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Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is present in many countries, including Tanzania. Gairo is among the districts that frequently face FMD. This study found that the current mechanism for communicating FMD in Gairo district suffers from a long chain of information flow that causes delay and insufficient information for FMD control. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the implementation of an information system named "Monitoring System for Transboundary Foot and Mouth Disease," developed purposely to provide a standard platform for communicating FMD between livestock keepers and other stakeholders in the district. The system enables timely sharing of FMD events such as outbreaks, precaution measures, clinical signs, and negative impacts using Short Message Services (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and Voice Calls (robo-calls) through the mobile phones. Also, livestock keepers may report FMD outbreaks direct to the system using feature phones. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data and Microsoft Visio was used for drawing the system architecture and information flow diagram. Finally, the system was implemented using PHP hypertext processor, JQuery, HTML, JSON, JavaScript, MySQL, and Apache webserver.

The widespread adoption of feature phones and smartphones has previously led researchers to test the assumption that users always have their phones ready at hand. We believe the current ubiquity of other smart devices has changed this. Using a mixed methods approach inspired by past work in this area, we reevaluate the physical proximity relationship between individuals and their smartphone, as well as the role of other smart devices in users’ lives. We find that, on average, participants have their phone within arm's reach 51% of the time, similar to the findings of the prior work. However, if smartphones are not within arm's reach, they are now much further away because of the use of wearables and other devices. We also show how social, personal, and external factors result in users relying on other devices for functions (e.g., information seeking, checking the weather, setting timers and alarms, and playing music) once performed by their smartphones.

Until recently, the only way for the population of developing countries to access the Internet was through expensive smartphones, designed in and for developed countries. In the past few years, how...

Aim: We undertook qualitative research to understand more about older people and their interactions with technology, specifically to evidence the question “ can older people (seniors) manage electronic patient-reported outcomes solutions in clinical trials? ”. Methods: We undertook qualitative research interviews with older people and investigated the findings. Results: Seven of the ten participants had a smartphone and 3/10 had a feature phone (a mobile phone with buttons and no touchscreen). There was a shift from smartphone use by the younger participants to feature phone use by the oldest participants. Conclusion: The younger group of older individuals had similar experiences and attitudes toward touchscreen devices as the rest of the population. While the older participants expressed some reluctance toward unfamiliar technology, all participants were using technology and accepting of it.

The usage of mobile phones has increased multifold in the recent decades mostly because of its utility in most of the aspects of daily life, such as communications, entertainment, and financial transactions. Feature phones are generally the keyboard based or lower version of touch based mobile phones, mostly targeted for efficient calling and messaging. In comparison to smart phones, feature phones have no provision of a biometrics system for the user access. The literature, have shown very less attempts in designing a biometrics system which could be most suitable to the low-cost feature phones. A biometric system utilizes the features and attributes based on the physiological or behavioral properties of the individual. In this research, we explore the usefulness of keystroke dynamics for feature phones which offers an efficient and versatile biometric framework. In our research, we have suggested an approach to incorporate the user’s typing patterns to enhance the security in the feature phone. We have applied k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) with fuzzy logic and achieved the equal error rate (EER) 1.88% to get the better accuracy. The experiments are performed with 25 users on Samsung On7 Pro C3590. On comparison, our proposed technique is competitive with almost all the other techniques available in the literature.

Feature phones or low-end smart phones are an important part of our daily life. While lacking the powerful embedded camera and processing capability of the high-end smart phone, the feature phones with the low-end camera and processing capability are still widely used owing to its lower cost. Consequently, image and video processing algorithms are needed for many intelligent applications on the low-end smart phones. In this paper, we propose a novel robust and efficient video anti-shaking algorithm for the low-end smartphone platform. It provides an integrated application for the low-end smartphone platform, which includes a novel global motion estimation method, and a rapid and efficient local motion detection method. The overall framework is proposed considering the limited camera perception quality and limited mobile processing capability of the feature phone. The proposed algorithm can not only obtain a good visual effect but also be implemented in real-time for the low-end mobile platforms with very limited computational resource. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve a similar video stabilization effect to the Optical Image Stabilization hardware in high-end smartphones.

It has become common for governments and practitioners to measure mobility using data from smartphones, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in countries where few people have smartphones, or use mobile internet, the movement of smartphones may not be a good indicator of the movement of the population. This paper develops a framework for approaching potential bias that can arise when measuring mobility with smartphones. Using mobile phone operator records in Uganda, we compare the mobility of smartphones and the basic and feature phones that are more common. Smartphones have different travel patterns, and decrease mobility substantially more in response to a COVID-19 lockdown. This suggests caution when interpreting smartphone mobility estimates in contexts with low adoption.

Governments offer civil services to their citizens if the citizen can identify themselves using a government-issued identification document. Several documents are often required, such as a national ID and driving license. These identification documents do not share data, or even validity, between different civil entities. Organizations like Sovrin, SecureKey, and ShoCard have presented solutions to ease identification using digital identification based on blockchain technology because of the benefits of immutability, transparency, reliability, and secure sharing of identity data. The solutions, however, all require the use of Internet-enabled devices to access the solution. To accommodate developing countries where smartphones and computers are not prevalent, we designed a proof of concept digital national identification based on the Ethereum blockchain that utilizes Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for end-user communications. The solution gives governments control over lawfully required data while allowing the citizen to retain sovereignty over personal data using trust zones. Consequently, a citizen can use a single identity across multiple civil service providers, even with a feature phone.

With the increasing number of mobile devices, there has been continuous research on generating optimized Language Models (LMs) for soft keyboard. In spite of advances in this domain, building a single LM for low-end feature phones as well as high-end smartphones is still a pressing need. Hence, we propose a novel technique, Optimized N-gram (Op-Ngram), an end-to-end N-gram pipeline that utilises mobile resources efficiently for faster Word Completion (WC) and Next Word Prediction (NWP). Op-Ngram applies Stupid Backoff and pruning strategies to generate a light-weight model. The LM loading time on mobile is linear with respect to model size. We observed that Op-Ngram gives 37% improvement in Language Model (LM)-ROM size, 76% in LM-RAM size, 88% in loading time and 89% in average suggestion time as compared to SORTED array variant of BerkeleyLM. Moreover, our method shows significant performance improvement over KenLM as well., Comment: 2019 IEEE 13th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC). Accessible at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8665639

In recent years, an innovation called the smart feature phone has brought the Internet to millions of poor people who would not otherwise have been able to go online. The purpose of this chapter is to show and explain why the new phones have spread most widely in India.

Location-based games—urban games which are played in real life locations—are growing their share in the mobile gaming markets. While these kinds of games have been present since the growing popularity of so-called feature phones, they gained remarkable momentum through the popularity of Niantic Inc.’s Pokemon Go, Ingress and later Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. As modern location-based games are gathering hundred of millions dollars monthly revenue, also related social, economical, and even juridical questions have raised; however, the ethical questions embodied into the location-based games or augmented reality games have not been completely unveiled. As the mobile game industry is growing its importance in the software industry, also business ethics questions should be taken into account during the design and development of game products and services. This paper seeks to understand the relevant ethical concerns of location-based games by using the viewpoints of individual, community and business.

Emerging technologies, such as the development of the Internet of Things and the transition to smart cities, and innovative handheld devices have led to big changes in many aspects of our lives, while more changes were imminent. Education is also a sector that has undergone huge changes due to the spreading of those devices. Even at the era of feature phones, it started to become clear that portable devices with access to the internet can be used for learning. The process of learning with the use of mobile phones was then in an early stage, due to the limitations of feature phones. Whereas, with the introduction of smartphones, education is expected to be drastically altered in the future, in most parts of the world. New, radical, and controversial in some cases, approaches have been developed, over the past years, in an effort to implement a mobile learning process in real life conditions. Intelligent tutoring systems have had rapid growth, especially in the COVID-19 era, while a significant increase in online courses via social networks has also been noted. This paper focuses on presenting the most important research parameters of m-learning during the last decade, while it also incorporates a novel empirical study in the domain. The utilization of educational data has been taken into consideration and is presented, aiming at ways to improve human interaction in the digital classroom.

Critical high-tech minerals (CHTMs) are raw materials that are essential for a future clean-energy transition and the manufacture of high-end products. Cellphones, one of the fastest growing electronic products, contain various CHTMs. Since 2019, India has surpassed the United States to become the second largest smartphone market in the world. An increasing and alarming number of excessive waste cellphones will be generated in India in the near future. In this study, the dynamic material flow analysis approach and the Weibull distribution are adopted to analyze the volumes of accumulated waste cellphones and the contained CHTMs based on the differentiation between smartphones and feature phones in India. Moreover, a market supply model is adopted to predict the future trends of CHTMs in waste cellphones. The results show a general upward tendency of waste cellphone volume in India, which indicates that various CHTMs contained in cellphone waste can be properly reused or recycled. Future implications based on the analysis results are provided for efficient cellphone management in India.

Background Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease, which causes an estimated 59 000 human deaths globally every year. The vast majority of human rabies cases are attributable to bites from infected domestic dogs and consequently control of rabies in the dog population through mass vaccination campaigns is considered the most effective method of eliminating the disease. Achieving the WHO target of 70% vaccination coverage has proven challenging in low-resource settings such as Sub Saharan Africa, and lack of public awareness about rabies vaccination campaigns is a major barrier to their success. In this study we surveyed communities in three districts in Southern Malawi to assess the extent of and socio-economic factors associated with mobile phone ownership and explore the attitudes of communities towards the use of short message service (SMS) to inform them of upcoming rabies vaccination clinics. Methods This study was carried out between 1 October–3 December 2018 during the post-vaccination assessment of the annual dog rabies campaign in Blantyre, Zomba and Chiradzulu districts, Malawi. 1882 questionnaires were administered to households in 90 vaccination zones. The surveys gathered data on mobile phone ownership and use, and barriers to mobile phone access. A multivariable regression model was used to understand factors related to mobile phone ownership. Results Most survey respondents owned or had use of a mobile phone, however there was evidence of an inequality of access, with higher education level, living in Blantyre district and being male positively associated with mobile phone ownership. The principal barrier to mobile phone ownership was the cost of the phone itself. Basic feature phones were most common and few owned smartphones. SMS was commonly used and the main reason for not using SMS was illiteracy. Attitudes to receiving SMS reminders about future rabies vaccination campaigns were positive. Conclusions The study showed a majority of those surveyed have the use of a mobile phone and most mobile phone owners indicated they would like to receive SMS messages about future rabies vaccination campaigns. This study provides insight into the feasibility of distributing information about rabies vaccination campaigns using mobile phones in Malawi.

Interest towards building and operating climate services is constantly growing globally, especially regarding utilization of mobile technologies in those services in the Global South, in order to reach rural farmers effectively. However, multiple issues are currently limiting the design and development of these services for reaching their full impact. Based on a recent field study, we present the criteria for a mobile climate service app for small-scale farmers in Namibia. It will be based on the KaiOS "smart feature phone" platform, and combines holistically climate, weather and agricultural information in a form that guides the farmer through the agricultural cycle. The app is currently in its early development phase, with a set of pre-selected features being built. Further field work with the local farmers will define the final set of features and the eventual user interface (UI) design of the app.

Access to literacy is critical to children's futures, but formal education may be insufficient for fostering early literacy, especially in low-resource contexts. Educational technologies used at home may be able to help, but it is unclear whether or how children (and families) will use such technologies at home in rural communities, particularly in low-literate families. In this paper, we investigate these questions with a voice-based literacy technology deployed with families in 8 rural communities in Cote d'Ivoire for 4 months. We use interviews and observations with 37 families to investigate motivations, methods, and barriers for rural families' engagement with a literacy technology accessible via feature phones. We contribute insights into how families view digital literacy as a learning goal, leverage networks of supporters, and over time, transition from explicit to implicit support for children's learning.

This study examines how social trust facilitates firms&rsquo, collaborative efficiency in an informal economy. We extend the open innovation theory to explain the straightforward role of social trust in the Shenzhen mobile phone industry. This single case study yields two principal findings. First, social trust fosters the efficient integration of value chains for mobile phone development. Four types of informal entrepreneurs with high social trust built on homogenous sanctioned ethnic groups (i.e., Fujian, Hunan, Chaoshan, and Wenzhou) collaboratively conform to the chip vendors, independent design houses, integrators, manufacturers and channel retailers in the Shenzhen mobile phone industry. These four groups of informal entrepreneurs achieve ethnic legitimacy by organizing the value chains with mobile feature phones built on Shenzhen mobile phone modes. Second, social trust among the four sanctioned ethnic groups is a critical determinant for shortening the time-to-market of new products and catalyzes product specialization to effectively respond to market needs in the Shenzhen mobile phone industry. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for research on social trust and open innovation in informal institutions.

The two previous chapters have been concerned with various aspects of a revolutionary new technology, that lies somewhere between a basic mobile phone and a relatively expensive smartphone. Before the advent of the new smart feature phone in India, users were required to buy smartphones in order to access the Internet. Now they are able to do so at a much lower cost. This chapter, however, deals with a different issue, namely, of whether and to what extent, the Indian experience can be replicated in other developing regions and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. On the basis mainly of available data, I argue that the biggest obstacle to replication lies in affordability: in the price of handsets, data and incomes, Sub-Saharan Africa is at a disadvantage and with respect to device costs, a severe disadvantage. Other dimensions of replicability, however, were less clear-cut, partly because of a paucity of data. What is clear, though, is that associations between KaiOS Technologies and MTN and Orange have resulted in a strong African demand for mobile money through smart feature phones.

Introduced first in India a few years ago, a major innovation known as the smart feature phone has already brought the Internet to tens of million people in that country. It is affordable even to some of the poor in poor countries, such as those living in Africa, where it sells for around US$20. This price was made possible by a series of design changes, such as the use of open-source software, which distinguish the product from the much more expensive smartphones. Yet, in spite of the vast potential that the new technology brings to developing countries, the actual benefits that accrue to the poor citizens of those countries depend (especially in rural areas) not only on economic mechanisms, but also those of a cultural, social, as well as institutional kind. Such factors range from issues of relevance and localization, to linguistics, the form of communication (whether text or speech), and the extent of literacy and digital skills. What I find is that there are indeed cases where smart feature phones help to promote the degree to which the benefits from the Internet are realized by the poor. Because it substitutes voice for text, for example, Google Assistant allows even the illiterate to participate online and it also provides the highest number of local languages, in India, than any other competing voice-assistant. Then, there is the encouragement given to local developers to submit what one hopes will be locally relevant applications and content that includes live livestock tracking and mobile payments. In other areas, however, such as the severe lack of digital skills to operate the Internet effectively, far too little is being done by governments or private actors, though there are a few notable exceptions.

Problem definition: Healthcare systems in resource-limited settings rely on diagnostic networks in which medical samples (e.g., blood, sputum) and results need to be transported between geographically dispersed healthcare facilities and centralized laboratories. Academic/practical relevance: Existing sample transportation (ST) systems typically operate fixed schedules, which do not account for demand variability and lead to unnecessary transportation visits as well as delays. Methodology: We design an optimized sample transportation (OST) system that comprises two components: (i) a new approach for timely collection of information on transportation demand (samples and results) using low-cost technology based on feature phones, and (ii) an optimization-based solution approach to the problem of routing and scheduling courier trips in a multistage transportation system. Results: Our solution approach performs well in a range of numerical experiments. Furthermore, we implement OST in collaboration with Riders For Health, who operate the national ST system in Malawi. Based on analysis of field data describing over 20,000 samples and results transported during July–October 2019, we show that the implementation of OST routes reduced average ST delays in three districts of Malawi by approximately 25%. In addition, the proportion of unnecessary trips by ST couriers decreased by 55%. Managerial implications: Our approach for improving ST operations is feasible and effective in Malawi and can be applied to other resource-limited settings, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Funding: This work was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [Grant OPP1182217] and by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health [Grant U54EB027049]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1182 .

Purpose: Information and communication technology devices have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life and a primary means of communication. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of information and communication technology and to explore the barriers and motivators to its use following stroke. Materials and methods: This observational study used semi-structured individual interviews and video observation of information and communication technology device use with six people, four men, and two women age 60–82 years with upper limb disability following stroke. They were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three themes were identified that relate to barriers: (i) Sensory and motor impairments; (ii) Limited vision and impaired speech; and (iii) Device-specific limitations. Six themes were identified as motivators: (i) Connect with others; (ii) Provide safety; (iii) Facilitate reintegration; (iv) Reinforce technology adoption; (v) Leisure activities; and (vi) Contribute to the rehabilitation process. Conclusion: All participants used some form of information and communication technology daily to promote safety, enable daily activities, and social interaction, and to a lesser extent engage in leisure and rehabilitation activities. Barriers to information and communication technology use were primarily related to stroke related impairments and device-specific requirements, which limited use, particularly of smartphones. These barriers should be addressed to facilitate the use of information and communication technology devices.Implications for rehabilitationThis research suggests that;People with stroke are highly motivated to use information and communication technology devices in daily activitiesStroke-specific and age-related impairments limit the use and functionality of information and communication technology devices for people with strokeInformation and communication technology devices do not appear to be promoted or used in the rehabilitation or as assistive technologies This research suggests that; People with stroke are highly motivated to use information and communication technology devices in daily activities Stroke-specific and age-related impairments limit the use and functionality of information and communication technology devices for people with stroke Information and communication technology devices do not appear to be promoted or used in the rehabilitation or as assistive technologies

A major concern for today’s smartphones is their much faster battery drain than traditional feature phones, despite their greater battery capacities. The difference is mainly contributed by those more powerful but also much more power-consuming smartphone components, such as the multi-core application processor and the high-definition (HD) display. While the application processor must be active when any smart apps are being used, it is also unnecessarily waken up, even during idle periods, to perform operations related to basic phone functions (i.e., incoming calls and text messages). In addition, the power-hungry HD display is also used unnecessarily for such basic functions. In this article, we investigate how to increase the battery life of smartphones by minimizing the use of application processor and HD display for operations related to basic functions. We find that the application processor is often waken up by a process running on it, called the Radio Interface Layer Daemon (RILD), which interfaces the user and apps to the GSM/LTE cellular network. In particular, we demonstrate that a great amount of energy could be saved if RILD is stopped, such that the application processor can sleep more often. Based on this key finding, we design a Smart On Demand (SOD) configuration that reduces the smartphone energy consumption by running RILD operations on a secondary low-power microcontroller and by using a secondary low-power display to interface the user with basic functions. As a result, basic phone functions can be handled at much lower energy costs and the power-consuming components, i.e., application processor and HD display, are waken up only when one needs to use any smart apps, in an on-demand manner. We have built a hardware prototype of SOD and evaluated it with real user traces. Our results show that SOD can increase its battery life by up to 2.5 more days.

Design guidelines and checklists are suggested as a useful tool in the development and evaluation of interface design of mobile phones for older adults. Given the intense evolution of mobile phone design, understanding how the design guidelines and checklists have taken into account the advances in mobile phone usability for older adults is important for their correct application and future development. Thus, this study explores the usability dimensions of mobile phone design for older adults and the related changes in terms of time and the type of device (feature phones vs. smartphones) based on an expert coding of the eight mobile phone design guidelines and checklists for older adults published between 2006 and 2014. The results of the expert coding show that design guidelines and checklists most frequently deal with visual and haptic issues (e.g., high contrast, button type, and button size), whilst they hardly ever address various elements of textual interface (e.g., ease of text entry, a button’s feedback, and font type). Over time, the design guidelines and checklists have become more complex in terms of the average number of included usability categories and dimensions. For smartphones, the guidelines, on average, put more emphasis on the screen, touchscreen, text, and exterior related issues, whereas the design guidelines for feature phones stress the usability of the keypad and menus. Besides revealing potential usability dimensions that could be further expanded in the guidelines, this study also highlights the need for research that would empirically validate the design guidelines and checklists in the future. peerReviewed

Information access in rural communities of Tanzania is very important as it keeps its members aware of what happened and what happening in the world. This importance can not be undermined since it helps farmers and other members of the rural community to make the right decision about their activities. Rural community areas are surrounded by many factors which in one way or another influence or hinder accessibility of information. Several works have been done on analysis of these factors; however most of them were conducted a number of years back. This study focused on providing the current survey on analysis of these factors. Specifically, the study analysed the following factors: source of power, penetration of mobile phones, subscription to networks, languages used and level of education, policy, government support, government administration and farming system. Mwanga District was used as a study area where descriptive research design was applied. Primary data were collected from farmers by using questionnaires while secondary data were collected from village reports and other research reports. The collected data were analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Findings show that in rural areas, there are unreliable source of power, higher penetrations of feature phones, high subscription to Vodacom network and high uses of Swahili language for communication, good government support and policy which favour farmer’s development. Generally, we recommend that the existing sources of information like information systems and other applications should be integrated to form one stop centre where all information can be accessed. Key words: Farmers, rural area, rural community, information access.

Using simple-feature mobile phones, CHWs sent weekly reports on disease caseloads and commodities consumed, ordered drugs and supplies, and sent pre-referral notices to health centers. Supervisors provided feedback to CHWs on referred patient outcomes and received monthly SMS reminders to set up mentoring sessions with the CHWs. Scale-up limitations include: (1) staff shortages at health centers to supervise the CHWs, (2) need for ongoing technical support to troubleshoot challenges with mobile phones and software, and (3) recurring costs for data bundles., Introduction: Effective community health management information systems (C-HMIS) are important in low-resource countries that rely heavily on community-based health care providers. Zambia currently lacks a functioning C-HMIS to provide real-time, community-based health information from community health workers (CHWs) to health center staff and higher levels of the health system. Program Description: We developed a C-HMIS mobile platform for use by CHWs providing integrated community case management (iCCM) services and their supervisors to address challenges of frequent stock-outs and inadequate supportive supervision of iCCM-trained CHWs. The platform used simple feature mobile phones on which were loaded the District Health Information System version 2 (DHIS2) software and Java 2 platform micro edition (J2ME) aggregation and tracker applications. This project was implemented in Chipata and Chadiza districts, which supported previous mHealth programs and had cellular coverage from all 3 major network carriers in Zambia. A total of 40 CHWs and 20 CHW supervisors received mobile phones with data bundles and training in the mobile application, after which they implemented the program over a period of 5.5 months, from February to mid-July 2016. CHWs used the mobile phones to submit data on iCCM cases seen, managed, and referred, as well as iCCM medical and diagnostic supplies received and dispensed. Using their mobile phones, the supervisors tracked CHWs' reported cases with medicine consumption, sent CHWs feedback on their referrals, and received SMS reminders to set up mentorship sessions. Observations: CHWs were able to use the mobile application to send weekly reports to health center supervisors on disease caseloads and medical commodities consumed, to make drug and supply requisitions, and to send pre-referral notices to health centers. Health center staff used the mobile system to provide feedback to CHWs on the case outcomes of referred patients and to receive automated monthly SMS reminders to invite CHWs to the facility for mentorship. District- and central-level staff were able to access community-level health data in real time using passwords. Lessons Learned: C-HMIS, using simple feature phones, was feasible and viable for the provision of real-time community-based health information to all levels of the health care system in Zambia, but smartphones, laptops, or desktop computers are needed to perform data analysis and visualization. Ongoing technical support is needed to address the hardware and software challenges CHWs face in their day-to-day interaction with the application on their mobile phones.

The Android Forensic software grows in numbers, and increased awareness of the data they process have also grown day to day basis, but much of the interest from cybercriminal to successfully attack the device and also the careless of the human being itself have placed the android phone content at the risk. Forensic examiner have always gone for an expensive forensic toolkit to meet the industry standards, but normal people have been always tent to lose the direction when they experience this type of attack or the data lost as it may cost a few thousand to fix it back. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is suggesting a reliable open source mobile forensic tool based on experiments conducted to retrieve deleted data and also extract other important content from android mobile phone.

During the recent past, electronic waste (E-waste) has emerged as a major category of toxic waste in both global North and global South. Particularly, the emerging economies such as India are a major contributor to the E-waste volume in the world today. Accordingly, we attempted to carry out this study to evaluate the journey of equipment from 'electronic products' to 'electronic waste' in the city of New Delhi in India. The purpose was to carry out an exclusive pilot study with the potential to replicate the same at a larger scale in major Indian metropolis which are mostly the hubs of intense E-waste generation. The case of mobile phones (both smartphones and feature phones) was considered as the key representative. A structured questionnaire survey was carried out with 334 purposively selected respondents in the city of New Delhi. Among several other noteworthy findings, we observed that there exists a gap among purchase behaviour of mobile phones, awareness on E-waste and disposal behaviour of these phones. For instance, the relatively high knowledge/awareness about E-waste is yet to be reflected in consumers' responsible purchase and disposal behaviour. We argue that creating awareness among citizens is central to a sustainable E-waste management system and effective policy instruments. ispartof: Environmental Science And Pollution Research vol:28 issue:19 pages:1-10 ispartof: location:Germany status: Published online

MeeSeva initiated in year 2011 provides smart, citizen centric, ethical, efficient and effective governance leveraging advancements in technology. The initiative involves delivery of government services to citizens & businesses of all strata in a universal and non-discriminatory manner. The core design of MeeSeva was based on the objectives of improved efficiency, transparency and accountability for the government resulting in significantly improved service delivery to citizens. MeeSeva is an interface between government departments and citizens acting as the nodal agency (Electronic Service Delivery) as well as the platform for delivery of G2C services. MeeSeva has redefined the way Government services are delivered to citizens by bringing about 600+ services of 38 departments on a single platform. MeeSeva has taken government to the citizen's doorsteps through various touch points which include: •4500+ MeeSeva centres spread across the state •A mobile app called T App Folio (launched in February 2018) which can be used through iOS, android, USSD, IVRS reaching out to citizens with smart phone, feature phone and no phone users •A web portal In year 2016, ITE&C department conceptualized MeeSeva 2.0 to undertake a major strengthening of key aspects to improve the performance of MeeSeva and deliver a significant improved service delivery experience to citizens.

This chapter addresses two measurement issues for mobile phones. First, we develop a new mobile phone price index using hedonic quality-adjusted prices for smartphones and a matched-model index for feature phones. Our index falls at an average annual rate of 17% during 2010–18, close to the rate of decline in the price index used in the GDP accounts. Given relatively flat average prices over this period, our index points to substantial quality improvement. Second, we propose a methodology to disentangle purchases of phones and wireless services when they are bundled together as part of a long-term service contract. Getting the allocation right is especially important for real personal consumption expenditure (PCE) because the price deflators for phones and wireless services exhibit very different trends. Our adjusted estimates suggest that real PCE spending currently captured in the category Cellular Phone Services increased 4 percentage points faster than is reflected in published data.

New digital platforms offer convenient and less expensive ways to make payments and transfer funds. Owing to the requirement of the citizens during demonetization period, Telangana State Government came out with a unique initiative called the T-Wallet, enabling its citizens in making cashless electronic payments to both government and private services. T-Wallet is the official digital wallet of Telangana State, available as an Any Time Any Where digital payment option. T-Wallet is distinctive as a digital payment system for the banked and unbanked citizens, customized for citizens with a smartphone, a feature phone or no phone. The paper describes T-Wallet case study, an initiative taken by the government to encourage digital financial inclusion.

Financial services such as payments, credit, savings, insurance etc. are accessed and delivered through digital channels. In this context, the term “digital channels” refers to the internet, mobile phones (both smartphones and digital feature phones), ATMs, POS terminals, NFC-enabled devices, chips, electronically enabled cards, biometric devices, tablets, phablets and any other digital system. Therefore, Mobile financial services (MFS) are also a part of the digital financial services (DFS). There are following objectives of this paper-1) To describe digital financial services through cashless funds flow in liberalized and globalized Indian economy. 2)To examine the prospects of digital financial services through cashless economy to the general public and 3) To highlight the challenges of digital financial services through cashless economy in India. For fulfilling the above objectives, researcher makes hypotheses for testing the data. Present study is written in descriptive as well as exploratory form. Secondary data is collected form authentic sources like Economic Survey, journals, IAMAI and Statista-The Statistics Portal website. The research will use convenient sampling for collecting primary data. The people which are easily accessible have been chosen for the study. Testing will be used for analyzing the data. Due to innovation in digital payment technologies and increasing customer satisfaction, the growth trends in digital payments may be positive and will might continue to dominate the payment landscape in India. But the biggest challenge in front of Indian economy may digital illiteracy, inadequate rural penetration of internet connectivity, inadequate banking infrastructure, lack of awareness among rural customers, unorganized indigenous market.

Understanding how long information and communications technology (ICT) products are used, when they are disposed of, and underlying drivers for consumer behavior, play a defining role in the potential success of current and future policy strategies on circularity in the electronics sector. In this study, we explored the service life and storage stages of four types of ICT products in Denmark, namely mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and desktop personal computers (PCs), using dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) with sales-stock-lifetime reconciliation capability. Further, we characterized the stock of products in Denmark and its dynamics from 1990 to 2018, and extract evidence on how obsolescence and technological shifts affect product service life. Results showed that the active use stock of analyzed ICT products has either stabilized (mobile phones, laptops, tablets) or is decreasing (feature phones, desktop PCs). The dead storage stock of smartphones, laptops and tablets continues to expand and in 2018 accounted for 30% of their combined total stock. Results highlight that the technological shift from feature phones to smartphones was likely accompanied by a drop in mobile phone service lifetime from 3 years to around 2 years between 2008 and 2012. Furthermore, our results suggest that product physical obsolescence was not the main driver for the length of service life, while intangible product qualities may play a significant role.

This study investigated why senior citizens use Facebook and how they participate in specific activities on Facebook in order to gratify their needs. An online survey of 352 senior citizens over 60 years old revealed four primary motivations for using Facebook: social bonding, social bridging, curiosity, and responding to family member requests. The analysis of the relationship between senior citizens' motivations and their participation in activities on Facebook indicates that social bonding is a major motivation for participating in most activities on Facebook. In addition, data reveal that using message-based interactivity features on Facebook (i.e., posting on other people's wall and Facebook chatting with others) leads to greater Facebook use. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of senior citizens' Facebook use as an emerging communication tool. National survey of 639 senior citizens yields 352 (55%) Facebook users.Four major motivations characterize Facebook use among senior citizens.Social bonding and bridging predict most of their Facebook activities.Chatting and posting on others' walls account for most of their time on Facebook.Use of landline and feature phones negatively predict time spent on Facebook.

Smartphones are finding their way into our daily lives. This paper examines the domestication of smartphones by looking at how the way we use mobile applications affects our everyday routines. Data is collected through an innovative quantitative mixed-method approach, combining log data from smartphones and survey (perception) data. We find that there are dimensions of domestication that explain how the use of smartphones affects our daily routines. Contributions are stronger for downloaded applications than for native applications. Especially applications that require interaction with others, such as social media and instant messaging, have a serious impact on our day-to-day routines. As a result, appropriation is core in incorporating smartphones in daily life routines. However, frequency of use and the total number of minutes spent on a given type of application per day affect our everyday routines in different ways. This paper is the first quantitative domestication study that focuses on smartphones rather than feature phones. The theoretical contribution and practical implications are outlined.

1. IntroductionThe diffusion of smartphones in Japan began in earnest with the launch of the iPhone. However, this diffusion led to the focus on certain types of users. These users are called "dual product users" (DPUs) because they own simultaneously two different types of mobile phone. For example, DPUs use a feature phone and a smartphone or use two types of smartphones, an iPhone and an Android phone. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of consumers to analyze consumers' knowledge of mobile phones in particular. The results of the analysis revealed that consumers who own multiple products at any one time possess a high degree of knowledge.The structure of this paper is as follows. First, we introduce existing research on product knowledge (e.g., Alba & Hutchinson, 1987) and mention literature and data on Japanese mobile phone market. Second, we describe the method of analysis in this study, after which results of the analysis are presented. Finally, the results of the analysis are interpreted, and the contributions and limitations of the study are discussed.2. Literature ReviewMobile phone market in JapanFirst, we overview the mobile phone market in Japan. As feature phone specifications in Japan have improved, new e-mail and camera functions have been added consecutively (Morishima, 2006). However, iPhone and other smartphones have replaced highly functional feature phones.Accordingly, A Nikkei BP Consulting survey (2014) provided some interesting findings. This survey revealed that 7.7% of all mobile phone users own more than two mobile phones. Of those users with multiple mobile phones, 22.1% had multiple smartphones, and approximately 56.6% of this group had both of these.1 Studies, such as Rogers (1962), have assumed that in a durable goods market, one consumer essentially owns a branded good. Therefore, the fact that the mobile phone market in Japan has users who own multiple products is interesting.To examine the characteristics of these consumers, this study first defines a DPU as a person who simultaneously owns and uses different types of mobile phones (feature phones, iPhone, and other types of smartphone). We then clarify the characteristics of these users and explain the reasons for the occurrence of this phenomenon.Characteristics of dual product usersThis study conducts an analysis from several perspectives to uncover the characteristics of DPUs. Gender and age are essential characteristics. Another important factor is consumer knowledge (e.g., Alba & Hutchinson, 1987, 2000). In marketing theory, consumer knowledge is considered to significantly influence consumer buying behavior (e.g., Katsumata & Nishimoto, 2016; Nishimoto, 2015; Peter & Olson, 2010; Wada, Onzo, & Miura, 2012). Therefore, this study focuses on consumer knowledge, which is also useful from the perspective of deriving the implications of corporate marketing activities.Some previous studies have indicated that consumer knowledge impacts consumers' information processing (e.g., Nishimoto, 2015). Users who possess a high level of consumer knowledge can easily process information related to those products (e.g., Nishimoto, 2015). In other words, users with a high level of consumer knowledge may be able to rapidly deal with and process information on the details of products. Therefore, they can selectively use these products simultaneously. This study uses the aforementioned factors of gender, age, and consumer knowledge in its analysis.3. Comparing DPUs' Consumer Knowledge with That of Other UsersResearch targetThis study focuses on the mobile phone market in Japan. The survey research was conducted in 2013. The number of respondents was 700. Of this, 56.1% were male and 43.9% were female, with an average age of 46.49. This study identifies the characteristics of DPUs using the results of the survey.First, we defined usage patterns for mobile phones. …

One of the biggest recent issues in the communication market is the explosive distribution of smartphones. One of the reasons why a smartphone could have seen this rapid distribution in terms of the service management is because it enables the access to the Internet without getting restricted by place and time through customization by a user, unlike a feature phone which only has the existing functions mounted on that were already chosen by a suppler. The other reason is because of its applications. This study aimed to make an empirical investigation of the impact of each of the different convenience types of mobile applications on the usage and the use diversity, consider the process of use diffusion, and find out whether there is a difference in the effect of each convenience type on the use-diffusion. According to the findings of this study, it was firstly shown that the effect of each convenience type on the use-diffusion is different, and secondly, it appeared that the more various functions of the mobile applications are used, the more usage increases.

This systematic review provides a chronological overview of how mhealth research has evolved with changes in mobile technologies. The review involved a PubMed search complemented by manual searching of all issues of the Journal of Medical Internet Research and Telemedicine Journal and eHealth , from inception to January 2015. Articles reporting the evaluation of mhealth interventions in any patient group for any health-related outcomes were analysed without restrictions on the study design. A total of 3476 publications were obtained from the PubMed search and manual searching of eHealth journals. Analysis was based on an abstract review of 515 (14.8%) original research articles, which fulfilled preset inclusion criteria. Three distinct time periods were identified on the basis of mobile devices used in mhealth research. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) dominated mhealth research in the years before 2007 (17 of 33 articles, 51.5%). Basic and feature phones were the main methods of mhealth intervention from 2007 to 2012 (95 of 193 articles, 49.2%). After 2012, smart devices (smartphones, tablet PCs and iPod touches) were highly used in mhealth research (173 of 289 articles, 59.9%). Despite a growing focus on infectious diseases and maternal and child health in the most recent years, non-communicable conditions continued to overshadow the trend of mhealth research. Overall, mHealth research has evolved over the past decade in terms of the mobile devices employed, health conditions addressed and its purpose. While chronic medical conditions have clearly been the focus of mhealth research, a shift in trends is expected as the application of mhealth interventions spreads to other under-studied areas. Future research should continue to leverage on the advancements and ubiquitous nature of mobile devices to make healthcare accessible to all.

High-tech minerals (HTMs) used for manufacturing mobile phones are indispensable raw materials for emerging Chinese national strategic industries. China is the world’s largest mobile phone market, and increasing amounts of HTMs are found in the country’s excessive mobile phone waste. Thus, it is important to investigate the life cycle cost (LCC) of recycling HTMs from waste mobile phones. In this study, material flow analysis (MFA) and LCC assessment were conducted to analyze the recycling of waste mobile phones and the contained HTMs. The LCCs of recycling two types of mobile phones, i.e., feature phones and smartphones, were investigated. The results show that the LCCs of recycling one waste feature phone and one waste smartphone are approximately US$ 2.34 and US$ 6.60, respectively. The LCCs of extracting HTMs from one waste feature phone are US$ 6.035 for 1 g of cobalt and US$ 0.014 for 1 g of palladium, while the LCCs of extracting 1 g of cobalt, palladium, antimony, beryllium, neodymium, praseodymium and platinum from one waste smartphone are US$ 10.106, US$ 0.024, US$ 0.135, US$ 0.005, US$ 0.08, US$ 0.016 and US$ 0.006, respectively. Based on the LCC results, constructive suggestions and policy implications are provided for future mobile phone management in China.

The present study was carried out in Ema market of Imphal West district to study the mobile phone use pattern among registered women vendors. A sample of 120 registered women vendors were selected from Ema market by taking 56, 40 and 24 registered women vendors through proportionate random sampling from market segments namely Purana bazaar, New market and Laxmi bazaar respectively. Findings revealed that majority (93.33%) of the women own feature phone, popular service providers were Vodafone (52.5%) and Airtel (48.33%), all respondents agreed that cellular mobile service to them was useful, all the respondents use only prepaid mode of payment, Vodafone is the most preferred choice of mobile service provider.

BackgroundThe median age of single homeless adults is approximately 50 years. Older homeless adults have poor social support and experience a high prevalence of chronic disease, depression, and substance use disorders. Access to mobile phones and the internet could help lower the barriers to social support, social services, and medical care; however, little is known about access to and use of these by older homeless adults. ObjectiveThis study aimed to describe the access to and use of mobile phones, computers, and internet among a cohort of 350 homeless adults over the age of 50 years. MethodsWe recruited 350 participants who were homeless and older than 50 years in Oakland, California. We interviewed participants at 6-month intervals about their health status, residential history, social support, substance use, depressive symptomology, and activities of daily living (ADLs) using validated tools. We performed clinical assessments of cognitive function. During the 6-month follow-up interview, study staff administered questions about internet and mobile technology use. We assessed participants’ comfort with and use of multiple functions associated with these technologies. ResultsOf the 343 participants alive at the 6-month follow-up, 87.5% (300/343) completed the mobile phone and internet questionnaire. The median age of participants was 57.5 years (interquartile range 54-61). Of these, 74.7% (224/300) were male, and 81.0% (243/300) were black. Approximately one-fourth (24.3%, 73/300) of the participants had cognitive impairment and slightly over one-third (33.6%, 100/300) had impairments in executive function. Most (72.3%, 217/300) participants currently owned or had access to a mobile phone. Of those, most had feature phones, rather than smartphones (89, 32.1%), and did not hold annual contracts (261, 94.2%). Just over half (164, 55%) had ever accessed the internet. Participants used phones and internet to communicate with medical personnel (179, 64.6%), search for housing and employment (85, 30.7%), and to contact their families (228, 82.3%). Those who regained housing were significantly more likely to have mobile phone access (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.81, 95% CI 1.77-8.21). Those with ADL (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.31-0.92) and executive function impairment (AOR 0.49; 95% CI 0.28-0.86) were significantly less likely to have mobile phones. Moderate to high risk amphetamine use was associated with reduced access to mobile phones (AOR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10-0.72). ConclusionsOlder homeless adults could benefit from portable internet and phone access. However, participants had a lower prevalence of smartphone and internet access than adults aged over 65 years in the general public or low-income adults. Participants faced barriers to mobile phone and internet use, including financial barriers and functional and cognitive impairments. Expanding access to these basic technologies could result in improved outcomes.

Smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs have brought across the revolution of always on, always connected. They have become ubiquitous in our lives. Smartphones and tablets combine and extend the functionality of feature phones and desktop computers. They give us an opportunity to play, work and socialize whenever and wherever we want. It has now become a standard and an everyday gadget. We use it for everything and thus it has the most private and sensitive information. It has become susceptible to a lot of privacy issues if it reaches the hand of an outsider. There exist a potential risks if our mobile phones get stolen or are ceased by an intruder. Mostly these devices have a one-step authentication process which consists of the initial login i.e. input of ID and password by the user to gain total access. But this doesn't take into consideration the situation of who accesses the device after the initial login. The detection of a fraudulent access isn't taken into consideration. To deal with this problem, continuous authentication is becoming quite popular in which the user is continuously monitored after the initial login authentication process is completed. This paper highlights the various continuous authentication methods which can be used to monitor our devices and analyze the current research, proposed framework and mechanisms that can be implemented or have already been implemented.

We present Malasakit 2.0 (meaning “sincere care” in Filipino), an inclusive, multilingual participatory online platform with feature phone integration for collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative textual and audio data on disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies. Malasakit 2.0 introduces interactive voice response (IVR) to support collection of audio data via feature phone. Malasakit utilizes peer-to-peer collaborative evaluation to identify and prioritize local DRR strategies. We present results from four field tests where 261 participants provided 1,582 evaluations of current DRR strategies, and over 950 peer-to-peer evaluations on 280 textual and audio suggestions for how local government (i.e., barangays) could better support vulnerable groups (e.g., elderly, women, children, and people with disabilities) during typhoons and floods. Results suggest that individuals who engage in disaster drills are also likely to participate in their barangay's clean-up drives to reduce flooding risk by clearing drainage pathways and that those who participate in disaster drills are also likely to have enough emergency supplies for a disaster. High-rated suggestions for DRR strategies for vulnerable groups emphasize the need for communities to establish response teams that prioritize reaching out to vulnerable groups for coordination during a disaster. Malasakit can be accessed at tiny.cc/Malasakit2.