 alone.
In such a competitive market, Apple’s new stores will help the brand get closer to its loyal customers through enhanced customer service says research manager at IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
That technology companies are now dominating the consumer market is obvious to all.
Apple is the world’s largest company by market value. But, beyond the monetary side, the firm’s products and services are now omnipotent in the lives of most people. Smartphones have become an extension of our personalities, especially in a place like the UAE where mobile penetration rates are exceptionally high.
The advantages include around-the-clock connectivity, unprecedented access to information, efficiency, convenience and the ability to record and store those important moments in life. In fact, governments in the Middle East are also on a mission to provide all public services via smartphones so that residents and tourists can gain quick and easy access to amenities.
The annual GITEX exhibition, recently held in Dubai, showcased the government’s efforts in this regard with several public entities enhancing their ‘mobile’ services.
But what about the disadvantages of smartphone addiction? A growing number of researchers have become vociferous about the detrimental impact of never being offline. A new condition has even been discovered. Those facing severe anxiety upon losing access to their smartphones are said to be suffering from ‘nomophobia’. We kid you not.
Indeed, a recent research project by the University of Derby, in the United Kingdom, found that more than 13% of respondents were ‘addicted’ to smartphones. The study also recorded higher levels of narcissism and neurosis among those addicts. The report authors even suggested that prospective buyers of smartphones should be pre-warned of the addictive properties of new technology.
Other academics claim children and young people are at risk of developing introverted personalities, leading to social isolation and poor performance at school, because of their desire to hold a smartphone at all times. Now with the ‘Internet of Things’ – where all devices are connected to each other in a communication loop – just around the corner, the psychological trauma of tech could deepen further.
Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) UAE general manager Rabih Dabboussi was quick to point out that IT was not there to “replace our minds with technology, apps and robots”. Instead, he said, the idea was to “use technology to gain an edge, to improve the quality of life, create jobs, innovate and become more globally competitive”.
The Big Q’s:
- will such innovation come at a high cost?
- That cost being self-absorption, social exclusion and a dysfunctional pandemic of technological addiction spread via selfie sticks?
- Will the negatives of gadget advances in the end outweigh the positives?
Only time will tell…
By Aarti Nagraj
Paul Ebeling, Editor
HeffX-LTN
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