Like many things in mobile phone world, the term ‘smartphone’ is thrown around a lot.
We know they’re growing more popular by the minute – over a quarter of UK adults own one and 60% of them made the switch to a smartphone in the last year.*
But what’s so special about them and, more importantly, why would you want one?
It could be argued that a smartphone is so called because it does smart stuff. Most of us joined the mobile phone world when it was only possible to call and text. A smartphone allows you to do so much more, including:
- Browse the internet
- send and receive emails
- download and play music
- take high-quality photos and videos
- download applications, or ‘apps’, for business or pleasure.
A smartphone can be compared to a mini-computer because it features a lot of the stuff you find on your laptop or desktop computer:
- There’s an operating system that controls what you see and do on-screen
- there’s a web browser, where you can search for information and visit websites
- there are apps that allow you to stay constantly connected to your email accounts and social networking sites, download music, edit documents, play games, follow maps and much more
- there’s an easy-entry Qwerty keyboard for fast typing
- there’s the option to connect to Wi-Fi.
As for the biggest benefits of having a smartphone, we only need to look at how current owners are using theirs – the most popular activity is visiting social networking sites, followed closely by sending and receiving emails.*
But smartphones are getting smarter by the second. In the future, they could become the one-stop-shop for everything we need to do on a daily basis – the possibilities are endless.
*Figures released summer 2011. Source: Ofcom's annual Communications Market Report.
