Don’t you just love technology (when it works). Computers and the internet have really come a long way since the 80’s and 90’s. They have transformed how we do business in almost every aspect. If you don’t have an email address an insured might look at you funny. Somethings have been great for the insurance industry and even now we couldn’t live without, other things however, have been an insurance agents waste of time and money for one reason or another.

Unfortunately, it’s in our face and we have to accept it whether we like it or not. Staying in front of the competition regarding technology is a risk but sometimes those risk pay off.

One area in technology that has taken off especially this decade is cell phone usage. Previous studies from the 90’s showed that 1 out 10 people used or owned a cell phone. Recent studies of post 2000 show that now 2 out of 3 people own a cell phone. Wow! What a dramatic change over a short span of years.

The biggest reason in our opinion is the new wave of applications on our phones that make life a TON easier in the insurance world. These apps can help keep our lives connected, organized and on top of things. We recently asked our followers on Twitter what their favorite apps were on their cell phones. Well this is the response we got. Feel free to share yours in the comments.

@mrsrsharp says:

Evernote for the iPhone – great for capturing notes or pics for later. I use it all the time!

Take a look at Evernote on iTunes

@Cdschein says:

Favorite Droid app is either Visual Voicemail or Navigation-toss up.

@NibbyP says:

My favorite iPhone app is Tweetie. It allows me to keep up with my Twitter accounts . For my workout I like /use iFitness

Take a look on iTunes: Tweetie iFitness

@SteveTN says:

Dragon Dictation Speaking to your phone and typing brings Star Trek ease-of-use to iPhone. Did not use keyboard to type.

Take a look at Dragon Dictation on iTunes

@AlbanyInsurance says:

I use Twitteberry on my #Verizon #Blackberry…

Now, I guess we can’t go with out making our own favorite apps that we use. Well here are a couple of our favorites.

Twitter apps, We have used a couple around here and yet to find a favorite. Each one has advantages.

Echofon – Has great push notifications for the iPhone 3.0 software. This is probably the one we use the most for that reason alone.
Tweetdeck – No Push notifications but has a great desktop application that goes along with it when you are at your computer.
Hootsuite – Again, No Push notifications but was a web based application that goes along with it when you are at any computer

More to come in the comments!  If you have another favorite you would like to share with all of us, please leave a comment and let us know!  We look forward to hearing from everybody!