The invention of mobile phones

Full-colour displays start to hit the market first with the Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse but the Ericcson T68i. WAP launches on the Nokia 7110 making it the first phone capable of browsing the web albeit a trimmed down version which didn’t provide the full HTML experience we know today. Another first came from the Motorola StarTAC as the first ever flip phone or clamshell device. 2G made Text messages, picture messages, and multimedia messages possible, creating a whole new way for people to communicate. It was open to anyone with the skills to add their own creations to an enticing range of apps, from games to maps to heart monitors. More advanced devices could connect to the internet and sync with their owners’ desktop machines.

Phones are also able to act as contactless payment devices storing bank card details so an individual can be cashless and cardless. More web pages are now visited on mobile devices than via desktops. Today phones are capable of seriously impressive speed and functionality and have moved on light years away from the early technology. The cutting edge phones of the time boasted features including the capability of storing 30 numbers. Let’s take a brief look at the evolution of the mobile and what we can expect from the future of mobile technology.

when was the first smartphone invented

Depending on your definition, the history of the smartwatch can be pinpointed at various stages. As we understand the term today, however, I would wager that the most fitting device for our purposes would be the IBM Simon which was released in 1994. The Simon Personal Communicator was the first device to feature telephone redmi m2001c3k3i and PDA elements. The term ‘smartphone’ did not actually exist then but few would contest that Simon was, indeed, a smart phone. It was years ahead of its time but its basic premise seems very familiar. Nokia, BlackBerry and Samsung released a few more phones before Apple made its entrance in 2008 with the iPhone 3G.

People liked how they did things, so more and more people moved away from Symbian. The handset was used by Val Kilmer in 1997’s remake of The Saint, as well as Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock in Bad Company. The 8810 would also connect to early 2G networks, and it was also the phone used by Neo’s crew in the blockbuster film, The Matrix, making it a true classic in every sense of the word. It was a long road getting here, but now we live in a world where our phones are more powerful than some laptops! I mean, half of the phones inside our Best Android Phone Guide have more RAM than my mum’s laptop! Yet despite all this, Nokia’s 2017 revival of its old classic, the Nokia 3310, was perhaps the most talked-about phone of the year, heralding in a wave of nostalgia for older, simpler devices.

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There’s millions of opportunities when it comes to technology. It has given us privileges we never thought we’d have in the past. There’s so many ingenious inventions that went from a complex idea in someone’s head to something so widely used that everybody has one and it has become a necessity for the whole world. Travelling to Europe, the Middle-East, Asia, Africa and the USA? Don’t worry about your mobile, the Motorola Timeport, the world’s first tri-band GSM phone, worked around the globe.

The world’s first mobile phone call was made on April 3, 1973, when Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival telecommunications company and informed them he was speaking via a mobile phone. The phone Cooper used – if you could call it that – weighed a staggering 1.1kg and measured in at 228.6x127x44.4mm. With this prototype device, you got 30 minutes of talk-time and it took around 10 hours to charge. Professional dual-lens cameras are now becoming standard on high-end smartphones while the handsets themselves are becoming ever more durable, with impressive waterproofing and tough Gorilla Glass screens. The first mobile phone invented for practical use was by a Motorola employee called Martin Cooper who is widely considered to be a key player in the history of mobile phones.

Say hello to handsets

HTC was the first company to adopt the OS with the HTC Dream or G1 as it was known in the US. Both the iPhone and the HTC Dream were already considered innovative when they launched but few could have actually understood their future impact. Many people criticized the devices and believed they were severely lacking in comparison to existing platforms. Perhaps no other device in history has embedded itself in the lives of everyday consumers more than the smartphone. Ask almost anyone to forego their smartphone for a week and chances are that they’ll think you are insane.

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I think there’s a certain definition that people perceive when they think of smartphones nowadays so I wanted to stay within that framework. The next entry of this content series will most likely revolve around the tablet and Palm will definitely receive the mention it deserves. Simon used ROM-DOS, a modified version of MS-DOS designed specifically for embedded systems.