I remember when cell phones where startinting to become popular, feature phones were the norm, with smartphones on the other hand being rare; relegated to business executives, government officials, or geeks with Blackberry being king. Now, smartphones are what most people have, with the market being ruled by iPhone and Android devices; with feature phones being few, and far between, so much so that its odd seeing them.
The transition took several years, so much so that the current state of affairs seems to be how things are supposed to be. While many of the predictions made didn't come to pass, or at least not as they were thought to unfold, it seems that smartphones will continue to be a part of our daily lives, even shaping how we live our lives and interact with people, but with business and governments.
My first smartphones was a Nokia E63, which I selected because I was already a big Nokia fan. Before that, my favorite Nokia device was the Nokia 6170. Now I'm using a Mobo MB520(link in Spanish), running Android 6.0, which I'm really digging.
Smartphones have really change how people communicate, and what our expectations on how to interact with the world around us should be. They have allowed us to share in ways that were hard to even imagine a decade ago; not only with people in our area, but with people around the world in real time.
They have enable us not only to consume content, but to create it. At the same time, it gives the chance to have a bigger say on the content we consume, and how we interact with it. They even give us the chance to decide when and how we do.
In many ways, smartphones have become a tool that allows us to share information that makes it easier to organize or change our communities in ways that weren't available to us before. Now information can be accessed in many ways, and can't be controlled all that easy by a central power.
While smartphones have had a big impact on society, their use is still evolving. It still be some time to say exactly how deep their impact will end up being, but it's safe that it won't be what most people imagine will be.
