In this blog post, we will look at when smartphones started to dominate our daily lives, their development process, and the impact they have had on our lifestyles.
On the morning commute, which is full of people, most people in the subway or bus in Korea have something in their hands. This is a smartphone, which can be easily found in the hands of people walking on the street. People are living their lives inseparable from their smartphones, using chat apps like KakaoTalk to communicate with friends, playing games like Anipang, and saving music downloaded from their computers to their smartphones to listen to. It has become commonplace to check news and the latest information that you missed while looking at your smartphone, and to communicate with others by recording your daily life and emotions on social media. This phenomenon of smartphones dominating our daily lives is sometimes referred to as “smartphone addiction.” When did smartphones start to dominate our lives? As the English name “smartphone” suggests, it means “smart phone.” Like a regular mobile phone, it has voice messages, text messages, and phone functions, as well as a platform and interface for application developers, and it can also access the Internet. Smartphones have now become more than just a tool for making calls and sending messages; they have become a key device that redefines people’s daily lives and lifestyles. This “small computer with a phone function” that allows you to check e-mail and read e-books is a smartphone. Nowadays, smartphones are constantly being released with more powerful processors, abundant memory, and larger screens to increase their competitiveness. However, it took quite a long time for smartphones to take on their current form.
Smartphones that have taken on their current form are called third-generation smartphones, while smartphones that have taken on the form of a phone but not the same form as today are called second-generation smartphones, and smartphones that have only added phone functions to PDAs are called first-generation smartphones. First-generation smartphones include the 2001 Samsung Comms’ Ruckus and CyberBank’s PC-EPhone. PDAs were a simplified and smaller version of the operating systems used on PCs, and mobile phones were simply phones that could be carried around. The significance of the first generation of smartphones was that they combined these two devices into one, and although the enormous potential of this first smartphone was foreseen at the time, it did not become very popular.
Second-generation smartphones had a more conventional design than first-generation smartphones. Although it was possible to purchase the sound of a ringing phone and wallpaper, there were limitations to using MP3 files and apps. Second-generation smartphones include CyberBank’s CB X30, LG’s KU2000, and HTC’s Touch Diamond. First-generation smartphones had to be connected to a PC to manage data such as schedules and contacts, but second-generation smartphones provided services that synchronized personal information without having to connect to a PC and services that provided real-time access to desired information. Second-generation smartphones were very popular among office workers because they could manage vast amounts of personal information and receive information quickly.
Third-generation smartphones are the smartphones that we know today, after the release of the iPhone by Apple. Now, we no longer approach smartphones from the perspective of PCs. Operating systems for smartphones have been created, and it has become possible to create apps for smartphones and share them with other users. This has gone beyond the role of a communication device and created a new digital ecosystem. The development of the app ecosystem has been coupled with the expansion of various industries, resulting in the expansion of smartphones into numerous fields such as education, finance, healthcare, and entertainment. This has led to the smartphone becoming an “essential everyday device” that provides personalized services and information. The first device to make this possible was the iPhone, and smartphone operating systems such as “Android” have been continuously developed based on the iPhone’s operating system “iOS.” In addition, all devices of the third generation of smartphones have been equipped with Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi functions, and also have MP3 and camera functions.
We have learned about the history of the smartphone that has dominated the lives of people in Korea. At one time, the smartphone, which was simply a combination of a PDA and a mobile phone, was shunned by people, but it became familiar to our lives with the advent of the third-generation smartphone. We are looking forward to seeing how the smartphone, which has better performance than a PC and is changing the way we live, will change our lives with the features it will have as the fourth and fifth generation of smartphones in the future. Smartphones of the fourth generation and beyond are expected to provide more functions beyond simply delivering digital information, such as real-time customized services through artificial intelligence and interworking with Internet of Things (IoT) devices. As a result, people will be able to lead more convenient and efficient lives in their daily lives through their smartphones.
