Given this new emphasis on being first to market with a product, we thought it would be interesting to check out a bunch of other smartphone news. While cell phones offered exciting new features when they first came out, smartphones quickly took over.
Smartphones were invented in 1992 by IBM. It was the Simon Personal Communicator, and it reached the market in 1994. However, they did not become widespread until 20 years later, when Apple released its iPhone 5 in 2012. From that point onward, smartphones rapidly grew in popularity.
As beautiful and exciting as your first mobile phones were, they were quickly overshadowed by the advent of the iPhone and other smartphones. In the first decade of the new millennium, mobile phones became mainstream for the first time, with many companies scrambling to create the next must-have accessory.
Although today’s smartphones are some of the most powerful devices in the world, we are fascinated by the golden age of mobile phones – the early years. Apple’s achievements over the past decade are not isolated: the first version of the iPhone defined the future of smartphones in the coming years. Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, the evolution of smartphones has amazed and inspired us.
The Introduction of Apple’s iPhone
In 2007, Apple Inc introduced the Apple iPhone, the world’s first smartphone with an advanced touch screen. The iPhone’s first large touchscreen could scroll through websites just like a desktop computer, all with a sleeker look and feel than anything consumers have ever seen before. The iPhone has the distinction of being the first mass-produced iPhone-like device to eschew the stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical of today’s smartphones, instead using a large touch screen for direct input—fingers as the primary means of interaction.
The Apple iPhone is the first phone to run iOS, and by allowing apps to run on the phone, it has enabled cell phones to become the go-to mobile device. Released in 1994, the IBM Simon was the first device with an app and a touch screen, which is why it is considered the world’s first smartphone. The IBM Simon was built by IBM and was one of the first examples of a touch screen device with head support.
The first smartphone, released in 1994, changed the way users interact with their phones. Like IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator, the Nokia 9000 Communicator was released in 1996 and was considered cutting edge at the time. The first smartphone, called the Simon Personal Communicator, was created by IBM 15 years before Apple released the iPhone.
Notes on Earlier Phones
The Nokia 6110 was also the first phone to feature an enhanced user interface, a feature that would soon become standard. The very first smartphone was the first phone to combine the functions of a cell phone, meaning you could make calls, and a PDA, which at the time was a portable device that could be used for e-mail and faxing. The first phone, released in 1973, was what is now called the 0G phone; it had no connectivity and was essentially a two-way radio system.
The Communicator, the first serious attempt at a cell phone with Internet access, was ahead of its time. The Nokia 9000 Communicator was one of the first Internet phones to hit the market, adding web browsing capabilities to other business features.
A year later, the Nokia 9000 Communicator was followed by the Ericsson GS88, officially the first “smartphone”. Launched in 2000, the Ericsson R380 became the first product to be advertised and sold as a smartphone. The first device to technically qualify as a smartphone was just a very sophisticated (at the time) brick phone.
Combining the capabilities of a mobile phone and a PDA, the first smartphone, the Simon Personal Communicators, was surprisingly little different from our smartphones today. However, with a small monochrome LCD screen and hour-long battery life, the SPC was still relatively primitive compared to today’s smartphones.
Motorola released the Razr, the thinnest phone at 7.1mm at the time, and Apple released the iPhone 4S with Siri, the first personal digital voice assistant on a smartphone. The Nexus S was the first Android smartphone with NFC, the Moto Defy was released as the first waterproof Android smartphone, and Samsung released the Samsung Note and the 8MP Galaxy II. In 2017, the Asus Zenfone AR was released as the first phone with 8 GB of RAM, and LG introduced the LG G6 smartphone with Dolby Vision, an improved display.
Innovations in Smartphone Technology
All in all, the feature phone weighed over eight pounds and cost over $1,200. One of the best examples of the impact of smartphones is the fate of Apple’s iPod, whose original “classic” version has been retired. presents the company’s product line in September, just a few weeks before its 13th anniversary.
According to company press releases, the once-dominant MP3 player’s annual sales began to decline in 2007, when Apple released the Apple iPod iPhone, the once-dominant MP3 player. Mobile phones, especially smartphones, which have become our inseparable companions today, appeared relatively recently. From the menhir-like “birpophones” of the 1980s to iconic Nokia phones, here are some of the phones that pushed the boundaries of what was possible and paved the way for today’s smartphones.
While there have been many smartphones, the smartphone as we know it dates back to 2007, when Apple bundled together the features we take for granted now: a real touchscreen, a (half-)decent camera, the internet, and real apps that do different things. – in one easy-to-use package. First launched by Apple with the first App Store, the term was later adopted by Google Android when it launched smartphones.
The first iPhone truly became a smartphone when it was possible to configure software on it, which was made possible in July 2008 with the release of the first App Store.