This is the view of Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter. Zara recently said: “Throughout the Olympic year we’ve been supporting Samsung, both in the run up and with the new phone.”

She was referring to the fact that Samsung is one of the major sponsors of this year’s Olympics. The Asian manufacturer is also expected to be releasing a new smartphone in the Galaxy range, namely the Galaxy SIII.

Ms Phillips added: “With apps you can find out everything now, but we’ve used a lot of video analysis and photographs, too. You can look back and see what you’ve done and how – so training-wise, everything is able to happen a lot more quickly.”

Ms Phillips, an Olympic equestrian rider, is not competing this year. Apparently she does not have a suitable horse. She believes her own sport has benefited tremendously with the take-up of digital technology.

In fact, she has become so enamoured with it that she signed up along with footballer David Beckham to act as Olympic Ambassadors representing Samsung.

Technology is now widespread in many sports. Hawkeye, for instance, has been used for many years in tennis to take the heat out of disputes over whether the ball landed on the line or not.

Football is similarly looking at this sort of technology to oversee goal scoring. This was brought home very recently when, despite one team ultimately losing, they were given a goal that, on later inspection, was clearly proven not to have crossed the line.

Ms Phillips believes technology, including mobile devices, is now also helping to save lives on the sports field.