Benjamin Balster

        As smartphone sales continue to rise, the utility provided by these multi-purpose electronics have pushed a multitude of industries into decline.

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        Everything from communication, time, photography, travel, entertainment, and information, can all be done with a smartphone, and the versatility of these devices have influenced the sale of countless industries.

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        Four main industries are directly affected by the rise of smartphones: watches, camera, pagers, and GPS.

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        Sam Hosmer, a junior, said:  “I used to wear a watch, but when I lost it, I didn’t have any reason to get another one. Taking my phone out of my pocket and checking the time only takes a fraction of a second longer than checking a watch.”

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        According to Credit Suisse (a financial services company), the high-quality Rolex, Omega, and Swatch Swiss watch brands dominated the market in the early 2000s and were growing steadily, but after the release of the iPhone in 2007, this growth slowed. As smartphones became connected to the World Clock, their accuracy replaced the need for wristwatches in daily life.

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        All over the economy, the influx of mobile device utility has eroded the sales of the affected companies.

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        According to The New York Times, Google, Apple, Samsung, and Nokia’s free GPS mapping systems have outstripped Garmin, TomTom, and Mitac International. At the same time, instant messaging and the very idea of a cell phone has all but destroyed the use of pagers for communication.

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        However, from a consumer standpoint, phones have made time-telling, picture-taking, traveling, and communication all the more convenient.

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        “As a consumer, I’m going to purchase the cheapest and most efficient option; there is no incentive to lug around four plus devices made obsolete by what I carry in my pocket,” Hosmer said.

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        As for photography, built-in smartphone cameras have improved rapidly, complementing the increased use of picture sharing on social media. By 2010, the quality of smartphone cameras rivaled that of standalone digital cameras, and the camera industry’s growth in the early 2000s was reversed and the industry has been in decline since, according to the Camera and Imaging Products Association.

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        “With the rate that phone cameras are improving, the line between camera and phone has completely blurred now,” said Leon Tan, a junior. “In most cases, if you put an image from a top-of-the-line smartphone and an image from a DSLR camera [digital single-lens reflex camera; a higher-end camera model], you can barely tell the difference, and sometimes, the phone might even look better.”

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        For the average consumer, the increase in picture quality that professional cameras bring may not justify the difference in cost and utility from smartphones.

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        Tan said: “These days, a mid-range camera is $1000, and an iPhone X is $1000. A phone is not meant to replace a camera, but with the phone, you are texting, calling, playing games, consuming news, and using social media. Meanwhile the camera only serves one purpose; the phone just has so much more value.”

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        The smartphone industry has exploded within the past seven years, with smartphone sales in 2016 around 1.5 billion according to Gartner, changing the trends in technological use and making a number of industries obsolete.

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        David Wu, a general partner for Maveron (a consumer venture capital firm that invests in technology start-ups), said, “Every few decades, there is a tectonic change in technology that alters how people use technology.”

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        Telegrams, phones, personal computers (PCs), the World Wide Web, laptops, and smartphones are all examples of such technological changes. Each innovation had a profound effect on society and how society incorporated technology into daily life.