The history, evolution, and future of smartphones: why have they become an essential device in the modern world?

How are smartphones different from feature phones, and how did they become the ubiquitous devices they are today? We’ll explore the history and evolution of early smartphones, and discuss their current and future capabilities and uses.

 

The term smart phone literally means “clever cell phone,” and according to Wikipedia, “a cell phone that offers advanced features in addition to PC-like functionality. The counterpart to a smartphone is a feature phone, which refers to the common cell phones that preceded smartphones and is defined by Wikipedia as “a low-end cell phone with less computing power than a smartphone. In fact, the term feature phone didn’t even exist before the advent of smartphones. Given these definitions, it’s clear that there’s no specific criteria for what constitutes a smartphone and what constitutes a feature phone, but rather a universally accepted distinction. In general, ‘smartphone’ refers to a mobile phone that is equipped with an operating system such as iOS or Android and allows users to implement various functions such as installing applications.
According to Wikipedia, the first smartphone was known as Simon, developed by IBM in 1992. That’s a whopping 20 years ago that the first smartphone was unveiled, and while it was considered incredibly advanced at the time, it was a far cry from what we know today as a smartphone. Simon included basic phone functions, as well as an address book, world time, calculator, notepad, email, faxing, and entertainment. It also had a touch screen that allowed you to enter phone numbers with your finger, and like the more recent Samsung Galaxy Note, you could use a stylus pen for facsimiles and notes. But if today’s smartphones are devices that allow you to customize the configuration and functionality of your phone, the Simon was more like a feature phone than a smartphone. Not only were there no operating systems like iOS or Android at the time, but the internet itself was not yet ubiquitous, and the concept of connecting a cell phone to the internet was unfamiliar.
In 2007, Apple and Google developed their smartphone operating systems, iOS and Android, respectively, and mobile phone manufacturers began to release phones with them, and the concept of the smartphone was completed. Apple’s iPhone 3 is largely responsible for the ubiquity of smartphones today. While smartphones had existed before, the iPhone 3 launched the application market and popularized the concept of downloading applications from the market that had the functionality users needed. This had a global impact, and other handset makers were inspired to develop smartphone platforms and devices. Since then, smartphones have become an indispensable part of the information age.
The best part about smartphones is that they can be customized for each individual user. After purchasing a phone with basic hardware, users can customize its display and functionality and download the applications they need. The functionality of the smartphone is determined by the applications that the user downloads. Application developers can create applications and put them on the market to sell or distribute them. In recent years, the application market has flourished, and many applications have been developed to perform various higher-level functions, making smartphones increasingly useful.
Unlike computers, smartphones have gained a lot of attention in a short period of time due to their portability, but they are not able to replace all computer functions. This is because they don’t have all the features of a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, which are the typical input/output devices for smartphones. The mouse can be replaced to a certain extent with the touch of a finger, but touch keyboards are still inconvenient, and the display size is smaller than a computer monitor, so you can’t see as much information at a glance. Also, because computer operating systems are different from smartphone operating systems, programs like Microsoft Office, for example, are difficult to create documents on a smartphone. Therefore, smartphones and computers should be used according to their own needs and circumstances.
Smartphones have had a huge impact on our lives, often referred to as the mobile revolution, and they have a lot of potential for further development. In addition to being accessible anytime and anywhere, smartphones are equipped with a variety of sensors, including Bluetooth, microphones, cameras, gyroscopes, geomagnetic sensors, and altitude sensors. There are many ways that smartphones can be improved. For example, MIT is developing medical applications for smartphones, such as diagnosing depression by analyzing your voice with a microphone on your phone to understand your psychological state, or detecting early signs of Parkinson’s disease by analyzing your gait with motion sensors. The list of real-world applications continues to grow, with car insurers using mobile sensors to analyze a driver’s mileage and patterns to charge only for what they drive, and Nokia using travelers’ travel history to provide tips on where to go. We can expect the second and third revolutions of smartphones.