A friend had a great question for me. She wanted to know what the difference between a smartphone and a dumbphone is. Well, a good old flip phone that just does calls and texts certainly isn’t a dumb device. These little wonders changed the way we communicated. A smartphone just happens to be a little bit smarter.
A smartphone is a small computer that runs an app that makes phone calls. It also has a SIM card installed and that allows you to assign a phone number to the device so you can make and receive telephone calls to other phone and to landlines.
Without that SIM card, you would only be able to communicate with users who have certain apps installed on their phones and you wouldn’t be able to contact folks via a traditional landline.
The smartphone revolution was launched by the iPhone nearly 10 years ago. What really changed the game was the introduction of the touchscreen interface. Without the need for a mouse or keyboard, users were able to easily operate programs on their device. These programs are referred to as apps. These apps turn your phone into an Internet appliance that can browse the web and send and receive email. Thanks to 3G and 4G connections and the availability of data plans, users can access and transfer rather large files easily. And you can also connect your phone to WiFi.
Users can also play games, play music, and stream videos. As time as gone by features like eReader apps have been added. Not to mention the development of mobile versions of desktop programs like Office.
Arguably the most popular feature of smartphones is the camera. The cameras you find in smartphones are comparable to a good point and shoot camera.
As you’ve probably noticed, smartphones are very expensive. That’s because they’re pretty fast, fairly sophisticated computers that fit in your pocket. And that means that sometimes the are a bit more complicated to use than early versions of the cell phone.
I hope this explanation helps.