Another University Requires iPhone/iPod Touch

Jul 1 2009, 6:10pm CDT | by Robert Evans

Last month the University of Missouri listed an iPhone or an iPod Touch as one of the requirements for their journalism program. Today, that trend continues with the University of Florida ordering all of their Doctor of Pharmacy online students to have either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. This is good news for Apple, as U of Florida is considered to have one of the best online pharmacy schools in the country.

The interesting thing about this news is that, apparently, the possession of either an iPhone or iPod Touch actually seems to be a hard-and-fast requirement here. In U of Missouri's journalism program the requirement was actually just listed as such to obtain a tax break for any of their students who wished to purchase one for the program. If they don't issue a similar qualification, this could prove to be a very significant development for the smartphone market.

It's truly astonishing how quickly these things are becoming ubiquitous. By 2013 we are expected to see over 1.1 billion smartphones on the market. That's almost one smartphone for everyone in the Western world. It wasn't very long ago that a smartphone was considered basically an expensive toy for people with a whole lot of money. Now forty million people have iPhones alone. Over 131 million smartphones have been sold to date.

The interesting thing to ponder is if, with the rapid advance of communication technology, will smartphones have time to become really ubiquitous? What if the Sixth Sense becomes commercially viable before 2013?

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Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.