How the mobile phone became ‘smart’.
When cellular phones were first introduced, they seemed pretty darn smart. So, when they were officially given the title, ‘smartphones’, we expected them to really deliver – and they really did. Hubs for information and instant connectivity, smartphones became mobile offices, games arcades, and much more. This makes the future of mobile phones look very bright, but let’s take a brief look at the history of smartphones.
• 1994: While there had been prototypes developed decades before, IBM’s cellphone/PDA combination can be seen as the father of smartphones. This touch-screen phone took care of texts, faxes, and emails.
• 1999: Blackberry (yes, they’re that old) launched their first phone, which wasn’t actually a phone but a pager that could receive messages and emails.
• 2000: The term ‘smartphone’ was attached to the Ericsson R380. Working on the Symbian operating system, this phone was as ground-breaking as the marketing term given to it.
• 2007: While Apple wasn’t one of the pioneers of the smartphone industry, it certainly mastered the art of making them. The iPhone was like an iPod which could be used for phone calls, emailing, photography, and internet browsing. Over the next few years, Apple increased the ability of its smartphones – and the amount of iPhone users – with each release.
• 2008: Shortly after the release of the iPhone, Android phones hit the market and soon began to dominate. By 2010 the sales of Apple and Symbian combined still didn’t match Android sales.
We can’t be sure what the future of smartphones holds, but it will probably be covered in more apps than a family fridge is covered in magnets. Smartphones have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. So, the future of smartphones is only limited to human imagination. It seems that, in the near future, if you can’t find an app for what ails you, you’re looking in the wrong place.
