Category:History

The history of the smartphone starts even further back than the first wireless network created by AT&T in 1946. We have to give credit, first and foremost to Alexander Graham Bell for the creation of the first telephone and the first phone call back in 1878. Back then, this was a revolutionary jump in communication, from the pony express to the telegraph machine to the telephone. With the smartphone, we have come to a new evolutionary jump in communication.

In 1946, AT&T created the first mobile phone network. The first phone call was made by a truck driver on June 17, 1976. Its not clear whether it was to call home or for AAA.

In 1974, a Greek scientist named Theodore George Paraskevakos filed paperwork with the U.S. Patent Office for an "apparatus for generating and transmitting digital information," thus the start of the smartphone era. His patent was eventually granted in May of 1974.

The first smartphone was created by the boys at IBM, when the Simon Personal Communicator was created in 1994, combining a cell phone with a PDA. It was capable of text messaging, faxing and emailing, in addition to making phone calls. Even in those days, cell phones were not cheap. It sold for $1,099 or $899 if the buyer signed up for a two-year service contract. Shows us that contracts have been around since the beginning. Blackberry entered the fray in 1999 with its first phone at a more affordable cost of $399. However, the Blackberry was not a full fledge smartphone as we know it. Its capabilities were limited to email and two-way pager communication. It took until 2003 for Blackberry to introduce its first true smartphone.

In 2000, Ericsson pioneered the phrase “smartphone” when it introduced its R380 mobile phone. Now it is also synonymous that every mobile phone is a smartphone. The phone was lightweight, flip phone model that operated on the Symbian operating system. Symbian was the dominant smartphone operating system until Android surpassed it in 2011.

As with all leaps of progress, Apple’s entry into the smartphone market in 2007 started a shift in the way that people viewed their mobile phones. Just like it had done to the Walkman with its iPod, the iPhone shock the market. Apple was not creating a new way of doing things, but it packaged its product and abilities in a way that differentiated itself from all other manufacturers. It was not the first smartphone to utilize a touchscreen or have the ability to surf the internet, but its combination of different methods of communication made it unique. Its updates and upgrades on previous models made it an even sophisticated product as each version signaled a new leap in technology and capabilities. Its most recent version, the iPhone 5, was introduced on Sept. 12, 2012 with much fanfare. It is anticipated that is next version will garner the same if not more fanfare.

In 2008, Google created its own buzz in the smartphone market by introducing the Android operating system. In a short period of time it has become the dominant mobile operating system. Altogether, there has been more Android devices sold over the last few years than Apple and Symbian combined. The operating system powers hundreds of different versions of various manufacturers. It is estimated that there are more than 500 million Android phones in use in the world.

In 2010, Kaspersky Lab identified what it called the first Trojan virus in an Android phone. As smartphones start to become more and more integrated into our personal lives, more personal information is being stored and transmitted through our smartphones. This makes smartphones the next target for criminals in their goal of stealing your passwords, bank account information and identities.

The functionality of smartphones is increasing more and more as applications produced by third parties are driving the usage and evolution of the smartphone market. The “apps” serve as the ways of taking everything with us wherever we go. From our daily calendar, a camera, alarm clock, electronic books and stock trading capabilities, the smartphone is integrated itself well into our daily lives. In an example of the prevalence of app usage, since its creation, the Apple App Store has marketed more than 700,000 mobile apps with downloads exceeding more the 25 billion. The Google Play store hosts more than 600,000 apps with more than 1.5 billion app downloads every month.

The only limitation to where the smartphone will take us will be based on what we dare to imagination.

Below is a graphic from the Tech King[] showing the history of the smartphone and a number of its contributors through time. Enjoy.