For most people, the smartphone era began in 2007, with the landmark release of the Apple iPhone. While this was a huge moment in the history of smartphones, the iPhone wasn’t the first. In fact, as far back as 1992, a commercially-available device was unveiled by IBM called the Simon Personal Communicator.
The History of the Smartphone
The First Smartphone
The very first smartphone, the Simon Personal Communicator, was first unveiled in 1992. It was made available or consumers in 1994, sporting an astonishing price tag of $1,100. If that sounds like a lot for today, imagine how much it was in the mid-90’s!
The SPC was a revolutionary device at the time, sporting a monochromatic display and some rudimentary features that might be recognized now as apps. Email access, an address book, access to your faxes (ha) and even a touchscreen display were all at play with this device.
Now, the Simon Personal Communicator was a mild success, selling 50,000 units in six months. However, it would go forgotten to the sands of time for roughly a decade. In 2007, Apple perfected what IBM started.
The iPhone’s Impact
Before 2007, the SPC could be seen as a bit of an aberrant blip in the world of cell phones. However, when Apple blew the doors open on full-screen smartphones, it was a revolution. The elegant full-screen phone was an instant smash hit, with other manufacturers rushing to duplicate Apple’s success.
An early example of one such imitator was HTC. The company quickly rose to prominence with devices made using Google’s Android software, running as a direct competitor to Appel. In recent years, the market has shifted more towards Samsung, who makes the ever-popular line of Galaxy smartphones.
Where We’re Heading
Smartphones have plateaued in recent years, showing less growth from generation to generation. The advent of high-resolution OLED technology, face-scanning biometric locks and highly-advanced machine learning chips have all brought us closer to the “definitive” smartphone experience.
If there’s one thing technology hates, though, that’s stagnation. The next big thing in the world of personal communication is likely right around the corner, though there are no clear contenders out there at the moment.
For a brief time, wearable tech seemed to be the most likely course, with the Apple Watch and its many imitators making a brief splash. However, these seem to have been more of a fad.
Samsung has been toying with a novelty folding smartphone that sports an interior, foldable display, though we’re uncertain as to how popular this will prove. Only time will tell where we head next!