Topic : Smartphone

Research Question : Do the advantages of Smartphone outweigh the disadvantages?

1.0 ABSTRACT
This investigation explore whether Smartphone bring more advantages than
disadvantages. The examples of source used in this investigation are from research paper,
websites and newspaper articles. All the important information and points are taken from
each of the source that is related to my topic so as to complete this Issue Investigation
assignment. In this investigation, the advantage and disadvantages were discussed deeply.
One of the advantages of smartphone is about the using of the smartphone application by the
physician in medical field to improve health care. For the disadvantage, it is the cost of
smartphone which is quiet expensive when compared with regular cell phone. However, the
issue on the disadvantages do not show a serious problem. From this investigation it can be
concluded that smartphone is a highly developed device that can provide multifunction to the
user in order to ease the life.
(145 words)










2.0 INTRODUCTION
Smartphone is not a something new in the landscape of technology. It is the most
known device that one used by many people nowadays. The term Smartphone refers to
mobile phone that operated on a mobile Operating System (OS) such as iPhone OS,
BlackBerry OS and Android Os, a system which enable the phone to run the application
(apps) (Sarasohn-Khan 2010). A survey that has been conducted by Edison Research and
Arbitron shows that Smartphone user has increased to 44% last year. Some of Smartphone
ownership claimed that this device is necessary for all people in this modern world as it can
provide a wide variety of functions. In spite of the increasing of the Smartphones user, some
people however do not accept Smartphone as a necessity device due to some relevant reason.
This brings the question; do the advantages of Smartphone outweigh the disadvantages?

3.0 HISTORY
In 1993, the first Smartphone was developed by International Business Machines,
IBM. Simon Personal Communicator was the first model that was brought to the market as a
result of collaboration between IBM and BellSouth. A device with a combination of a cellular
phone and Personal Digital Assistant, PDA has brought Simon as a most advanced cell phone
at that time. Simon was able to send and receive facsimiles and e-mails. In addition, it
provided mobile apps and touch screen display with virtual keyboard. These made the Simon
quiet expensive which was around $899 (Sager 2012). About 20 years later, Apple inc.
introduced iPhone in 2007 which opened a new Smartphone era and consequently has led the
mobile phone manufacturer such as Samsung, Nokia and Sony to launch their brand
Smartphone.







4.0 ADVANTAGES OF SMARTPHONE
There are several main advantages of smartphone to the user. First of all, smartphones
have a capability to connect to the internet directly through the data network such as WIFI
and 3G. So, the users can access the internet everywhere they want at an appropriate time
(Woodcock et al. 2012). With the internet connection, it enables the user to do many things
with the smartphone such as send and receive email, pay bills and check the weather (Teagno
n.d ). The internet connection also allows the smartphones user to use social networking
apps like Facebook and Twitter as an alternative communication channel especially in
emergency situation. Recently, News Straits Times reported that a teenager from Thailand
has managed to escape from a prostitution syndicate in South Korea by using a social
networking to ask for help (BERNAMA 2013).

Next, the smartphone has a potential to enhance students learning. Even the number
of student who own this device increase rapidly, however a lot of student are still
unconscious of ability of Smartphone to support learning and they even do not install the
apps for learning purpose. From a survey, there are about 46.8% of student has declared to
use smartphone apps for learning purpose (Woodcock et al. 2012). In 2012, iTune Store
provided about 3400 apps for education (Hoffman 2012). Dropbox is one of the applications
that is available for student to share big documents like journal article and even to read them
by using smartphone instead of laptop (Gamboa 2013). Other than that, Carly Chuler, a
Cooney Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center claimed that there are more benefits of
mobile learning than the disadvantage. For instances, student can get more personalized
learning experience from mobile learning technologies (Hoffman 2012).

Another advantage of smartphone is that there are several advanced apps that can use
in medical field to improve health care. There are two main categories of smartphone
applications in health care industry which are Health apps and medical apps (Sutton & Fraser
2013). In January 2010, Apple Appstore provided more than 5085 medical, health and fitness
apps to the consumer. About 73% from that number were targeted for use by patient end-
users and the left of the number are provided to the healthcare professionals. For some
physician, they use the mobile application to get the drug and clinical references. One of the
mobile reference source apps that provided for smartphone is Epocarate, the first medical
apps for iPhone that allow the physicians to get drug references (Sarasohn-Khan 2010).

5.0 DISADVANTAGES OF SMARTPHONE
However, it cannot be avoided that there are several considerable drawback due to the
use of Smartphone. Firstly, the price of the smartphone is quiet expensive when compared
with basic mobile phone. Some of the smartphone can reach price over RM2000 for the
phone alone. For the users who have signed on a service contract with the cell phone carrier
company, they will get the smartphone at affordable price. However, there would be a fee
which can reach RM300 to be charged on the customer that terminates their contract before it
expires (Teagno n.d).

Furthermore, there will be an effect from LED screen to our sleep especially to those
who use a smartphone before bed. The sleep hormone called as melatonin which helps to
control the sleep cycle will stop to be produced from our body when responding to the light,
consequently disrupt sleep pattern (Reilly 2013). Professor Charles Czeisler, sleep expert,
added that the risk for getting chronic diseases in adult such as diabetes and heart disease will
increase due to the lack of duration of sleep.

6.0 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, there are many relevant reasons as why people should own a
smartphone. It is normal to find a pros and cons in a human creation. However, from this
research I have found that the advantages of Smartphone actually outweigh the
disadvantages. I believe that the disadvantage of smartphone is not a serious problem and it
could be avoided if the user can use the smartphone wisely and effectively. For the student in
Malaysia, the cost of the smartphone is not a big problem anymore because Malaysias
government has offered incentives such as RM200 rebate for Youth Communication
Package. So, this is a good chance for the student to own a smartphone. From my point of
view, Smartphone with highly developed technology and strong performance could really
help people in this modern world in many aspects.
(990words)