Smartphones: The momentum is not diminishing and will continue to be popular

From a geek toy when it first came out to a portable item that everyone has now, smartphones have become an indispensable technological element in modern people's lives.

But even though the iPhone has gone through six generations, people's enthusiasm for smartphones has not diminished at all. Smartphones are still the most frequently updated electronic products for modern people, and the launch of new smartphones will inevitably occupy the headlines of major technology news.

A report released by market research firm IDC at the beginning of the year showed that global smartphone shipments exceeded 1 billion units for the first time in 2013, with the growth rate jumping to 39.2%. It is expected that the growth rate will remain as high as 19.3% in 2014.

Correspondingly, IDC predicts that global PC shipments will drop again by 6.1% in 2014. Even though PC has become a sunset industry in the eyes of everyone, tablet computers, which appeared after smartphones, also saw a 30% month-on-month drop in shipments in the first quarter of 2014. Among them, the sluggish performance of the best tablet computer, Apple iPad, is the main reason for the "Waterloo" of the entire industry.

The glory of the predecessors has become a thing of the past, and the successors are unable to catch up. So, after products such as smartphones are no longer unfamiliar to most people, what is the reason that enables them to maintain their long-term vitality in the market?

Smartphones are still the best smart products

The popularity of smartphones has triggered a fierce wave of intelligence. From wearable devices to household products, intelligent thinking has quickly spread to various industries related to the electronics field.

But looking back, Android Wear, which has only recently entered the public eye, is not enough to put smart wearable devices on the right track. Various smart TV products developed based on the Android system still have a long way to go in terms of games, application experience and human-computer interaction.

Tablet computers were indeed very popular at one time, but the differences in application development between Google and Apple's mobile platforms have led to an unbalanced development of "one dominant company" for a long time. Even for the Apple iPad, which has a dedicated system and program optimization, user demand is becoming less and less obvious in the face of increasingly "large" smartphones.

Mobile phone products are still the main battlefield of the two major smart operating systems. The gap between what we call Android and iOS is getting smaller and smaller, and the objects described are mostly smart phone products. This means that smart phones still maintain inherent advantages at the system and application levels that other smart products do not have.

On the other hand, smartphones are also the smart products that are most easily accepted by users. You don’t need a living room to accommodate a smart TV, nor do you need to be a sports enthusiast to use smart bracelet products. Smartphones have not only always been the focus of smart products, but also the smart devices that almost everyone can truly "use" in terms of functionality.

Android system has played an important role in lowering barriers and differentiation

In the eyes of most people, Apple's iPhone, which is equipped with iOS system, has always been the most "easy to use" smartphone. However, IDC statistics show that the average selling price of smartphones last year was US$335, which is much lower than the price of Apple's iPhone 5s or other flagship products. Among them, the free and open Android has obviously played an intuitive and important role.

The self-sufficiency of Apple's iOS and the immaturity of Microsoft's Windows Phone have made free Android the main choice for "non-Apple" smartphone manufacturers at all price points.

From the perspective of the domestic market, a well-configured Android smartphone can be purchased for less than a thousand yuan, which greatly reduces the production cost of smartphones and narrows the distance between smartphones and consumers. The lowering of system thresholds has also made it possible for Luo Yonghao, a "non-professional crosstalk performer", and Wang Zijian, a "professional crosstalk performer", to afford their own smartphone brands.

At the product level, the openness of Android also makes current smartphone products more differentiated, allowing more new ideas to be incorporated.

The development of mobile phone size will reach a bottleneck, and hardware parameters will become increasingly homogeneous and saturated, but countless new elements will still appear on Android smartphones.

From "triple-proof design", "ultra-sensitive touch" to "Hi-Fi sound effects" and "2K screen", Android has repeatedly become a testing ground for innovative technologies. Products with new technologies have also stimulated the smartphone market to move forward, ensuring that smartphones will not fade from consumers' sight.

Smartphones will still be the backbone of emerging fields

The maturity of intelligent technology has continuously expanded the scope of application of intelligent technology. The smart home industry is currently being promoted by major smart manufacturers. With Google and Apple collectively targeting smart home environments, traditional products including televisions will also become new carriers of new technologies.

In the new intelligent environment of the future, smartphones will also play a vital role.

Among existing smart home products, smartphones, which are lightweight, portable and have a variety of connection forms, have become an ideal choice for controllers, voice recognition devices and somatosensory peripherals. With the high integration of projects such as Android TV with future smartphone systems, the correlation between smartphones and other smart products will be highlighted again.

Today, we are more than seven years away from the revolutionary product of contemporary smartphones, Apple’s first generation iPhone. But what is foreseeable is that after several years of explosive development, not only has there been no “seven-year itch” between smartphones and their users, but it is very likely that they will continue to be popular in a more important product position in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.