A smartphone is a handheld personal computer.

It possesses extensive computing capabilities,

including high-speed access to the Internet using both Wi-Fi and mobile broadband. Most, if not all,
smartphones are also built with support for Bluetooth and satellite navigation. Modern smartphones
have a touchscreen color display with a graphical user interface that covers the front surface and
enables the user to use a virtual keyboard to type and press onscreen icons. Interaction is mostly
done using touch, besides a few physical buttons. Smartphones are typically pocket-sized, with
somewhat larger sizes being called phablets; they are generally smaller than tablet computers.
Smartphones function using a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Smartphones use a mobile operating system and are able to process a variety of software
components, known as "apps". Most basic apps (e.g. event calendar, camera, web browser) come
pre-installed with the system, while others are available for download, either for free or charging
money to one's balance, from official sources like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. One
may purchase apps by either adding and using valid credit card account information to the
smartphone or by buying a gift card for exclusive use of the balance of the card on its specified app
store. Apps, and the operating system itself, can receive bug fixes and gain additional
functionalitythrough updates.
Today, smartphones largely fulfil their users' needs for a microphone (smartphones often have one
to four microphones), a digital camera (most smartphones are made with one front-facing and one to
three rear-facing integrated digital cameras), a communications device (smartphones can
transmit online chat, e-mails, telephone calls and video chat through the Internet by Wi-Fi as well
as mobile broadband; a smartphone uses its camera in video chat, as well as its microphone in
video chat and telephone calls), a handheld audio recorder (using the microphone), a satellite
navigation system and trip planner, weather forecasting, a media player, a clock, news, a calculator,
a web browser, a video game player, a flashlight (smartphones may possess one to two LEDs for
illumination and photographic flash needs), a compass (smartphones that contain built-
in magnetometers are able to function as a compass), an address book, a note creator, an event
calendar, etc. Some apps allow sending and receiving facsimile (fax) over a smartphone,
including raster facsimile data generated directly and digitally from document and image file
formats. Internal storage of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512 gigabytes, or removable SD
card storage, allows for digital storage of software and personal data (including digital
photographs and videos). This is often augmented by cloud storage. Internally, many smartphones
contain a vibrator, often used as a method of alerting of a notification or call, and as a way to evoke
a more vibrant experience while playing video games. Typical smartphones will include one or more
of the following sensors: magnetometer, proximity sensor, barometer, gyroscope and accelerometer.
Since 2010, smartphones have adopted integrated virtual assistants, such as Apple Siri, Amazon
Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant and Samsung Bixby. Mobile
payment is now a feature of most smartphones. Some smartphones have a fingerprint sensor, an iris
scanner or face recognition technology as a form of biometric authentication.
In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption
within a country.[1] Smartphones sales started to grow rapidly by the late 2000s. In the third quarter of
2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide.[2] Global smartphone sales surpassed the
sales figures for feature phones in early 2013.[3]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Forerunner
o 1.2Early integration of data signals with telephony
o 1.3PDA/phone hybrids
 o 1.4Mass adoption in Japan
o 1.5Early smartphones outside Japan
o 1.6Form factor shift
o 1.7Technological developments in the 2010s
o 1.8Future possible developments
 2Hardware
o 2.1Display
o 2.2Accessories
o 2.3Battery
 3Software
o 3.1Mobile operating systems
 3.1.1Android
 3.1.2iOS
 3.1.3Tizen
 3.1.4Sailfish OS
 3.1.5Ubuntu Touch
 3.1.6PureOS
 3.1.7Discontinued operating systems
o 3.2Mobile app
o 3.3Application stores
 4Sales
o 4.1By manufacturer
o 4.2By operating system
 4.2.1Historical sales figures, in millions
 5Use
o 5.1Social
o 5.2While driving
o 5.3Legal
o 5.4Facsimile
o 5.5Medical
o 5.6Security
o 5.7Sleep
o 5.8Bokeh cameras
 6See also
 7Notes
 8References

History
Forerunner
IBM Simon and charging base (1994)[4]

The first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a "smartphone" began
as a prototype called "Angler" developed by Frank Canova in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated in
November of that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show.[5][6][7] A refined version was
marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator. In
addition to placing and receiving cellular calls, the touchscreen-equipped Simon could send and
receive faxes and emails. It included an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator,
world time clock, and notepad, as well as other visionary mobile applications such as maps, stock
reports and news.[8] The term "smart phone" or "smartphone" was not coined until a year after the
introduction of the Simon, appearing in print as early as 1995, describing AT&T's PhoneWriter
Communicator.[9][non-primary source needed]

Early integration of data signals with telephony

The first caller identification receiver (1971)

The first integration of data signals with telephony was conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and
pioneered by Theodore Paraskevakos beginning in 1968 with his work on transmission of electronic
data through telephone lines. In 1971, while he was working with Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama,
Paraskevakos demonstrated a transmitter and receiver that provided additional ways to
communicate with remote equipment. This formed the original basis for what is now known as caller
ID.[10] The first caller ID equipment was installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg,
Alabama and was demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working
models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos.[11]
PDA/phone hybrids
Main article: Personal digital assistant
In the mid-late 1990s, many people who had mobile phones carried a separate
dedicated PDA device, running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, Newton
OS, Symbian or Windows CE/Pocket PC. These operating systems would later evolve into
early mobile operating systems. Most of the "smartphones" in this era were hybrid devices that
combined these existing familiar PDA OSes with basic phone hardware. The results were devices
that were bulkier than either dedicated mobile phones or PDAs, but allowed a limited amount of
cellular Internet access. The trend at the time, however, that manufacturers competed on in both
mobile phones and PDAs was to make devices smaller and slimmer. The bulk of these smartphones
combined with their high cost and expensive data plans, plus other drawbacks such as expansion
limitations and decreased battery life compared to separate standalone devices, generally limited
their popularity to "early adopters" and business users who needed portable connectivity.
In March 1996, Hewlett-Packard released the OmniGo 700LX, a modified HP 200LX palmtop PC
with a Nokia 2110 mobile phone piggybacked onto it and ROM-based software to support it. It had a
640×200 resolution CGA compatible four-shade gray-scale LCD screen and could be used to place
and receive calls, and to create and receive text messages, emails and faxes. It was also
100% DOS 5.0 compatible, allowing it to run thousands of existing software titles, including early
versions of Windows.

The Nokia 9000 Communicator (right) and the updated 9110 model (left)

In August 1996, Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a digital cellular PDA based on
the Nokia 2110 with an integrated system based on the PEN/GEOS 3.0 operating system
from Geoworks. The two components were attached by a hinge in what became known as
a clamshell design, with the display above and a physical QWERTY keyboard below. The PDA
provided e-mail; calendar, address book, calculator and notebook applications; text-based Web
browsing; and could send and receive faxes. When closed, the device could be used as a digital
cellular telephone.
In June 1999 Qualcomm released the "pdQ Smartphone", a CDMA digital PCS smartphone with an
integrated Palm PDA and Internet connectivity.[12]
Subsequent landmark devices included:

 The Ericsson R380 (2000) by Ericsson Mobile Communications.[13] The first device marketed as
a "smartphone",[14] it was the first Symbian-based phone, with PDA functionality and limited Web
browsing on a resistive touchscreen utilizing a stylus.[15] Users could not install their own
software on the device, however.
 The Kyocera 6035 (early 2001), a dual-nature device with a separate Palm OS PDA operating
system and CDMA mobile phone firmware. It supported limited Web browsing with the PDA
software treating the phone hardware as an attached modem.[16][17]
 Handspring's Treo 180 (2002), the first smartphone that fully integrated the Palm OS on a GSM
mobile phone having telephony, SMS messaging and Internet access built in to the OS. The 180
 model had a thumb-type keyboard and the 180g version had a Graffiti handwriting recognition
area, instead.[18]
Mass adoption in Japan
In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption
within a country. These phones ran on i-mode, which provided data transmission speeds up to 9.6
kbit/s.[19] Unlike future generations of wireless services, NTT DoCoMo's i-mode used cHTML, a
language which restricted some aspects of traditional HTML in favor of increasing data speed for the
devices. Limited functionality, small screens and limited bandwidth allowed for phones to use the
slower data speeds available.[20] The rise of i-mode helped NTT DoCoMo accumulate an estimated
40 million subscribers by the end of 2001. It was also ranked first in market capitalization in Japan
and second globally. This power would later wane in the face of the rise of 3G and new phones with
advanced wireless network capabilities.[21]

Early smartphones outside Japan

Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s

Smartphones were still rare outside Japan until the introduction of the Danger Hiptop in 2002, which
saw moderate success among U.S. consumers as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Later, in the mid-2000s,
business users in the U.S. started to adopt devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and
then BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion. American users popularized the term
"CrackBerry" in 2006 due to the BlackBerry's addictive nature.[22]
Outside the U.S. and Japan, Nokia was seeing success with its smartphones based on Symbian,
originally developed by Psion for their personal organisers, and it was the most popular smartphone
OS in Europe during the middle to late 2000s. Initially, Nokia's Symbian smartphones were focused
on business with the Eseries,[23] similar to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices at the time. From
2006 onwards, Nokia started producing consumer-focused smartphones, popularized by the
entertainment-focused Nseries. In Asia, with the exception of Japan, the trend was similar to that of
Europe.[citation needed] Until 2010, Symbian was the world's most widely used smartphone operating
system.[24]

Form factor shift

The original Apple iPhone; its introduction contributed to the steady rise of smartphones that feature large
touchscreen interfaces without physical keypads

In the early to mid-2000s, it was common for smartphones to have a physical T9 numeric keypad
or QWERTY keyboard in either a candybar or sliding form factor. At that time, many smartphones
had resistive touchscreens, which allowed for input with a stylus in addition to fingers, thus allowing
the entry of Asian characters.[25] Keyboards were also common for smartphones in the late-2000s.
In 2007, the LG Prada was the first mobile phone released with a
large capacitive touchscreen.[26] Later that year, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone, which used
a multi-touch capacitive touch screen.[27] Such phones were notable for abandoning the use of a
stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical for smartphones at the time up till the early 2010s, in favor of a
capacitive touchscreen for direct finger input as its only input type. The iPhone was "not a
smartphone by conventional terms, being that a smartphone is a platform device that allows
software to be installed",[28] until the opening of Apple's App Store a year later, which became a
common means for smartphone software distribution and installation.
In October 2008, the first phone to use Google's Android operating system, called the HTC
Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1), was released.[29][30] It was also a smartphone with a large
multi-touch touchscreen, but still retained a slide-out physical keyboard. Later versions of Android
added and then improved on-screen keyboard support, and physical keyboards on Android devices
quickly became rare. Although Android's adoption was relatively slow at first, it started to gain
widespread popularity in 2012, and in early 2012 dominated the smartphone market share
worldwide, which continues to this day.[31]
The iPhone and Android phones with their capacitive touchscreens popularized the smartphone form
factor based on a large capacitive touchscreen and led to the decline of earlier, keyboard- and
keypad-focused platforms. Microsoft, for instance, discontinued Windows Mobile and started a new
touchscreen-oriented OS from scratch, called Windows Phone. Nokia abandoned Symbian and
partnered with Microsoft to use Windows Phone on its smartphones. Windows Phone became the
third-most-popular smartphone OS, before being replaced by Windows 10 Mobile, which declined in
share to become "largely irrelevant" at less than 0.5% of the smartphone market.[32] Palm replaced
their Palm OS with webOS, which was bought by Hewlett-Packard and later sold to LG
Electronics for use on LG smart TVs. BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion,
made a new platform based on QNX, BlackBerry 10, with which it was possible to control a device
without having to press any physical buttons; this platform was later discontinued.
By the mid-2010s, almost all smartphones were touchscreen-only,
and Android and iPhone smartphones dominated the market since smartphones started to grow in
use by 2012 and 2013.

Technological developments in the 2010s