This article explains why smartphones have become an essential part of modern life and how they have evolved, covering the technological differences between smartphones, feature phones, and PCs, and the social changes they have brought.
If you had to name one component that defines a modern person in the 21st century, it would be a smartphone. These days, it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t use a smartphone. For example, most people are on the subway, bus, or even walking down the street. Smartphones have become an essential part of our lives. The reason why smartphones have become so popular is probably due to the variety of services they offer. It’s not just the simple functions of a phone, such as messaging, calling, and alarms, but the ability to surf the internet extensively, email, install apps, and even create and share your own apps that makes smartphones so appealing. As you can see, smartphones are small and easily portable, but they also offer PC-like functionality as well as phone-like features.
To summarize, a smartphone is a phone that can function as a PC, or a PC that can function as a phone. So, how are smartphones different from regular phones (feature phones) and PCs?
The first difference between a smartphone and a regular phone is the user’s degree of freedom. Smartphone users can customize their phones more than feature phone users. Previously, feature phone users had to use their phones according to the usage menu set by the carrier, and the application stores were dependent on the carrier. While they could download and use apps, data usage was expensive, and the lack of freedom to create and share apps limited their access to services. Smartphone users, on the other hand, have access to very fast data speeds and relatively low data costs, and they can create, share, and install apps freely. This also makes Apple smartphones much more versatile than feature phones. If the old feature phone was a generic fast food restaurant, the smartphone is a fast food restaurant where the buns, veggies, patties, sauces, etc. are all customizable and can even be sold back to the consumer who created the burger.
This freedom allows for a personalized experience. Users can customize their home screens, and a variety of apps allow them to create their own lifestyle. For example, someone who loves to exercise can install a fitness app to track their workouts, and someone who loves music can build their own music library through a variety of music streaming apps. As you can see, smartphones have become more than just a way to communicate, they’ve become a tool to enrich and diversify our lives.
However, the difference between a smartphone and a PC is not as big as the difference between a smartphone and a regular phone. At its core, a smartphone has the same structure as a PC. However, smartphones are designed to be low-power and high-performance for on-the-go use, so the following differences exist. There are three main components of a computer: the central processing unit (CPU), the main memory (D-RAM), and the secondary memory (HDD or SDD). In a smartphone, the CPU is integrated into a chip called a mobile app processor, along with a GPU to process graphics and a DSP to process audio signals. In addition, mobile devices have specialized mobile DRAM as primary memory. In other words, smartphones are essentially the same as PCs, but they differ from PCs in that they are equipped with devices that are specialized for their function as a means of communication.
The development of smartphones is not just a technological advancement, but also a social change. Smartphones are closely connected to the daily lives of modern people, and this has led to a variety of social phenomena. For example, the proliferation of smartphones has led to the explosive growth of social media, which has revolutionized the way people communicate. Beyond texting and calling, people can now communicate in real time through photos and videos and share their daily lives with each other from anywhere in the world. These changes have helped to reduce the physical distance between people and foster closer relationships.
But how did smartphones, which have the characteristics of both PCs and traditional feature phones, get to this point? Let’s take a look at the history of smartphones, which have been created by many companies.
The first smartphone is considered to be IBM’s Simon in the early 1990s. It was a very underpowered phone compared to today, but it was highly regarded at the time for its ability to send and receive emails and other functions. Later, Nokia also produced smartphones. With the Nokia 9210, which had an open operating system, Nokia produced a smartphone that was expensive compared to regular phones, but it didn’t catch on with the public. Microsoft’s smartphones with the Pocket PC OS in the early 2000s were also very innovative. They were familiar to consumers because the OS was similar to Windows. However, like Nokia’s predecessor, they were not widely used by the public.
Then, in 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, an iPod, cell phone, and mobile Internet device. In addition to using capacitive touch, it also created a “store” where people could freely download apps under the iOS system, which led to an explosive response. In response to this craze, companies such as Samsung Electronics, HTC, LG, and Nokia, which was acquired by Microsoft, created new smartphones under Google’s Android OS and continued to release new models of smartphones. Apple, in turn, continued to develop and release new models. Currently, Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and Meizu are also releasing products with high performance at low prices using their own OS such as MiUI. As you can see, the smartphone market is at the peak of competition, with companies such as Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Microsoft, Xiaomi, and others constantly releasing new smartphone models with new features, functions, and OSes.
As such, smartphones have attracted the attention of consumers and become widely used because they are differentiated from regular phones in that they allow users to have more freedom and are smaller and more portable than PCs. And in the short history of the industry, various companies, including IBM, Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Xiaomi, and others, have competed with each other by continuously releasing better and more convenient products to reach the current level. As a result, smartphones have become the number one necessity for modern people in the 21st century.
The evolution of smartphones will not stop here. In the future, technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things will be added to smartphones to further revolutionize our lives. For example, artificial intelligence will allow smartphones to learn your habits and provide personalized services. Augmented reality technology will allow smartphones to create new experiences that merge the real and virtual worlds. Internet of Things technology will allow smartphones to connect with other devices to make our lives more convenient. As you can see, smartphones will continue to evolve and become deeply rooted in our lives.
In conclusion, smartphones have become more than just a means of communication, they have become an important tool that has changed our lives and opened up new possibilities. That’s why we’re excited to see what the future holds for smartphones.
