In this blog post, we will look at the growth of the smartphone market and the key operating systems and core technologies that are driving it.
Our lives have undergone many changes as communication technology has advanced. Smartphones, in particular, are communication devices that have changed our lives the most in recent years. Smartphones are devices that make our lives more convenient through data communication and GPS, among other things. In particular, they allow us to perform various tasks through applications. In this article, I will focus on providing useful information for those considering purchasing a smartphone.
The prototype for the current form of the smartphone was created by Nokia of Finland. Nokia was the company with the largest share of the mobile phone market in 2004. However, Nokia decided that the smartphone it had developed would not be successful in the market and scrapped the plan. However, in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone based on the system of the previously released iPod touch, pioneering the smartphone market. Since then, various operating systems such as Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, and various smartphones such as the Galaxy S and Optimus have been released. In particular, Apple has pioneered and led the smartphone market by providing excellent performance while also valuing design, as Steve Jobs said, “Design is not just about appearance, but also about functionality.”
Smartphones are mainly divided into two categories based on their operating system. There are various operating systems such as Android, iOS, Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone, but currently, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android account for the largest share of the smartphone market. The two operating systems differ greatly in terms of openness and closedness. Android is a smartphone operating system based on Linux, a computer operating system. Linux is an open-source OS, so users can modify it to suit their needs. Android is also modifiable, and each manufacturer (Samsung, LG, etc.) modifies the operating system in its own way. On the other hand, iOS is a proprietary OS developed by Apple, and it is characterized by its closed nature. In particular, the closed nature of iOS is manifested through a program called iTunes. While Android allows for the transfer of files such as photos and documents via USB, iOS requires the transfer to be done via iTunes.
This openness and closedness each have their pros and cons. Apple’s iOS is only installed on its smartphones, so the types of devices are very limited. Therefore, it is easy to optimize the applications that run on each device. This can be a disadvantage in terms of market share, as only a small number of devices are released. On the other hand, Android is used by a wide range of smartphone manufacturers, so there is a wide variety of devices. However, even with the same OS version, the performance of the devices used is different, so there is a disadvantage in that applications need to be optimized for all types of devices. However, there is an advantage in that the market share can be greatly increased as smartphones of various sizes, performance, and prices are released.
In addition to the aforementioned points, there are other differences between the two operating systems. Android can be said to be an operating system for implementing a small PC. In particular, it tries to implement the multitasking of a PC as much as possible in a mobile environment. The problem with early Android was speed, and multitasking requires hardware performance to be supported, but early smartphones did not have this, which was a problem. On the other hand, iOS is an operating system designed from the beginning to be suitable for a mobile environment. When one application is running, the other application pauses for a while. iOS is an operating system that focuses on optimization, but the disadvantage is that you need a computer like a MacBook sold by Apple to develop applications. Also, Android, a latecomer, has fewer applications than iOS. This means that there are fewer applications available to users, but Android is quickly closing the gap thanks to the open nature of the OS.
Next, we will learn about the CPU, which plays an important role in smartphone performance. CPUs for computers are mainly manufactured by Intel and AMD. Until the recent advent of smartphones, CPUs for electronic devices were almost exclusively manufactured by Intel and AMD. However, these CPUs are installed in computers that are always powered on or in laptops with large batteries, so they have the disadvantages of consuming a lot of power and generating a lot of heat. To make laptops smaller, Intel created a CPU called ATOM, but it did not have much of an effect because it was basically based on a CPU for regular computers. However, a change began when a company called ARM announced a new low-power CPU design base. Companies that had not been able to grow significantly due to the overwhelming market share of Intel and AMD in the PC CPU market began to produce CPUs based on this design base. Currently, major companies that manufacture smartphone CPUs include NVIDIA, Texas Instruments (TI), Samsung, Apple, and Qualcomm, which have focused on developing graphics cards. Intel also used the ATOM CPU to manufacture small devices, but it has not been able to overcome its limitations and is currently only producing CPUs for netbooks.
Apple’s iPhone is equipped with a CPU developed in-house by Apple, and Samsung also uses its own CPU in its flagship models. Samsung and Apple’s CPUs are considered to be superior in performance to those of other smartphone CPUs. NVIDIA’s CPUs have been known for generating a lot of heat and consuming a lot of power since the company first developed graphics cards, and its early mobile CPUs were also known for this. Texas Instruments’ mobile CPUs are used in various smartphones because they can produce high efficiency with low power. However, Qualcomm’s CPUs account for the largest share of the smartphone CPU market. Qualcomm is a company that develops and produces communication module chips, and it produces one-chip solutions that enable communication and smartphone control with a single CPU. As a result, many manufacturers use Qualcomm’s CPU to reduce weight, thickness, and power consumption. In particular, Qualcomm’s CPU is optimized for simultaneous use of 4G LTE and 3G, so many 4G smartphones use Qualcomm’s CPU. However, Qualcomm’s CPUs released so far have been evaluated as being somewhat inferior to those of other companies in terms of performance.
Now, let’s take a look at the display that users see and touch the most. Recently, TVs have been changing from CRT to PDP, LCD, and LED. However, smartphones mainly use LCD and AMOLED. LCD is a method of expressing colors by changing the transmittance of liquid crystals according to changes in voltage. The disadvantage of this method is that the device cannot emit light by itself. Therefore, light is transmitted through the back of the device as a backlight to create color. Since color is created in this way, the power consumption is the same for each color. On the other hand, AMOLED can control light by embedding a thin-film transistor in each light-emitting device. This allows for the creation of sophisticated images, and when black is displayed, the power consumption can be reduced by turning off the light-emitting element. However, this is less than OLED, which is the basis of AMOLED, but not less than LCD. Also, the manufacturing process is difficult, so the production volume is insufficient. Samsung is leading the way in the development and production of AMOLED, and most of its smartphones use AMOLED. In particular, due to the complex manufacturing process, Samsung uses a pentalayer method instead of a RGB (red, green, blue) method to express one element. The pentalayer method leaves out the green color, which is the most sensitive color to the human body, of the three colors that should be in one element, and alternates the remaining red and blue colors. This method can reduce the device integration density and increase productivity. Also, Samsung’s AMOLED has the disadvantage of showing a slight yellowish tint when displaying white. To prevent this, blue pigments were added to the glass plate that protects the display, so that it appears white to the human eye.
Now, let’s take two representative smartphones as examples. One is the iPhone 15 Pro with iOS, and the other is the Galaxy S23 Ultra released by Samsung. These two models are the top-of-the-line models of the two operating systems that represent the smartphone market as of 2024. Comparing the performance of each smartphone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is equipped with a 3.36GHz octa-core CPU, 12GB RAM, and a 6.8-inch screen (3088×1440, Dynamic AMOLED 2X). On the other hand, the iPhone 15 Pro is equipped with a 3.78GHz 6-core CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 6.1-inch screen (2556×1179, Super Retina XDR OLED). When comparing the performance of the devices, the Galaxy S23 Ultra shows its strengths in multitasking and high-spec gaming through its high-performance specifications. On the other hand, the iPhone 15 Pro provides a stable and efficient user experience based on the optimized performance of iOS.
Now, users rarely experience any inconvenience with the operating system. Therefore, you can choose a smartphone based on your personal design preferences and operating system. The current smartphone market has endless potential for development and will become a large market that will replace the existing mobile phone market. Just as computers and the Internet have become an integral part of our lives, smartphones will also become an important device in our daily lives.
