In this blog post, we will look at how smartphones have evolved beyond simple phones to incorporate the functions of various electronic devices.
We are now in the “era of smartphones.” It is no longer an unusual sight to see people staring at small rectangular screens. In 2023, the smartphone penetration rate in South Korea is expected to reach 95%, the highest in the world. This means that 95% of the total population owns a smartphone.
Despite the tremendous popularity of smartphones, it is not easy to answer the question, “What is a smartphone?” Even English Wikipedia describes a smartphone as a mobile phone with “improved computing power and connectivity compared to feature phones.” What kind of device is a smartphone that has become so popular?
The first device to use the term “smartphone” was Ericsson’s GS88 model in 1997. However, the first commercialized device that closely resembled today’s smartphones was the PDA phone, which added a phone function to a PDA. A PDA is a portable computer with a relatively large touch screen. With the advent of PDA phones, mobile phones began to offer a variety of functions beyond just making calls, giving us a glimpse of the future of mobile phones. However, when PDA phones were first released, they were not widely popular due to slow communication speeds, poor portability, and high prices, and were only used by a select few.
The widespread use of smartphones today was undoubtedly led by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. Prior to their release, Nokia’s Symbian, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile led the smartphone market based on PDA phones. Nokia had the world’s leading position in the mobile phone industry, Research In Motion had a market share in the business sector with devices specialized for email, and Windows Mobile had a market share based on its interface similar to Windows.
However, with the release of the iPhone in 2007, the smartphone ecosystem underwent a major transformation. The iPhone, first released in January 2007, sold 3.3 million units in its first year alone. Unlike existing PDA phones, the iPhone reduced the degree of freedom in device usage, but succeeded in maximizing the user experience within that limited freedom. Unlike PDA phones, it presented a new paradigm of smartphones that were “smart but not difficult.” Around the same time, Google acquired Android, a smartphone platform company, and released the Android platform as open source without licensing fees, which was welcomed by telecommunications carriers and mobile phone manufacturers. This was because mobile phone manufacturers could use a well-made operating system with Google’s support for free. Telecommunications carriers also welcomed the sale of Android phones thanks to the revenue structure of the Android Market. This is because, while Apple’s App Store gives 70% of the revenue to application developers and 30% to Apple, the Android Market gives 70% to developers and 30% to telecommunications carriers. With their support, Android grew rapidly, exceeding 50% of the total smartphone market share in the second half of 2011, and according to the latest data from 2024, Android dominates the global mobile operating system market with a share of approximately 69.88%.
With the advent of the iPhone and Android, smartphones that “allow users to use various applications based on a unified operating system” have become widely recognized by most people today. Based on improved computing power and connectivity compared to feature phones, smartphones allow users to utilize various applications, and if such activities account for a major part of device usage, we can call these devices smartphones.
The use of these various applications has contributed significantly to the explosive popularity of smartphones. In addition to the basic functions of a telephone and computer, smartphones have hardware such as GPS sensors, gravity and acceleration sensors, and portability. Through a unified operating system and a combination of various applications, smartphones provide a comprehensive user experience that was previously only available on individual devices, demonstrating the convergence of devices. It can truly be called the advent of the “digital MacGyver.” As a result, the markets for MP3 players, navigation systems, PMPs, electronic dictionaries, and even portable game consoles and compact cameras are being eroded by smartphone sales.
The disruptive power of smartphones as convergence devices lies in their foundation as mobile phones. The global mobile phone penetration rate is estimated to be 68% as of 2023. This means that 54% of the world’s population owns a smartphone, and approximately 430 million people access the mobile Internet via their smartphones. In modern society, where everyone has at least one mobile phone, the impact is enormous because devices that were previously owned separately are now integrated into a single device. Before I joined the military, I used to carry an MP3 player, an electronic dictionary, a laptop, and a mobile phone, but now I only need a smartphone. In a short period of time, it has changed not only the landscape of the electronics market but also people’s lives.
So, what will be the next step in the evolution of smartphones, which are already converging into comprehensive devices? We can predict the future of smartphones by looking at the moves of market leaders such as Apple, Google, and Samsung.
Google is currently introducing its Google Wallet service on a trial basis. This service shows Google’s attempt to integrate two things that everyone needs, mobile phones and wallets, into a single system. It shows Google’s desire to make smartphones even more indispensable in people’s lives. Apple, on the other hand, is focusing on cloud computing. Siri, the voice recognition system for iPhones, does not process voice on the device itself, but uses a cloud service that processes voice input from the device at a data center in California. In addition, it has been 13 years since Apple acquired Dropbox, a cloud file system company, and launched its iCloud service. This shows Apple’s continued interest and investment in cloud computing. With the advancement of technology, unlike existing smartphones that focused only on the “consumption” of information, smartphones can now be said to be closer to the “production” of information based on delicately received input. Based on ever-advancing technology, the future of smartphones, which are moving beyond convergence devices and toward a more advanced direction, will be worth watching.
