The media says “smart” is this year’s keyword. It is interested in “smart” functional products like smart phones and TVs. Also our lives heavily depend on the concept “smart.” Many companies are producing lots of “smart” products represented by smart phones and smart TVs. I will introduce the important functions of “smart” products.

In general, “smart” means clever or clear in appearance. Recently, the word means intelligent and having information processing ability. In other words, when things have advanced information processing ability that previous general products could not have in the past, we use the word “smart.” Nowadays, smart phones and smart TVs are the most famous smart products.

The smart phone is popular with consumers because of applications and Wi-Fi. General cellular phones can use the Internet, but they have low speed and consumers have to pay expensive fees. However, smart phones use Wi-Fi (wireless lan), so smart phone users use fast Internet and they pay cheap fees.

In addition, smart phones have many applications. Smart phone users can use Wi-Fi in any area where a radio access network is installed, and use many applications like navigation, maps, Nate, and Cacao Talk. Consumers also use many Internet contents like SNS (Social Network Services), entertainment, securities, news, and travel information with smart phones. The application named Cacao Talk is used by about 10 million people in Korea. This application is a kind of free communication application like computer messenger.

Recently, Samsung has started selling the Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S2 has a 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Because of this, users can use applications and surf the Internet at faster speeds. In addition, the Galaxy S2 has the Super AMOLED Plus screen. Because of this, Galaxy S2 users use higher resolution screens than the previous Galaxy phone. In addition, it weighs only 121g. Apple has started selling the iPad2. The iPad2 is 15% lighter than the iPad1, and it is roughly 30% thinner than the iPad1. Also, the iPad2 adopted a dual-core A5 chip. This means the iPad2 can work at double the speed of the iPad1. In other words, it has very fast processing speed. Like this, smart products will become lighter and faster with innovative technology.

Many companies are producing smart TVs. Smart TVs have all the functions of a TV and a PC together. Through smart TVs, we can watch programs downloaded from the Internet immediately and use weather information, e-mail, and news.

Because of the useful functions, consumers will be fanatical about smart products. Many companies like Samsung and Apple will develop smart products which have innovative technology. The companies which are producing smart products are changing modern society into a more comfortable and convenient world. If we adopt smart functions and technologies, we can experience a more comfortable and advanced world.