This article systematically explains what a smartphone is, what it does, the features of its operating systems (iOS and Android), its social impact, and how it has changed our lives.
Currently, IT news and media are full of speculation about the upcoming Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15, and smartphones are the center of attention. In a short period of time, smartphones have become one of the most important electronic devices in our lives, a device that was unfamiliar to us when the iPhone 3GS was released in Korea in 2009. Today, the number of smartphone subscribers in Korea has already exceeded 50 million, meaning that most Koreans have a smartphone. However, despite this number of people using smartphones, most people don’t know what exactly a smartphone is and think of it as just a cell phone with internet access. As a result, many people pay for smartphones that are not cheap and use them in the same way as feature phones in the past. So, in order to make sure that we’re getting the right features for our money, we need to do a little research on what a smartphone is and what it can do.
To understand what a smartphone is, it’s good to look at the words of Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone at WWDC in 2007. Steve Jobs said, “…… an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. …… This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” When he announced the first iPhone to the world, he said, ”This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. This introductory statement makes it clear that a smartphone is an intensive device that takes a traditional cell phone, adds wireless communications over a powerful wireless Internet network, and features like music, video, and a camera. But just because it has internet doesn’t mean it’s a smartphone. The most obvious distinction between a traditional cell phone and a smartphone is the ability to freely install and uninstall applications. This allows users to reconfigure their smartphone in a way that is convenient and useful to them.
The reason why we can install only the applications we want on our smartphones is because of the operating system that is installed on them, just like on a PC. Just as the PC market was dominated by DOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, AT&T, etc. in the early days of the PC market, the smartphone market was dominated by a variety of operating systems competing for market share. Today, two operating systems control more than 90 percent of the market. Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
iOS was released in 2007 and has been upgraded several times since then, reaching its current version, iOS 17. This is the operating system used in iPhones and iPads and isn’t used in other smartphones. The closeness of being developed exclusively for iPhones and iPads is the main characteristic of iOS, which makes it highly stable and brings out the best in the hardware, like wearing a well-fitted suit. Today, it still holds about 30 percent of the market, although that share is declining slightly. The biggest advantage of iOS is the sheer volume of applications compared to other operating systems. As of July 2024, there were approximately 3 million apps in the App Store, and iOS users downloaded apps more than 500 billion times between 2008 and 2024. This vast amount of apps allows users to customize their smartphones to make them more convenient.
Android was created by OHA, but it wasn’t until Google acquired OHA that it was released to the public. Android’s biggest feature is that it’s an open source operating system, meaning that all of its underlying technology is publicly available. This is the complete opposite of Apple’s iOS, which means that any developer can install the Android operating system on a smartphone. Of course, the downside of this openness is that it’s a little less optimized to get the most out of your device. However, the advantages of being open source cannot be ignored, which is why the Android operating system currently has a market share of 60%, which is more than half of all smartphones. Android’s open source nature means that there are some differences between phones, but the most common features are the customizable home screen with widgets and the notification bar at the top.
With two operating systems, iOS and Android, we can install the features we want on our smartphones and use them conveniently. Here are some of the features we can use. First of all, there are entertainment features such as music, videos, and games. In this case, smartphones can download music, videos, and games over the wireless network without connecting to a PC. The latest smartphones can even support HD-quality video, which is about 1280*760 pixels. You can also use this wireless network technology to access social networking services and basically surf the web like you would on a computer. You can also use GPS to display your current location on a map, or use the navigation function to get directions. The most famous of these smartphone applications is the text messaging application called KakaoTalk. It’s a messaging application that has changed the SMS revenue structure of traditional mobile operators. There’s also an application called Skype that allows you to make free voice calls.
As a result of the penetration of smartphones into our lives and the fact that they have become an integral part of our lives for some people, our lives have changed in many ways from what they were five years ago. First of all, the market for conventional MP3 players and digital cameras has shrunk by more than 50 percent in the last five years as a result of the various functions of a smartphone, including music and video. In the case of Korean MP3 player makers iRiver and Kowon, their stock prices have dropped by at least 50 percent and as much as 70 percent since 2009, when the iPhone was first released in Korea. Just as film cameras went into decline with the advent of digital cameras, digital cameras are going into decline with the advent of smartphones.
Another change is the paradigm shift in labor and work. In the past, checking emails on the go was unthinkable when wireless networks were not active, and even if you wanted to do it, you had to pay a lot of money for it. However, the freedom of communication brought by the proliferation of smartphones has eliminated the inconvenience of the past. Now you can receive work-related mail from anywhere. Moreover, some applications allow you to create and modify files such as MS OFFICE Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, so many companies are now using smartphones to increase work efficiency. GS E&C, for example, has improved the efficiency of its employees by utilizing smartphone applications to integrate the management of personnel, materials, and equipment in the work management process on site. It also provides mobile resident management services by connecting home network systems to smartphones, allowing residents to access all information about their homes and complexes from the outside.
The proliferation of smartphones is also changing the media. The catalyst for this change is the activation of social networking services, which in the past were merely for socializing and fellowship, but as the number of users of SNS such as Twitter and Facebook has exploded, SNS has become more than just a community site, but a place for full-fledged opinion discussion, and SNS is gradually becoming mediaized. The biggest reason for this change is the speed of information delivery on SNS. The information transmitted through SNS moves around the world in real time, and its speed cannot be compared to that of Korean media. Therefore, people are increasingly relying on SNS for information, which means that the impact of SNS information is growing.
In this article, we’ve discussed what a smartphone is, what functions it provides, and how it has changed our lives. A smartphone is an electronic device that performs many functions based on a wireless communication network. However, it’s not just an electronic device, it’s very much a part of our lives, and as a result, it has changed our lives in many ways. Some of these changes are not only positive, but also negative, such as smartphone addiction. In the midst of this wave of change, it’s important to understand your smartphone so that you don’t get swept up in it.
