Five Devices The Fashion World Doesn’t Need, Thanks To The Smartphone

We recently ran across Jeff Somogyi’s article on dealnews.com, “The One Gadget To Rule Them All: 5 Devices that Smartphones Have Replaced,” and it got us thinking about how smartphones have revolutionized the fashion industry.

As Somogyi points out, smartphones now act as:

• Point and shoot cameras
• MP3 players
• GPS systems
• Digital video cameras
• Handheld video game systems
• – and of course, phones.

Remember when a mobile phone was just a mobile phone? No, we really don’t like to think about that time, either.  How did we survive?

Think about all of the things we can do now, thanks to the almighty smartphone…

• Now we don’t need GPS systems because our iPhones can help us navigate our way to the nearest Marc Jacobs store while Foursquare is ready to give us a major deal.
• When we’re sitting front row at a fashion show, we no longer have to hassle with bulky equipment.  We can take photos, videos and then create quick microblog posts with our Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook apps.  Talk about breaking fashion news.
• We no longer have to search high and low for our tiny iPods.  We can have all of our favorite tunes stored conveniently in our smartphones — which go everywhere with us, so we’re much less apt to lose.
• Whether we’ve given into the Angry Birds craze or have kids to pacify on a cross-country trip, our smartphones are ready to entertain us with endless gaming options.  And now that fashion brands are adding gaming aspects to their consumer engagement strategies, earning badges and perks has never been more fun or fashionable.
• We can now social network with like minded people through photos thanks to mobile apps like Instagram and Pose.  We all know that fashion people love photos, and the smartphone has left visually unfriendly forums in the dust.

This is of course just a miniscule list of things that our smartphones do for us now.  They do so much more and are instrumental in helping us stay organized and mobile.  Gone are the days when we were chained to our desks waiting for those important calls.  Now we can grab those calls, and some coffee (at a deal thanks to that QR Code) and pretty much rule the fashion world from our tiny, almost unassuming smartphones.  Pretty smart, huh?