GottaKickit |
GottaKickit is a smoking cessation plan that uses your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Google Android-based mobile to help you break free of smoking without drugs, patches, potions, or even a whole lot of willpower. It costs less than a pack of cigarettes. It could literally save your life. |
Mobile Gadgets Add New Weapon Against Smoking
Popular devices like Apple’s iPhone can help cigarette smokers quit while minimizing stress.
April 2010: A new approach to quitting a cigarette habit – one that doesn’t require nicotine supplements or prescription drugs – is poised to help a generation of tech-friendly users beat their addiction, according to the creators of the plan. Canadian software developer Nick Sullivan says that GottaKickit Now, based on a system he designed for himself when quitting smoking in 1991, could not have existed as a product before the rise of computerized mobile gadgets like Apple’s popular iPhone.
Under the plan, users leave it up to the GottaKickit Now software installed on their mobile devices to set the times when they can smoke. Over a period of several months, the interval between cigarettes is gently increased until the user’s intake has fallen to one or two a day.
Once that stage has been reached, says Sullivan, making the final step holds little of the anguish usually associated with quitting. “GottaKickit Now helps you wind down both your physical nicotine addiction and the psychological factors that nurture and protect it. Cutting down too quickly, or going cold turkey, is like jumping off an express train – at very best you can expect plenty of pain. With GottaKickit Now, by the time you’re down to a couple of cigarettes a day, quitting for good is more like stepping off a slow-moving escalator. You just choose your moment and take the step. You might hardly even feel the transition.”
The idea of phasing smoking out of one’s life by gradually cutting back cigarette intake is not new, but backers of GottaKickit Now point to features of the plan that could be realized only on modern devices like Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as mobile phones using the Google Android operating system.
“Cigarettes are a highly evolved product”, notes lead developer Chris Zamara, who created the iPhone version of GottaKickit Now. “They’re portable, convenient, and easy to use. We knew that if our product was going to help you manage your smoking behavior effectively, it had to have those same user-friendly qualities. But it also needed enough computing power to do things like calculate and store the user’s smoking schedule. Thanks to the advanced devices now available, we were able to meet all our requirements.”
One benefit of the mobile computing approach is the low cost to consumers of the full GottaKickit Now software – less than the price of a pack of cigarettes in most areas, according to company officials. “Smoking is expensive”, remarks Sullivan, “so when you begin cutting down, there’s an immediate benefit as you start to save money right away. It’s one of the things that keeps you motivated. So the last thing we wanted was that price should be a barrier to using our product.”
Smokers can even install and use the basic features of GottaKickit Now on their iPhone or iPod Touch without charge. “You can go through our whole plan absolutely free”, says Zamara. “And if you do, that’s great. We’re happy for your success. But if you can spend a few bucks, you not only show your support for the product, but you also activate some dandy extra features in the software.”
GottaKickit Now is produced by GottaKickit.com, which was founded in 2009 to provide information to consumers about the system. The product is available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and devices like the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) that are based on Google Android.
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