Smartphones - Advanced features and history

Smartphones - Advance features and history

With the advancement of technology and regular development in electronic and communications field, existing electronic components are being replaced with emerging future technologies like Memristors etc. This regular advancement in communication sector can easily be described by taking a look over phones and mobile's history.

What is a smartphone?

A smartphone is a device that not only provides features of a telephone but also the features of a Personal Digital Assistant or a Computer. Presently, smartphones include many advance features which are described as below:
Smartphones image

Advanced Features of Smartphones:

Have advanced computing ability

High speed data access through Wi-Fi

Mobile broadband feature for data access

Have Web browser functionality for surfing websites

High resolution touch screen facility

GPS Navigation unit facility and portable Media player

Pocket Video camera and compact Digital Camera

File, audio and video transfer ability and light pen functionality

They are built on mobile computing platform

Email facility

Large memory for storage

We will get many more new advanced features in upcoming smartphones in future.

Types Operating Systems used by Smartphone

Apple's iOS

Google's Android

Microsoft's Windows OS

Nokia's Symbian

RIM's BlackBerry OS

Embedded Linux distributions such as MeeGo and Maemo

OS used by contemporary featured phones

The featured phone runs with the support of third party software through Java ME or BREW platforms and on proprietary firmware.

What is the the Main difference between contemporary phones and SmartPhones?

The advance APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in smartphones allow better integration of third-party applications with their Operating systems and Hardware than other contemporary phones.

Who used the term 'smartphone' very first?

The term 'smartphone' was first used by Ericsson in 1997 for their GS88 phone which was first labelled as Smartphone.

Evolutionary history of smartphones

As said above Ericsson used the term 'Smartphone' for their GS88 phone and labelled it as Smartphone; the platform since 1996 used for them was Symbian. But in 2011, Google's Android OS outperformed it. Nokia in February 2011 declared to use Windows OS in their future Smartphones. Their first smartphones with Windows were 7.5 smartphones, Lumia 710 and 800.

Year 1992

IBM Simon - designed in 1992, shown as a concept product in Las Vegas, Nevada. (The very First smartphone)
IBM Simson image

Features:

Calculator and notepad

e-mail client, fax

Calendar, games

Address book, world clock

Touchscreen

Year 1996

Nokia Communicator line (First smartphone product of Nokia)
Nokia 9210 image

Features:

It was a Palmtop computer style smartphone

Has Clamshell design with a featured phone display

User interface and a keyboard

640x200 pixel high resolution display

PDA user interface under the flip top

E-mail communication

Text based web browsing

Phone had GEOS V3 operating system

Year 1997

Ericsson GS88 (First 'smartphone' labelled phone)

Year 2000

Ericsson R380 Smartphone (first Smartphone product by Ericsson)
Features:

Touchscreen functionality

First phone which used an open operating system (Symbian)

First marketed as a SmartPhone

Include PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)

Small in size and lighter in weight

NOKIA 9210 Communicator (released in yr 2000)
Features:

First Color screen model

Open operating system Symbian OS

Year 2002

BlackBerry
Blackberry image

First BlackBerry device was released by RIM in year 2002 with additional email functionality. It was the first Smartphone optimized for wireless email and it gained around 32 million subscribers by end of year 2009.

Year 2007

NOKIA N95 Series
N95 image

Features:

Wide range of multimedia features

GPS Functionality

3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and TV out

5 mepixel camera with autofocus and LED flash

Nokia 6110 Navigator
A Symbian based dedicated GPS phone introduced in June 2007.

Apple Inc. iPhone (Was the first iPhone by Apple Inc.)
Features:

First multi touch interface phone

Large touchscreen for direct finger input instead of keypad

Inclusive of a far better web browser, Ars Technica

This year Apple announced that iPhone would support third party "web 2.0 applications" running in its web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface.

Year 2008

Second generation iPhone by Apple
Features:

Lower in price

3G Support

With App Store as a great feature

HTC Dream
Android OS for Smartphones released in 2008 with its first phone HTC Dream.
Features:

Integration with Google's proprietary applications such as Gmail, Calendar, Maps and full HTML web browser

Supports execution of native application

Multi tasking application capability

Nexus One smartphone
Launched in January 2010 on Android OS.

Year 2010

Apple iOS 4
Features:

APIs to allow third party applications to multi tasking

Apple iPhone 4
Features:

960x640 pixel display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch

Front facing VGA Camera for video conferencing

HD Video in 720p at 30 frames per second

1 GHz processor

5 megapixel camera with LED flash capable of recording

Nokia N8 SmartPhones
Features:

Stylus free capacitive touchscreen

Uses Symbian OS

12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash capable of recording HD Video in 720p

Satellite navigation

Front facing VGA camera for video conferencing

Year 2011

Apple iPhone 4S accounced on Oct 4, 2011
iPhone image

Features:

8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording at 30 fps

Dual core A5 processor

Both GSM & CDMA network allowed

HTC EVO 3D
was announced by HTC Corporation
Features:

Produce 3D effects with no need for special glasses (autostereoscopy)

For the year 2012, everyone was waiting for Windows 8 OS based PCs and Smartphones expected to include a lot of apps and new features. If you are a mobile application developer than you can easily get a mobile from Microsoft as they are offering free Windows Phones to mobile application developers in India. Click on Get a free Windows Phone from Microsoft India to know more about this.

Smartphones - Advanced features and history

Smartphones - Advance features and history

What is a smartphone?

Advanced Features of Smartphones:

Types Operating Systems used by Smartphone

OS used by contemporary featured phones

What is the the Main difference between contemporary phones and SmartPhones?

Who used the term 'smartphone' very first?

Evolutionary history of smartphones

Year 1992

Year 1996

Year 1997

Year 2000

Year 2002

Year 2007

Year 2008

Year 2010

Year 2011

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