Remember the days when phones were so large, you needed biceps like Arnold Schwarzenegger to lift them? Well, let's rewind to those good ol' days and take a hilarious roller-coaster ride through the history of smartphones - from humble beginnings to pocket-sized geniuses!
Before the history lesson, though, let us have a brief explanation of what smartphones are, and the importance of smartphones in our daily lives.
What on Earth are Smartphones?
Okay, let's break it down for those who've been living in a cave. A smartphone is like a mini computer that fits in your pocket and does everything except make you a sandwich. Seriously, these little wonders have morphed from mere communication devices to our personal assistants, entertainment hubs, and social connectors.
Why Smartphones Are Basically Our BFFs
Let's face it, smartphones are the real MVPs (most valuable players) of our lives. They wake us up with peppy alarms, guide us through the day with GPS, and store more photos than a gramps' album. We've even replaced our wallets with them. Sorry old-school fiber wallet, but you've been replaced by a touchscreen.
Fun Fact: Studies show that people are more likely to forget their anniversary than their smartphone. Priorities, right?
Here are some of the ways in which smartphones, which you can call smaller sized computers, make our day-to-day lives easier:
Internet Connectivity
With the World-Wide Web at your fingertips, you are never more than a few taps away from your family, friends, and business contacts via social media, emails, and other online means. These online means of connectivity are less intrusive, typically cheaper, and more extensive and featureful than the conventional phone calls and texting, though of course, the latter are also available should you need or prefer them.
Besides providing the opportunity to connect to the people all over the world, your smartphone opens up the ocean of information before you. You just need to dive in and scout for the bits you want.
Entertainment
How about a movie while on the go? Or, if the journey is a short one, how about some cool, soothing music with the headsets or the earphones on? Well, the smartphones make all that a piece of cake, without you having to lug around a laptop.
And not to forget about the games, camera pictures and recordings, and the plethora of cool mobile apps for all sorts of things imaginable.
Business And Finance
It goes without saying that the smartphones are immensely useful for and popular with the business people. Using these little wonders, the colleagues and the bosses and the employees can collaborate on all kinds of projects. They can also receive the latest statistics and data in real time, and act on them to maximize their efficiency and productivity.
The online financial transaction has revolutionized the way the merchants receive payments from the customers; and the smartphones allow people to make payments safely and securely anywhere and at any time, without having to carry those wads of cash everywhere.
And There is So Much More!
Equipped with the increasingly faster processors and larger memories, the smartphones can get your job done very efficiently. And with every new generation of smartphones, there seems to be fewer and fewer jobs that you cannot relegate to your smartphone.
You can take a picture or make a video while on the go, or when you need some kind of visual evidence. (Taking the picture of an important document once saved me from a big hassle when the paper document itself got wet due to the heavy rain later.)
You can take your books in the digital form along with you wherever you go. You can keep a backup of the important data on your smartphone, you can book a cab through your smartphone, you can order food, you can get driving and walking directions to your destination, you can send your location to someone in case of an emergency, you can tell your smart home devices to be ready to receive you (say, turn the heater on) when you're about to reach home, you can measure your heart rate or the number of steps you walked…. The list is endless.
The Jurassic Brick Age
Back in the day, a "mobile phone" was basically a euphemism for a cinder block with an antenna. You needed a gym membership just to carry it around. People gazed in awe as these early pioneers demonstrated their bicep curls while chatting.
Fun Fact: The world's first commercially available mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, weighed a whopping 2.2 pounds (that is about 1 kg)! Talk about a workout and a phone call in one.
In fact, Eric Tigerstedt (1887 - 1925) invented the mobile phone, for which he filed his patent in 1917, wherein the device was described as "pocket-size folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". From the 1918 onward, the wireless telephony was deployed first on the military trains and then on the other trains. In the 1940s, telephone companies manufactured the mobile telephones for the automobiles. In the second world war (1939 - 1945), the radio telephones were used by the military.
However, up to 1973, the mobile phones were only used in the automobiles. Then, Motorola became the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On the 3rd April, 1973, Martin Cooper, a researcher at Motorola, made the first mobile telephone call from a prototype of the handheld mobile telephone. This prototype weighed 4.4 lb (about 2 kg). It was called "the brick".
The earlier mobile devices, by whatever names they were known, were unwieldy as they had large size and great weight. They needed large amount of power to operate. For example, the prototype mentioned above took 10 hours to recharge and its talk time was 30 minutes. The efforts were on to make these devices smaller and lighter.
At the same time, the advancements in the telecommunication network technologies were also underway. In 1979, Japan introduced the commercial use of the cellular network, whereupon the more general use of the mobile telephones became feasible. In October 1983, Motorola released the DynaTAC 8000X, pictured above - the first commercially available mobile phone.
The PDAs
While the mobile telephone devices assisted us in communicating with the other people, another kind of handheld mobile devices, called the PDA (personal digital assistant), helped us with the personal information organization and management. PDAs typically included features like a calculator, a calendar, a text editor, an address book, and audio capabilities (so as to be used as a portable music player). Later on, the PDAs gained the Internet connectivity and also featured the relevant tools like a Web browser and an email program. Other features like memory card slot, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, touchscreen, etc also came in with time.
The first PDA was named Organiser, and was released by Psion in 1984. In 1986, Organiser II was launched, which had more memory and better screen. In September 1991, the Psion Series 3 was released, which was a hit among the general population, and actually looked like the PDAs that we are more familiar with.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
The term "PDA" was coined by John Sculley, CEO, Apple Inc., on the 7th January, 1992 in reference to Apple Newton (a series of PDAs developed by Apple) in his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Unlike the early mobile telephone devices, PDAs were more like computers; they had a visual display and keyboard for typing text, and they were geared toward the business use.
Enter the Smartphone
The smartphone was conceived as a combination of the mobile telephone and the PDA. It was a PDA with the cellular telephony, or a mobile telephone with the personal information organization and management capabilities. Let us have a look at some of the pioneers in the smartphone world.
The OG (original gangster) Smartphone: IBM Simon
Let's take a time-travel jaunt back to 1994 when the term "smartphone" was as rare as a unicorn in a raincoat. Enter the IBM Simon, the granddaddy of all smartphones. This baby had the guts of a pager, the soul of a computer, and the looks that screamed "futuristic". It was named IBM Simon Personal Communicator, and has been called the first smartphone, even though the term "smartphone" was coined in 1995.
Fun Fact: The IBM Simon had a stylus that was probably longer than your attention span in a meeting. You could tap on its pixelated LCD screen to make calls, send faxes and emails, and even play the most basic games. The future was here, and it was pixelicious!
Nokia 9000 Communicator: Hello, Workaholics!
Ah, the Nokia 9000 Communicator - the phone that shouted "I'm here to get business done" in a room full of flip phones. Released in 1996, this beast was like the Gordon Ramsay of smartphones - all business, no nonsense. Released on the 15th August, 1996, it was the first in Nokia's Communication series.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Imagine opening a phone to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and a screen (640×200 px) bigger than some modern watches. You could send emails, faxes, and texts while your friends were still struggling with T9 predictive texting. It was like a power move, every time you opened that bad boy. It featured Web browsing, wireless imaging (digital camera connectivity), and many other applications, along with the common PDA tidbits.
Ericsson R380: Flip Meets Screen
Fast forward to the late '90s, and Ericsson decided to throw a plot twist into the smartphone saga. They introduced the R380 on the 18th March, 1999, and released it in November 2000. The R380 was like a fancy clamshell phone but with a touchscreen. It was like a love child of a phone and a laptop screen.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
The operating system powering the R380 was EPOC Release 5, which was renamed Symbian OS at the next release, thereby making the R380 the first phone powered by Symbian.
Quirky Trivia: The R380 was the world's first device to be officially called a "smartphone", after the term had been coined. But just like a Hollywood starlet, it was ahead of its time and didn't get the attention it deserved. Don't worry, R380, we see you now!
These are the (very) short stories of the trailblazers that paved the way for the smartphone revolution. From the IBM Simon's "brick in your pocket" chic to the Nokia 9000 Communicator's business bravado and the Ericsson R380's touchscreen flip, these devices laid the foundation for the pocket-sized wonders we're addicted to today. So let's raise a pixelated toast to the past, the present, and the never-ending pursuit of smaller, smarter, and ridiculously cooler gadgets!
The Keyboard Tango
Ah, the era of physical keyboards! Manufacturers realized that we didn't just want to talk, we wanted to type - with a satisfying clickety-clack. BlackBerry (from RIM - Research in Motion) ruled the roost, and "CrackBerry" became a legitimate term (so named because of the BlackBerry's addictive nature). The world was divided between QWERTY and ABCDEF keyboards.
Trivia: The BlackBerry 850, released on the 19th January, 1999, was the first device to use the term "smartphone". It was like the James Bond of phones - suave and sophisticated.
Slowly, the smartphones began to feature a physical QWERTY keyboard, and by the mid-2000s, a majority had those.
Touchscreen Twirl: The Game-Changer iPhone
Then came the touchscreen revolution, and it was like phones were practicing Tai Chi. With the iPhone's grand entrance (Apple introduced iPhone in January 2007, and released it in the US on the 29th June, 2007), suddenly, tapping and swiping were all the rage. It was like watching a magic show every time someone pinched to zoom.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Fun Fact: Apple's first iPhone (the iPhone 2G) had less RAM (Random Access Memory) than a mongoose's musceles - just 128 MB! Yet, it managed to change the world. Who needs memory when you've got style, right?
The first iPhone had few hardware buttons, unlike the other smartphones of its time. The user interaction was mainly through its touchscreen. It supported the GPRS data standard and the EDGE technology for data transfer over a 2G connection. It sported an aluminum back cover, a 320×480 px LCD screen (which had multi-touch and twice the resolution of most of the contemporary competing smartphones), and a 2 MP (megapixel) rear camera.
The iPhone attracted the general public, unlike its competitors that appealed to the business class. It revolutionized the smartphone industry and, later on, its other editions made Apple the world's most profitable company. Having a powerful OS, it featured a Web browser (namely, Apple's Safari) that could render the Web pages without expecting them to be in special formats designed for the phones.
Android Shares the Smart Pie
The Android Inc. was conceived in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White; and was later acquired by Google in July 2005. Under Google, the Android team converted Android into a mobile operating system based on the Linux kernel. At this point, Android had the support for all the bells and whistles of a typical smartphone OS, including the QWERTY keyboard, but no support for touchscreen. And the chief competitor of Google was Microsoft, which had also entered the smartphone arena since the mid-2000's.
With the coming of Apple's iPhone in 2007 and its prodigious success, Google realized it won't do to stick with the smartphone models that lack the features that make iPhone the iPhone. So the Google engineers went back to their Android design board and started incorporating features into Android that would make it a viable contender for the spot that iPhone held, the support for touchscreen being a major drive.
Finally, on the 20th October, 2008, the HTC Dream (released as T-Mobile G1) became the first commercially available Android smartphone. It had a 320×480 px LCD touchscreen display, but needed a physical keyboard for text input, as the initial assumption of the availability of a physical keyboard was at the very core of the Android OS.
With this beginning, today, Google's Android has captured the worldwide smartphone market, and has stood as a firm competitor to the Apple's iPhone, while Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in the smartphone race as of now. Check out our article on the comparison between the iPhone operating system iOS and Android.
Apps Invade the Party
Apps crashed the smartphone party, and it was wild! Suddenly, you could turn your phone into a lightsaber, a piano, or even a virtual pet zoo. The app stores overflowed with choices, and "There's an app for that" became a catchphrase.
Trivia: The first mobile app was actually a classic game - "Snake". Released in 1997 by Nokia, it was the original time-killer. Sorry, Candy Crush, you're the new kid on the block.
Apps are what helped the smartphones achieve the ubiquitous place in our daily lives that they currently hold. There are apps for everything you can imagine - for connecting to the other devices and syncing data across them, for editing and enhancing images, for multimedia (audio and video related tasks), for the Internet and the emailing, for programmers and software developers, for the gamers, for the business niche, for entertainment and education, for navigation, for health and fitness, and for a bunch of other things.
For distributing these apps, Apple has the App Store for the iPhone apps, and Google has the Play Store for the Android apps. Additionally, there are other app stores for the other platforms, and for the major platforms by the third-parties.
You see, the history of smartphones is a journey that's equal parts jaw-dropping innovation and hilariously retro fumbles. From lifting bricks to swiping magic screens, we've come a long way. So next time you're annoyed at auto-correct, just remember the times when you had to press the number "7" four times just to type a single letter.
AI and Beyond
Now, we're in the era of AI-powered smartphones that are smarter than your pet parrot. They recognize your face, listen to your rants, and predict your mood swings. It's like having a pocket-sized therapist who also orders pizza. Let's raise our tiny supercomputers and toast to the future of communication - where who knows, maybe our phones will even tell us the funniest jokes!
Fun Fact: The phrase "Siri, tell me a joke" has started more awkward conversations than you can imagine. Siri's sense of humor might need a software update!
Future Gazing: Smartphone Edition
What's next for the pocket-sized marvels? Buckle up, because we're peering into the crystal ball of tech trends. Think holographic displays, self-healing screens (goodbye, cracked screens), and batteries that last longer than a Shakespeare play. And who knows, we might finally crack the secret of "unlimited storage".
Wacky Prediction: In the future, your smartphone might brew your morning coffee. After all, it's got to multitask even harder, right?
Tech Magic: Advancements Galore
Prepare your minds for some wild tech wizardry. Foldable phones that transform into tablets? Check. Cameras that can see in the dark? Double-check. We're talking about phones that know your mood better than your therapist and can predict what you'll eat for dinner. It's like Harry Potter's wand 🪄, but with more emojis.
Fact Check: Some experts say we might even control smartphones with our minds one day. Just imagine texting your BFF without moving your thumbs. Lazy or futuristic? You decide.
Smartphones: A Society-Shaking Story
Remember when we used to actually talk to people in person? Yeah, me neither. Smartphones have revolutionized how we connect, share, and even date. Social media, online shopping, and swiping left or right have become part of our daily routine. But with great connectivity comes great responsibility. Let's face it, we're still figuring out how to strike a balance between staying connected and not turning into cyborgs.
Food for Thought: Smartphones have opened up a world of information, but they've also raised concerns about privacy, addiction, and that dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out).
So, buckle up, tech enthusiasts, and get ready for the next chapter in the ever-entertaining saga of smartphones. Who knows, maybe one day, we'll be laughing at how we ever thought virtual reality headsets were stylish. Oh wait, we're already doing that!
Whether you're swiping, tapping, or shouting at Siri, remember that behind the glass screens lies a universe of possibilities, ready to be unlocked with a single touch. Cheers to the future, where our smartphones might just know us better than we know ourselves!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which CPU type would most likely be found in a smartphone?
As of today, an ARM-based CPU is most likely to be found in a smartphone. ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) represents a family of the RISC (reduced instruction set computer) instruction set architectures for the CPUs, wherein they are configured for the special environments, like the smartphones.
The ARM-based CPUs are particularly suited for the smartphones because they consume less power and generate less heat. They are also cheaper to manufacture than their full-fledged counterparts.
Popular ARM-based CPUs include Snapdragon from Qualcomm and Ax and Mx (Apple silicon, A and M series) from Apple.
What was the first smartphone?
As we pointed out above, IBM Simon Personal Communicator is considered the first smartphone, owing to the set of features it had.
However, if you talk about the first device that was officially called the smartphone after the term "smartphone" had been coined, then it was Ericsson R380.
When was smartphone invented?
The first smartphone, IBM Simon Personal Communicator, became available to the consumers on the 16th August, 1994.
However, if you talk about the work on the commercial product (code named "Angler") that ultimately became the Simon, it started in 1992, after a demonstration of the prototype device code named "Sweetspot" on the 16th November, 1992 at the COMDEX computer and technology trade show in the US. This prototype was developed by the IBM engineer Frank Canova.
Who invented the smartphone?
IBM engineer Francis James Canova Jr (or Frank Canova) is known as the inventor of the smartphone. As we pointed out above, the first smartphone was the IBM Simon, which originated from the prototype Sweetspot, developed by Frank Canova.