Smartphones, as the name signifies, are smarter variants of the ordinary mobile phone.
Though smartphone sales are negligible as compared to sales of feature phones, these devices are gradually gaining in popularity.
Some attribute it to the features while others see their utility as the major reason behind the success of smartphones.
Smartphones have evolved over the years. Smartphones that we see today are the evolved and improved versions of the smartphones of the past.
Some technologies and features have been milestones and have worked as catalysts in boosting the popularity of smartphones. These technologies can also be considered rightly as game changers for smartphones.
Qwerty keypads
Who would have thought that a discovery dating back to 1878, which was meant for simplifying newspaper production, would one day become a critical part of our day to day lives. QWERTY keypads have dedicated keys, thus simplifying typing and making it quicker too.
Today, most feature phones and all smartphones carry a Qwerty keypad, either in a physical or a virtual format. Qwerty keypads are preferred by most users over multitap keypads, which are sure to be eliminated very soon.
Wire free data connectivity
Old time smartphones don’t look very different from today’s feature phones. Earlier, everything was dependent on wires, whether they were hands free communication kits or data sync and connectivity connections. Their dependence on wires made it difficult for users to stay updated all the time.
The advent of technologies such as Bluetooth and Wifi have given people much needed flexibility and freedom.
Nowadays, smartphones can easily connect to any available wireless network, be it a mobile GPRS based network or an available Wifi network for faster data transfer. With Bluetooth 3.0 in the offing, and being likely to be included in smartphones soon, the need for wires for transferring large volumes of data will become redundant as well.
Capacitive touchscreens
Before the invention of touchscreens, who would have thought that people would one day be able to control devices with a simple touch. Well, with the inclusion of touchscreens in smartphones many things have become a lot simpler. Now, all that users need to do is touch the relevant icon on the screen and get the job done.
Capacitive touchscreens made the experience a smoother affair. With features like pinch to zoom and swipe, users can get their work done even faster.
Standardised ports
For a very long time there has been a fight between various smartphone and feature phone manufacturers on the standardisation of connectivity ports, and the results are visible now.
These days almost every feature phone and smartphone uses a 3.5 mm connector for audio and a mini USB port for data transfer, connectivity and charging.
Standardised ports must replace dedicated chargers and cables. With standardisation, any charger, connectivity cable and even headphone/handsfree kit can be used for any device.
Google Android
What finally changed the face of smartphones is Google’s Android mobile operating system, which has been adopted faster than any mobile platform.
Andy Rubin, vice president of Google, had said in his tweet sometime that Google activates 300,000 Android phones every day. Despite having its fair share of doubters, Android is fast emerging the big player in the mobile space.
The reasons for Android’s popularity are numerous. The biggest is the free nature of this operating system, which leads to faster adoption by both smartphone manufacturers and application developers. Google Android, therefore, has become the number one mobile operating system.