Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of the mobile phone market. Sales figures from Gartner showed that their worldwide market share grew from 13.6% in the first quarter of 2009 to 17.3% twelve months later - with sales of over 54 million. According to a recent report by Futuresource Consulting, over one billion people will own a smartphone by 2013.
With a huge range of smartphones to choose from choice from, here are just a few things to consider...
Do You Need a Smartphone?
The first decision for consumers is whether they actually need a smartphone at all or if a normal mobile phone will be acceptable. Smartphones today are like pocket computers and there are some phones, such as the Samsung Jet, that seem like smartphones because they have touchscreens, fast processors and can access Web sites. But these phones have closed operating systems and don't allow you to download new apps.
Smartphones can be more expensive than normal mobile phones so how it's going to be used needs to be carefully considered. If the main use of the device is going to be for making phone calls or sending text messages, a smartphone isn't required and there are dozens of phones costing under £100 that will do the same thing. Most of the phones at that price are good MP3 music players as well and all but the very cheapest also have cameras. If photography is a top priority, phone sare available for less than £200 with an 8 megapixel camera with flash - even the Apple iPhone 4 only has a 5 megapixel camera.
If Web browsing or GPS are important, there are many normal mobile phones that are equipped with those features and some even have dedicated functionality for sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The advantage of a smartphone is that it's usually much quicker, has a higher resolution display, superior Web browsing and expandability. Expandability is particularly important with devices like the iPhone having access to over 300,000 apps, many of them free, which give you access to games, satnav, tools and more.
The Best Smartphone OS
Like a computer, there are several operating systems available and it's important for consumers to consider which is the right one for them. For example, an app purchased for a Blackberry can't later be moved to an iPhone and so any data stored in that app may not be transferable to a different smartphone. It's similar to moving from a PC to an Apple Mac.
Google's Android and Apple's iOS are the two most advanced smartphone operating systems at the moment. Android is an 'open source' OS that's used on phones from many manufacturers, including HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson and this is seen as a key advantage and offers greater choice to consumers.
Android mobiles are showing remarkable sales growth and the NPD group in America have reported that sales of Android mobiles surpassed sales of the iPhone in the US for the first time ever this year. Unlike the iPhone, Android smartphones can multitask.
Over 50,000 apps are available to purchase for Android smartphones, compared to more than 200,000 for the iPhone. BlackBerry smartphones use the company's own OS and also have access to apps, although nowhere near as many as for Android or iOS.
Which Smartphone Display?
There are several decisions to make here regarding touchscreens, keyboards and display quality.
Most smartphones have followed the lead of the Apple iPhone and use touchscreen displays. These are advantages to this technology but if email is going to be used a lot, a physical keyboard may be better. BlackBerry are the main company offering smartphones with keyboards.
There are several different types of touchscreens and the best smartphones, such as the iPhone, use multitouch technology that, for example, allows the user to pinch the screen to zoom into a Web page.
Screen resolution is also an important consideration, especially when viewing Web pages or photographs. The high-end BlackBerry Bold 9700 has a screen resolution of just 480 x 360 pixels (partly because it doesn't have a touchscreen) compared to the HTC Desire with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The iPhone 4 has four times the screen resolution of the iPhone 3GS.
Many smartphones still use LCD TFT screens, including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, but HTC Samsung also use higher quality AMOLED screens that provide much more vibrant colours and with less power consumption. The iPhone 4 uses a similar technology called Retinal Display
Music for Your Smartphone
All smartphones have music players but the iPhone can only play music from iTunes so consumers will need to import their music into that application if they currently have tracks stored elsewhere. Beware though because it can be difficult to export music out of iTunes into other players, especially if the tracks are purchased from iTunes as well. If the consumer already has a lot of music and playlists in iTunes, an iPhone may be a logical choice to buy.
iTunes playlists can also be used on BlackBerry smartphones using an application called BlackBerry Media Sync. It's not possible to do the same with any other smartphone. Users of Android smartphones can choose from a selection of different music players.
Other Considerations
Most smartphones today are equipped with both 3G and wi-fi but some, such as the low-cost BlackBerry Curve 8520, have wi-fi only. This is fine for normal phone operations but means that accessing Web sites or emails when away from a wireless network can be slow.
Battery life is another consideration as even medium use of a smartphone for Web browsing or GPS navigation can require users to recharge the battery every day. Several days of use can be squeezed ouf of the battery though if the phone is only infrequently used for calls or texting.
Finally, there's the speed of the phone. Many modern smartphones have processors of at least 800MHz and some are now even 1GHz. Speed is an important factor to consider and one that consumers should try for themselves when they trial a smartphone in a shop before buying.
If you are choosing to buy an iPhone, find out more information about both if you need help deciding if you should buy an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS.
Jason Glover - Jason Glover has worked in the marketing teams of major companies for over twenty years, including over ten years in online marketing ...
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