Look at You, Smartphones: Over 1 Billion Shipped

The smartphone has reached a milestone in its march to ubiquity: More than a billion of the gadgets shipped in 2013 – up some 275 million phones from 2012 and more than 500 million from 2011 – International Data Corporation (IDC) reported this week.

Samsung reigned supreme, shipping more than 313 million smartphones in 2013, according to IDC, with Apple shipping about half that. Coming in third was Huawei, which sent off nearly 49 million smartphones.

Demand for smartphones is being fueled by larger screens and lower prices, says IDC’s Ryan Reith.

"Of the two, I have to say that low cost is the key difference maker,” he says. “Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments, bringing a solid computing experience to the hands of many.”

So, in honor of the device we love so dearly and its momentous accomplishment, check out these tidbits of smartphone trivia:

The First Smartphone: IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator hit the market in 1994 before being yanked just six months later – though, during that time, it did score a role in The Net alongside Sandra Bullock! About 50,000 units were sold. Simon weighed more than a pound and featured a touchscreen with icons used for accessing email, calendar and a game, among other features. Read more on Simon here.

110 Times a Day: The average smartphone user unlocks his or her smartphone between 110 and 150 times a day, depending on which survey you go with, All Tech Considered reports. On the high end, some users checked their phones 900 times in 12 hours. According to a survey by app maker Locket, people check their phones most between 5 and 8 p.m. EST, when users check their phones nine times per hour.

Smartphone Hangover: A new Michigan State University study found that people who used their smartphones for work after 9 p.m. were more tired and less alert than those who didn’t. "Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening,” MSU professor Russell Johnson told The Telegraph. “They make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep." When it comes to disrupting sleep, smartphones were even worse than watching TV and using a tablet, according to the study.

Russian Prison App: Last March, Russia’s prison administration debuted a smartphone app for sending messages from the outside to inmates. The handy dandy FSIN Pismo app – supported by both iOS and Android! – lets users send a message to an inmate for just 30 rubles (about a buck, American). Messages, which can include photos, are censored before being made available to inmates.

In the Shower: 12 percent of adult smartphone owners use the gadgets in the shower, according to a Harris Interactive poll commissioned by tech firm Jumio. Where else are American adults using their smartphones?

• While driving: 55%
• In a movie theater: 35%
• On a dinner date: 33%
• At a child’s school function: 32%
• At church: 19%