How Smartphones Work?

How Smartphones Work

The Layers of a Smartphone  

Everyone has a smartphone, or so it seems. In fact, there were an estimated 1.4 billion smartphones in the world as of December 2013 . People are constantly talking on them, taking pictures, surfing the Internet and doing dozens of other things, including shopping for cars. Captain Kirk would be jealous.

At their core, smartphones, and all cell phones for that matter, are mini radios, sending and receiving radio signals. Cell phone networks are divided into specific areas called cells. Each cell has an antenna that receives cell phone signals. The antenna transmits signals just like a radio station, and your phone picks up those signals just as a radio does.

Smartphone Hardware and Software

   

As long as we're talking details, let's have a quick look at smartphone hardware.

Some smartphones run on processors. Along with processors, smartphones also have computer chips that provide functionality. Phones with cameras have high-resolution image sensors, just like digital cameras. Other chips support complex functions such as browsing the Internet, sharing multimedia files or playing music without placing too great a demand on the phone’s battery. Some manufacturers develop chips that integrate multiple functions to help reduce the overall cost (fewer chips produced per phone help offset production costs)

Smartphone Operating Systems

  

A man checks out the new Nokia Lumia 1020, which runs Windows Phone 8 and boasts a 41- megapixel camera, during London's Apps World exhibition in October 2013.

© PIERO CRUCIATTI/DEMOTIX/CORBIS

The most important software in any smartphone is its operating system (OS). An operating system manages the hardware and software resources of smartphones. Some platforms cover the entire range of the software stack. Others may only include the lower levels (typically the kernel and middle ware layers) and rely on additional software platforms to provide a user interface framework. We've added some snapshots of specific smartphone operating systems.

Designed primarily for touch-screen mobile devices, Android, or Droid, technology is the operating system that most mobile telephones used as of Comscore's February 2014 numbers. Developed by Google, most people consider the Droid technology revolutionary because its open source technology allows people to write program codes and applications for the operating system, which means Android is evolving constantly. Smartphone users can decide whether to download the applications. Moreover, Android operating systems can run multiple applications, allowing users to be multitasking mavens. And get this: Any hardware manufacturer is free to produce its own Android phone by using the operating system. In fact, many smartphone companies do just that. Android app’s store has hundreds of thousands of apps.

Flexible Interfaces

   

Bluetooth can link your phone to lots of different peripherals, including this Beets BLU heart rate monitor.

© FRANK DUENZL/DPA/CORBIS

The core services on smartphones all tie in to the idea of a multipurpose device that can effectively multitask. A user can watch a video, field a phone call, then return to the video after the call, all without closing each application. Or he or she can flip through the digital calendar and to-do list applications without interrupting the voice call. All of the data stored on the phone can be synchronized with outside applications or manipulated by third-party phone applications in numerous ways. Here are a few systems that smartphones support.

Bluetooth

This short-range radio service allows phones to wirelessly link up with each other and with other nearby devices that support it. Examples include printers, scanners, input devices, computers and headsets.

The Future of Smartphones

  

With data transmission rates reaching blistering speeds and the incorporation of WiFi technology, the sky is the limit on what smartphones can do. Possibly the most exciting thing about smartphone technology is that the field is still wide open. It's an idea that probably hasn't found its perfect, real-world implementation yet. Every crop of phones brings new designs and new interface ideas. No one developer or manufacturer has come up with the perfect shape, size or input method yet. The next "killer app" smartphone could look like a flip phone, a tablet PC, a candy bar or something no one has conceived of yet.

Perhaps the most challenging consideration for the future is security. Smartphones may be vulnerable to security breaches such as an Evil Twin attack. In one of these attacks, a hacker sets a server’s service identifier to that of a legitimate hotspot or network while simultaneously blocking traffic to the real server. When a user connects with the hacker’s server, information can be intercepted and security is compromised.