Smartphones

From wsuwiki

1 History
2 Outlook
3 Where Carriers Make a Difference
4 Flattening the World
5 Criticisms
6 External Links
7 References

History

Since the release of the iPhone by Apple in June 2007 the popularity of smartphones in the United States has skyrocketed. Named the 2007 Invention of the Year by TIME Magazine, the iPhone had a global marketshare of 33% as of March 2009. Once quite expensive and diffucult to obtain but now relatively inexpensive compared to other smartphones, the iPhone dominated the smartphone market with little signs of ever letting up. Other handset developers like RIM (BlackBerry), Nokia, Motorola, and Palm have all made their attempt at taking down the iPhone but little results have showed. The closest competition to Apple today is their biggest smartphone rival RIM. RIM made their attempts at dethroning Apple, most recently with the release of the Blackberry Storm2 on October 28th 2009. The Storm2 is a sequel to the original Storm, which was surrounded with tons of hype as being the "iPhone Killer," but less than satisfactory reviews sent RIM back to the drawing board immediately. The Storm2 is believed to be now what the first Storm wasn't, but even now Apple has such a strangle hold on the market that many people will still prefer to use Apple's product. Each year Apple seems to release a new version of their phone, each always being more successful than the last. The latest iPhone 3GS is available worldwide and is faster, better and believed to be the greatest iPhone yet.

Outlook

As mentioned earlier Apple currently owns 33% of the smartphone market in the world to date. However Blackberry controls 40% on the market, the largest of all smartphone manifacturers. Palm is currently the 3rd largest in the world at 7% after once trumping all with 36% in June 2006. RIM has high hopes for the success of the Storm2, but also is releasing the Curve2, Tour2 and Bold2 in the next few months.Competition is stiff with HTC releasing many popular smartphones as well as Nokia and Motorola.

Globally smartphones are looked to as the future. They enable users to essentially have a computer away from their computer. Because of syncing technologies they can send e-mails, retrieve documents, view photos, as well as countless other possibilities. Also with the growth of Application Centers, the possibilities for smartphones are almost endless. By using the smartphone as a platform it enables applications like Facebook, Twitter, as well as countless amounts of handheld games and tools. Smartphones are bridging the gap to bring all small eelctronics into one handheld device. For many years cell phones were just known for making and recieving calls, but now cameras, music players, and mobile browsing are almost the market standard.

Where Carriers Make a Difference

Even though smartphones are beoming more and more popular, one of their biggest criticisms is the expensive pricetag of not just the phone, but also the expensive data plans required for having such a phone. Depending on who the carrier is, some data plans range from $20-$40 a month and tend to include services such as GoogleMaps, mobile internet, and Application Centers. Apple current has the largest amount of Applications available with over 1 billion. Most other carriers are playing catchup and are slowly closing the gap. These apps alone are some of hte reason why Apple has been such a dominant smartphone.

Flattening the World

Because smartphones enable a user to do so much on the go. THis is the next level of flattening the world because it makes everything so much more accessible. As long as one has reception on their smartphone the possibilities are endless. They can open Google Latitude and locate their friends where ever they are in the world. They can always be reached because they are carrying their mobile phone, making them reachable by e-mail, phone calls, text messages and in some cases social networking sites and applications (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ect.)

Criticisms

One of the biggest criticisms for smartphones is their expensive prices, but the largest one would probably be how expensive it is to purchase the phones without renewing your plan. The iPhone is available for $200 with a two-year contract, but without one it's a steep $599. All carriers use similar tactics, not giving consumers a break unless they lock them down for at least two years.

Another major criticism would be how difficult it is to replace the phone, even with insurance charging monthly fees as well as deductibles up to $100 depending on the phone. iPhone screens are notorious for cracking since they are made of glass, and after a few drops many smartphones are rendered inoperable. Apple and Blackberry both also have problems specific to their own products

Apple - The biggest criticism for Apple's iPhone is that it freezes constantly forcing hard resets. AT&T users also experience problems receiving phone calls and as well as text and media messages, although not completely common, users are occasionally frustrated when such problems occur. Also the screen is made of glass and one drop could usually lead to a cracked screen, making use of the phone much more difficult.

Blackberry - Since they have multiple products, the problems really depend on the phone. WIth their touchscreens, they are criticized for have "clickable screens," but with their other handsets common problems are with the scroll ball as well as freezes. Whenever blackberry's freeze it's common for a user to make a "Blackberry battery pull" a common act to reset the phone, which usually fixes freezes as well as any other phone malfunctions that may be occuring.