Smartphones
Most people in Singapore have smartphones these days therefore you are likely to have one. But
just in case you do not know what a smartphone is, I shall explain what it is.
Smartphones are mobile phones which operate on an operating system such as Google Android and
Apple iOS etc. iPhones including iPhone 3gs and iPhone 4 are widely bought in Singapore these days
and makes up 40 to 50 percent of the smartphones sold here. (Hian Hou, 2011) Smartphones have
the functions of a personal digital assistant and a normal phone. They usually have touchscreen, GPS
navigation and Wi-Fi. It is an essential lifestyle tool. Now, 90% of all the handsets sold here are
smartphones (Hian Hou, 2011) and about 40 percent of the more than seven million mobile phones
in use are smartphones. (Hian Hou, 2010)
I believe that a research study into the negative impacts of the smartphone to secondary 1 students
of Raffles Institution would raise awareness to the fact that smartphones are not as good as they
seem for students. It is highly relevant in the world today as we know it as increasingly amount of
students in Raffles Institution are getting smartphones. Now in 1J, more than half the class has
smartphones which they use frequently to play games. I think it is important that we reduce the
negative impacts to the students and persuade them to not use their smartphones for other
unrelated things so much.
1. Framing your research topic
a. Some problems in preventing students from using smartphones
i. Some students are already addicted to the games and it would be hard to persuade
them.
ii. Students might give in to their wants of playing the games.
iii. There will still be people who will not care about reducing their usage of not useful
smartphone applications.
b. Some solutions
i. We could reason with them during level meeting.
ii. We could convince parents during parent teacher meeting to make sure that their
children do not spend an excessive time on smartphones.
iii. We could organise campaigns in school to persuade students that smartphones are not
good for them.
c. Evaluating my solutions
i. This solution may actually work if there are people who can present and persuade well
and if we get the time to actually present to them.
ii. This solution would be hard to implement as not many students would want to talk to
parents about these topics hence there would be too few people persuading the parents
and the solution would be ineffective.
iii. This solution is probably the easiest and most practical to implement as it is easier to get
people to actually notice the effects instead of a one off talk.
2. Reasons for choice of topic
a. I chose this topic because recently there have been a lot of people with smartphones in my
class hence I wanted to find out how it affects them negatively.
b. With this topic, I can impact RI and maybe later on it will affect other schools too.
c. The benefit of choosing this topic is that information is very easily accessible as my target is
mainly my batch mates.
3. Feasibility of the project
a. There is a need for my project as there has been a sharp increase in the number of students
which have smartphones recently.
b. It will be possible to carry out and complete this project as it is mainly on RI year one
students.
c. I think my proposed course of action is logical and realistic as there are many opportunities
in RI to organise campaigns.
d. This project will provide many discussions due to the fact that smartphones are the in thing.
4. Manageability of the project
a. Tasks will be divided equally among group members so that no one is doing too much extra
or too little. The members will be given deadlines which are to be met
b. We have to come together to discuss survey questions and compiling answers.
c. I anticipate that some deadlines will not be met and we will have some time constrains. We
will do our best to give reasonable deadlines and we will remind the member to do their
part.
5. Accessibility of the information required
a. Areas of information are newspaper reports on similar topics on effects of smartphones.
b. We will obtain information from primary sources and analyze the information.
c. I have thought of going into the purposes of smartphones but it does not greatly impact the
society.
d. I anticipate that we will have nonsense replies in the survey.
References
Hian Hou, Chua. (2010, August 25). Singaporeans big on smartphones. The Straits Times , p. A7.
Hian Hou, Chua. (2011, April 19). HOOKED ON SMARTPHONES. The Straits Times, p. A10.
Appendix 1
Singaporeans big on smartphones
Section:
Prime - News
By:
CHUA HIAN HOU
Publication:
The Straits Times 25/08/2010
Page:
A7
No. of words:
654
Penetration rate of 40% is one of the world's highest
A LOVE affair with smartphones – especially those running Google's Android
software – has driven ownership rates of these devices in Singapore to one of the
world's highest.
Sales of smartphones began rising late last year. Consumers had been drawn to
the devices, which allow them to watch YouTube videos, get turn-by-turn driving
directions, download and play music and even play games in addition to making
phone calls and sending text messages.
Operators have helped drive demand by dangling heavily discounted handsets
and generous price plans. Consumers who sign up for StarHub's Smartsurf plans,
for instance, pay just $40 a month for voice, SMS and 12GB of mobile data.
The reason telcos are doing this, in spite of hefty handset subsidies and
significantly tighter margins compared to voice calls, is the belief that the higher
revenues (in spite of lower margins) consumers generate will pay off for them.
Now, about 40 per cent of the more than seven million mobile phones in use
aresmartphones.
According to telcos StarHub and M1, about 40 per cent of their four million
subscribers are using smartphones.
SingTel, the biggest mobile operator, would only say that half of its 1.65 million
post-paid customers use smartphones.
This is the first time Singapore's mobile operators have shared such statistics,
which put smartphone ownership rates here at one of the highest globally.
In the United States, for instance, smartphone penetration stood at just 27 per
cent as of June, according to a report by market research firm The Nielsen
Company.
According to another research firm, TNS, smartphone penetration globally is at 23
per cent.
Analyst group Frost & Sullivan's industry manager Marc Einstein believes that
withsmartphones flying off the shelves – between 70 and 80 per cent of new
handsets sold here are smartphones – penetration rates could cross the 50 per
cent mark by year-end.
Undergraduate Cyril Tan, for instance, decided to splurge on an Apple iPhone 3GS
earlier this year after his three-year-old Nokia finally broke down.
"I decided it was time... all my friends are using smartphones now, surfing the
Internet, updating Facebook, playing games, watching YouTube. It's an essential
lifestyle tool."
While the telcos would not say what Singapore's best-selling handsets are,
industry sources say Nokia and BlackBerry handsets make up the bulk
of smartphones in use currently.
The rise of the Apple iPhone and more recently handsets running Google phone
software like the Samsung Galaxy S, however, could change this soon.
Earlier this month, StarHub's chief executive Neil Montefiore said at a media
briefing that Google handset sales grew the fastest in the three months to June, and are likely to
continue surging.
Google has partnerships with multiple phone makers, from HTC to Motorola and
Samsung.
In the light of this, it is possible that Google could potentially surpass its rivals'
market share by year-end, said Mr Einstein.
While iPhones have been a perennial best-seller, the handsets are relatively
pricier, said Mr Montefiore.
Both StarHub and M1 executives also said several weeks ago that sales of older
iPhone models had fallen as consumers held out for the recently launched iPhone
4 – which sold out within two days of its launch last month but has since been
restocked.
The rise of smartphones does not mean the end of lower-end phones, at least for
now, noted Mr Einstein.
There are many people who do not need such handsets, from foreign workers and
domestic helpers to younger students and the less tech-savvy.
He added, however, that within the next five years, even these people will be
usingsmartphones.
He said this was because features found only in today's hightech smartphones will make their way into throwaway entry-level handsets, the
same way digital cameras first appeared in high-end phones but are a default
feature on all handsets now.
chuahh@sph.com.sg
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Appendix 2
HOOKED ON SMARTPHONES
Section:
Prime - News
By:
CHUA HIAN HOU
Publication:
The Straits Times 19/04/2011
Page:
A10
No. of words: 564
They make up 90% of all handsets sold in Singapore, compared to 20% globally
BY CHUA HIAN HOU
TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPOREANS' love affair with the smartphone has hit new heights.
These do-everything gadgets, which enable their users to check e-mail, consult
road maps and play 3-D games on the move, now make up 90 per cent of all
handsets sold here.
Just six months ago, the figure was 80 per cent, making tech-mad Singaporeans
among the world's most ardent fans of these mobile computers, which pack in
advanced computer processors, generous memory and touchscreen displays.
Globally, smartphones account for only 20 per cent of new-phone sales, far
behind that for lower-end type cellphones, said research firm Gartner.
Smartphones are popular here because of the maturity of the Singapore
consumer market, said regional account director for telecommunications Gerard
Tan of research firm GfK.
"With Singapore being the most developed country in South-east Asia, its rate of
smartphone adoption will tend to rise faster than in less-developed countries," he
said.
Among the dozens of smartphone models available, the grand-daddy of them all
is the Apple iPhone, which, despite its hefty price tag, has trumped other brands
in popularity for several years now.
A senior telco industry executive, speaking anonymously because of Apple's strict
non-disclosure agreements with telcos, said the two iPhone models now available,
the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, command a 40 per cent to 50 per cent market share
among newsmartphones.
Singaporeans love their iPhones so much that the island has come to be
nicknamed "iPhone nation" in regional telecommunications circles.
Smartphones using Google's Android software are also doing well, said Mr Tan.
He estimates that sales of Android smartphones, made by companies like
Samsung, HTC and Motorola, have grown tenfold from a year ago and will
continue to do well here.
"Major manufacturers have been launching a variety of new smartphone models
on Android since early last year; the strong push from these major brands has
inevitably helped to increase the take-up of Android smartphones in South-east
Asia," he said.
Despite the trend towards smartphones, however, lower-end, no-frills handsets
are in no danger of extinction.
These phones, which the industry calls "feature phones", do little more than make
calls and send and receive text messages, but are beloved by many die-hard users
despite their inability to run applications for games, maps and other capabilities.
At a briefing last week, M1's chief executive Karen Kooi said that 10 per cent of
cellphone users "will never, ever switch over to smartphones".
Take administrative assistant Yvonne Lim, 42, for example. When she
recontracted her cellphone account in January, she received a new smartphone
for free. "But I couldn't get used to it, especially the touchscreen and the need to
keep charging the battery," she said.
Smartphones, with their more powerful chips and power-hungry touchscreen
displays, generally run down on juice in a day on a full charge. Feature phones, by
contrast, can run as long as five days before they need to be recharged.
Ms Lim said: "In the end, I went back to my old phone, which I was quite happy
with anyway."
The smartphone is now used by her delighted teenage nephew.
chuahh@sph.com.sg
www.facebook.com/hianhou
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