A Picture Of The Smartphone Revolution

october 09, 2019

Source: Unsplash The explosion of the smartphone industry hasn’t just revolutionized the way we make phone calls—the steady rise in mobile phones sales over the last decade has made a splash in countless other industries as well. If you’re a gambler, you know that online casinos are booming, and that they’ve changed the land-based casino industry by bringing all the fun of a casino to your mobile device. According to Statista’s 2018 estimate, the value of the online gambling market that year was $56.05 billion, which had a big effect on traditional land-based casinos. That’s because a smartphone can be anything, including a casino, a shopping mall, a photography studio, a conference table. And that has changed everything. Look at the photography industry, for example. Do you remember your first camera phone? It was probably a little flip phone that took small, grainy pictures—nothing fancy. Compare that to today, when you can make a selfie look like it was taken in a photography studio. Changes like this, plus the user-friendly technology, on-the-fly editing, and ability to share to social media have left photography newbies and pros impressed. This trend has caused a wave of changes by making everyone a photographer and changing what they buy.

The best new smartphone cameras

The camera on the smartphone in your pocket is probably better than any beginner digital camera you could buy fifteen years ago. Smartphone camera quality is something that a lot of buyers are looking for in a new device, which means phone manufacturers have been competing to make the best new technology. Take the brand new iPhone 11, for example. It’s the first smartphone camera to have three lenses on its camera—telephoto, wide, and ultrawide. That means you can zoom way in, and you can zoom way out. You can even take high quality photos in low light with Night Mode. And when you’re done, you can use iPhone’s super simple built-in photo editing software and share it straight to Instagram. It also takes the highest-quality video of any smartphone ever, with amazing details and smooth motion. Prefer Android? You’ll be impressed there too. The Google Pixel 3 rivals iPhone with its high-def no-flash night shots, wide-angle group selfies, and a 12.2 MP rear camera and 8 MP front camera. Google also has an edge on image stabilization—so no more blurry photos. Plus, they’re always getting better. The next Pixel will be out soon and is promising even more photography features so Google can keep up with—or outrun—their rivals.

Making waves

Has this changed the camera industry? You bet. If you’re a casual photographer, there’s no reason to carry an extra camera with you if you have something as powerful as the iPhone 11 in your pocket. Whether you’re traveling, playing with your kids, or just taking a selfie, today’s smartphones pack as much punch as a full-feature digital camera, except you don’t have to carry around (or buy) two devices. A good smartphone can do it all. It’s possible that the rise of smartphones has been one of the reasons behind decreased point-and-shoot camera sales, though it’s hard to say. However, it is pretty clear that competition with smartphones is driving innovation in cameras as they try to keep up. Incorporating features like connectivity capabilities to share photos and geo-tagging for GPS data has helped some brands keep up. Some cameras, like the adventure-focused GoPro, allow an app on your phone to access the camera, but this integration isn’t common among other cameras yet. More innovations like these could keep attracting buyers to standalone cameras. It doesn’t seem like phone capabilities will catch up with higher-end cameras any time soon, so professional photographers aren’t ditching their SLRs for the newest iPhone. But for those of us who want to take group photos or capture special moments, a smartphone is a faster, lighter alternative to a point-and-shoot digital camera. Source: Unsplash

Changing our culture one snap at a time

According to an article by DigitalRev, it’s possible as many as 1.2 trillion photos were taken in 2017 alone. But…of what? The answer is pretty much everything. Since everyone with a smartphone can be a photographer, that means we’re sharing a lot more of our lives on social media. We don’t just see photos of vacations and special occasions anymore. We see everyone’s lunches, sunsets, outfits of the day, and workouts, whether we care or not. The upside, though, is that you can easily take pictures of anything you want…even if that means a thousand photos of your dog.

One device to do it all

We’ve seen the impact of technology, especially smartphone technology, in almost every part of our lives. You can use your phone to turn on your lights, order takeout, buy groceries, call a cab, and listen to music. Bored? Watch a movie, video chat a friend across the country, play your favorite game. This inter-connectivity has brought everything we want to the palm of our hands. That’s why it’s made such a huge difference for casinos, too. You no longer have to travel to get to the casino—which for some people even means going to another state or country. You don’t have to make a night of it if you just want to play one quick game, and you don’t have to limit yourself to a few tables and handful of slot machines. Online casinos and mobile gaming bring endless experiences straight to you, making the fun and excitement of the casino more accessible and hassle-free. And when luck strikes, you can snap the perfect smiling selfie to share the occasion with your friends…right from your smartphone.