A smartphone is a mobile phone with an advanced mobile operating system
which combines features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use.Smartphones, which are usually pocket-sized, typically combine the features of a cell phone, such as the ability to receive and make phone calls, with those of other popular digital mobile devices. Other features typically include a personal digital assistant (PDA) for making appointments in a calendar, media player, video games, GPS navigation unit, digital camera and digital video camera. Most smartphones can access the Internet and can run third-party software applications ("apps"). They typically have a color touchscreen user interface that covers 70% or more of the front surface, with LCD, OLED, AMOLED, LED or similar screen.
In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country. Smartphones became widespread in the 21st century and most of those produced from 2012 onwards have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, and mobile payment features. In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell phones in early 2013. As of 2013, 65 percent of U.S. mobile consumers own smartphones. Android and iPhone owners account for half of the cell phone user population.
Devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concepts of intelligence, data processing and visual display screens into telephones. 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, however it did not yet have general purpose PDA applications in a wireless device typical of smartphones. They were installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos.
Symbian was the most popular smartphone OS in Europe during the middle to late 2000s. Initially, Nokia's Symbian devices were focused on business, similar to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices at the time. From 2006 onwards, Nokia started producing entertainment-focused smartphones, popularized by the Nseries. In Asia, with the exception of Japan, the trend was similar to that of Europe.
In 2003, Motorola launched the first smartphone to use Linux, the A760 handset.[26] While the initial release was limited to a single high-end handset only available in the Asia-Pacific region, the maker's intention was to eventually use Linux on most of its handsets, including the lower-end models. Further models to use Linux such as the Motorola Ming A1200i in 2005 and several successors to the Ming line would be unveiled through 2010. In late 2009, Motorola released the Motorola Cliq, the first of Motorola's smart phones to run the Linux-based Android operating system.
In early 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone, one of the first smartphones to use a multi-touch interface. The iPhone was notable for its use of a large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction, instead of a stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical for smartphones at the time.
In October 2008, the first phone to use Android called the HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1) was released. Android is an open-source platform founded by Andy Rubin and now owned by Google. Although Android's adoption was relatively slow at first, it started to gain widespread popularity in 2010, and in early 2012 dominated the smartphone market share worldwide, which continues to this day.
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google Inc., and backed by an industry consortium known as the Open Handset Alliance. It is an open source platform with optional proprietary components, including a suite of flagship software for Google services, and the application and content storefront Google Play. Android was officially introduced via the release of its inaugural device, the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) on 20 October 2008.
As an open source product, Android has also been the subject of third-party development; development groups have used the Android source code to develop and distribute their own modified versions of the operating system, such as CyanogenMod, to add features to the OS and provide newer versions of Android to devices that no longer receive official updates from their vendor. Forked versions of Android have also adopted by other vendors, such as Amazon.com, who used its "Fire OS" on a range of tablets and the Fire Phone.
Due to the wide array of smartphones shipped with the OS—covering a wide range of market segments—Android has seen significant adoption. Gartner Research estimated that 325 million Android smartphones were sold during the fourth quarter of 2015, leading all other platforms. Samsung Electronics, who produces Android devices, was also the top smartphone vendor across all platforms in the same period of time.
Windows Phone is a series of smartphone operating systems developed by Microsoft. Its original release, Windows Phone 7, was a revamped version of the previous, Windows CE-based Windows Mobile platform; however, it was incompatible with the legacy platform.[69] Windows Phone's user interface was designed to contrast with its competitors, utilizing a design language codenamed "Metro" which de-emphasized iconography and skeuomorphism in favor of flat, text-based designs. The platform also featured concepts such as "live tiles" on its home screen that can display dynamic content, and "Hubs"—which aggregate content from various sources and services (such as a user's local contacts, in combination with connected social networking services) into unified displays. Windows Phone also integrated with other Microsoft brands and platforms, including Bing, SkyDrive, and Xbox. Microsoft Office Mobile apps were also bundled with the operating system.
Windows Phone 8 was released in 2012; it was incompatible with existing devices, but switched to a core system based on the Windows NT platform, expanded the platform's hardware support and functionality, and added expanded enterprise-oriented functionality such as storage encryption. Windows 10 Mobile was released in late-2015; it is no longer promoted under the Windows Phone brand, as it is intended to provide greater consistency and integration with Windows 10 for PC, including cross-platform applications via Universal Windows Platform, and the ability to dock supported devices to use a desktop interface with keyboard and mouse support.
The Windows Phone series has had poor adoption in comparison to its competitors. Lack of interest in the platform also led to a decrease in third-party applications, and some vendors ended their support for Windows Phone altogether. The most prominent Windows Phone vendor was Nokia, who exclusively adopted Windows Phone as its smartphone platform in 2011 as part of a wider partnership with Microsoft. Nokia's Lumia series was the most popular line of Windows Phone devices, representing 83.3% of all Windows Phones sold in June 2013, and Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile business for just over €5.44 billion in April 2014, forming the subsidiary Microsoft Mobile under former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop
In 1999, RIM released its first BlackBerry devices, providing secure real-time push-email communications on wireless devices. Services such as BlackBerry Messenger provide the integration of all communications into a single inbox. In September 2012, RIM announced that the 200 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped. As of September 2014, there are around 46 million active BlackBerry service subscribers. Most recently, RIM has undergone a platform transition, changing its name to BlackBerry and making new devices on a new platform named "BlackBerry 10" and in November 2015 released an Android smartphone, the BlackBerry Priv.
One of the main characteristics of smartphones is their screen. It usually fills most of the phone's front surface (about 70%); screen size usually defines the size of a smartphone. Many have an aspect ratio of 16:9; some are 4:3 or other ratios.
They are measured in diagonal inches, starting from 2.45 inches. Phones with screens larger than 5.2 inches are often called "phablets". Smartphones with screens over 4.5 inches commonly are shifted while using a single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface, or used in place with both hands. Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, AMOLED and E Ink displays.
An upcoming development is a Braille screen, using microfluidics technology.
Smartphone malware is easily distributed through an insecure app store. Often malware is hidden in pirated versions of legitimate apps, which are then distributed through third-party app stores. Malware risk also comes from what's known as an "update attack", where a legitimate application is later changed to include a malware component, which users then install when they are notified that the app has been updated.
One out of three robberies in 2012 in the United States involved the theft of a mobile phone. An online petition has urged smartphone makers to install kill switches in their devices. In 2014, Apple's "Find my iPhone" and Google's "Android Device Manager" can disable phones that have been lost/stolen. With BlackBerry Protect in OS version 10.3.2, devices can be rendered unrecoverable to even BlackBerry's own Operating System recovery tools if incorrectly authenticated or dissociated from their account.
Using smartphones late at night can disturb sleep, due to the brightly lit screen affecting melatonin levels and sleep cycles. In an effort to alleviate these issues, several apps that change the color temperature of a screen to a warmer hue based on the time of day to reduce the amount of blue light generated have been developed for Android, while iOS 9.3 integrated similar, system-level functionality known as "Night Shift". It has also been theorized that for some users, addicted use of their phones, especially before they go to bed, can result in "ego depletion".
"Phablet", a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet, describes smartphones with larger screens.
"Superphone" is also used by some companies to market phones with unusually large screens and other expensive features.
In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country. Smartphones became widespread in the 21st century and most of those produced from 2012 onwards have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, and mobile payment features. In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell phones in early 2013. As of 2013, 65 percent of U.S. mobile consumers own smartphones. Android and iPhone owners account for half of the cell phone user population.
Devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concepts of intelligence, data processing and visual display screens into telephones. 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, however it did not yet have general purpose PDA applications in a wireless device typical of smartphones. They were installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos.
Symbian was the most popular smartphone OS in Europe during the middle to late 2000s. Initially, Nokia's Symbian devices were focused on business, similar to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices at the time. From 2006 onwards, Nokia started producing entertainment-focused smartphones, popularized by the Nseries. In Asia, with the exception of Japan, the trend was similar to that of Europe.
In 2003, Motorola launched the first smartphone to use Linux, the A760 handset.[26] While the initial release was limited to a single high-end handset only available in the Asia-Pacific region, the maker's intention was to eventually use Linux on most of its handsets, including the lower-end models. Further models to use Linux such as the Motorola Ming A1200i in 2005 and several successors to the Ming line would be unveiled through 2010. In late 2009, Motorola released the Motorola Cliq, the first of Motorola's smart phones to run the Linux-based Android operating system.
In early 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone, one of the first smartphones to use a multi-touch interface. The iPhone was notable for its use of a large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction, instead of a stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical for smartphones at the time.
In October 2008, the first phone to use Android called the HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1) was released. Android is an open-source platform founded by Andy Rubin and now owned by Google. Although Android's adoption was relatively slow at first, it started to gain widespread popularity in 2010, and in early 2012 dominated the smartphone market share worldwide, which continues to this day.
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google Inc., and backed by an industry consortium known as the Open Handset Alliance. It is an open source platform with optional proprietary components, including a suite of flagship software for Google services, and the application and content storefront Google Play. Android was officially introduced via the release of its inaugural device, the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) on 20 October 2008.
As an open source product, Android has also been the subject of third-party development; development groups have used the Android source code to develop and distribute their own modified versions of the operating system, such as CyanogenMod, to add features to the OS and provide newer versions of Android to devices that no longer receive official updates from their vendor. Forked versions of Android have also adopted by other vendors, such as Amazon.com, who used its "Fire OS" on a range of tablets and the Fire Phone.
Due to the wide array of smartphones shipped with the OS—covering a wide range of market segments—Android has seen significant adoption. Gartner Research estimated that 325 million Android smartphones were sold during the fourth quarter of 2015, leading all other platforms. Samsung Electronics, who produces Android devices, was also the top smartphone vendor across all platforms in the same period of time.
Windows Phone is a series of smartphone operating systems developed by Microsoft. Its original release, Windows Phone 7, was a revamped version of the previous, Windows CE-based Windows Mobile platform; however, it was incompatible with the legacy platform.[69] Windows Phone's user interface was designed to contrast with its competitors, utilizing a design language codenamed "Metro" which de-emphasized iconography and skeuomorphism in favor of flat, text-based designs. The platform also featured concepts such as "live tiles" on its home screen that can display dynamic content, and "Hubs"—which aggregate content from various sources and services (such as a user's local contacts, in combination with connected social networking services) into unified displays. Windows Phone also integrated with other Microsoft brands and platforms, including Bing, SkyDrive, and Xbox. Microsoft Office Mobile apps were also bundled with the operating system.
Windows Phone 8 was released in 2012; it was incompatible with existing devices, but switched to a core system based on the Windows NT platform, expanded the platform's hardware support and functionality, and added expanded enterprise-oriented functionality such as storage encryption. Windows 10 Mobile was released in late-2015; it is no longer promoted under the Windows Phone brand, as it is intended to provide greater consistency and integration with Windows 10 for PC, including cross-platform applications via Universal Windows Platform, and the ability to dock supported devices to use a desktop interface with keyboard and mouse support.
The Windows Phone series has had poor adoption in comparison to its competitors. Lack of interest in the platform also led to a decrease in third-party applications, and some vendors ended their support for Windows Phone altogether. The most prominent Windows Phone vendor was Nokia, who exclusively adopted Windows Phone as its smartphone platform in 2011 as part of a wider partnership with Microsoft. Nokia's Lumia series was the most popular line of Windows Phone devices, representing 83.3% of all Windows Phones sold in June 2013, and Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile business for just over €5.44 billion in April 2014, forming the subsidiary Microsoft Mobile under former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop
In 1999, RIM released its first BlackBerry devices, providing secure real-time push-email communications on wireless devices. Services such as BlackBerry Messenger provide the integration of all communications into a single inbox. In September 2012, RIM announced that the 200 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped. As of September 2014, there are around 46 million active BlackBerry service subscribers. Most recently, RIM has undergone a platform transition, changing its name to BlackBerry and making new devices on a new platform named "BlackBerry 10" and in November 2015 released an Android smartphone, the BlackBerry Priv.
One of the main characteristics of smartphones is their screen. It usually fills most of the phone's front surface (about 70%); screen size usually defines the size of a smartphone. Many have an aspect ratio of 16:9; some are 4:3 or other ratios.
They are measured in diagonal inches, starting from 2.45 inches. Phones with screens larger than 5.2 inches are often called "phablets". Smartphones with screens over 4.5 inches commonly are shifted while using a single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface, or used in place with both hands. Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, AMOLED and E Ink displays.
An upcoming development is a Braille screen, using microfluidics technology.
Smartphone malware is easily distributed through an insecure app store. Often malware is hidden in pirated versions of legitimate apps, which are then distributed through third-party app stores. Malware risk also comes from what's known as an "update attack", where a legitimate application is later changed to include a malware component, which users then install when they are notified that the app has been updated.
One out of three robberies in 2012 in the United States involved the theft of a mobile phone. An online petition has urged smartphone makers to install kill switches in their devices. In 2014, Apple's "Find my iPhone" and Google's "Android Device Manager" can disable phones that have been lost/stolen. With BlackBerry Protect in OS version 10.3.2, devices can be rendered unrecoverable to even BlackBerry's own Operating System recovery tools if incorrectly authenticated or dissociated from their account.
Using smartphones late at night can disturb sleep, due to the brightly lit screen affecting melatonin levels and sleep cycles. In an effort to alleviate these issues, several apps that change the color temperature of a screen to a warmer hue based on the time of day to reduce the amount of blue light generated have been developed for Android, while iOS 9.3 integrated similar, system-level functionality known as "Night Shift". It has also been theorized that for some users, addicted use of their phones, especially before they go to bed, can result in "ego depletion".
"Phablet", a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet, describes smartphones with larger screens.
"Superphone" is also used by some companies to market phones with unusually large screens and other expensive features.
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