ITEC2706M
Mobile Technology: Design and Use Fall 2023
Lecture 4
Smartphone
Smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with enhanced features in addition to making and receiving phone calls and text messages.
Smartphone needs powerful software.
Similar to computers because they have such a wide range of functions.
Just like every other technology, smartphones will continue to
grow and become more advanced as time goes on.
Usage of Smartphones
Communication
Call
Text
…..
Banking
Online banking
Share market
Other financials
Social Media
….
The Birth of Smartphones
Up through 1990 mobile phone makers struggled to contain the size, weight, and power consumption of phones.
Hence, the mobile phone makers had little interest in
pondering over the possibility of the mobile phone being
used for anything other than voice calling and the
occasional SMS. But this changed soon.
The Birth of Smartphones
In 1980s, the Motorola DynaTAC cell phone was a delightful surprise even though it weighed 1.75 pounds- this was the world’s first truly handheld mobile phone.
10 years later, in 1992 the world was offered another treat in the form of the IBM Simon Personal Communicator touch screen
phone. The IBM Simon
The Birth of Smartphones
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) were already known to people in the 1980s.
(A personal digital assistant, also known as a handheld PC, is a variety of mobile device that functions as a personal information manager.)
IBM Simon combined the 100% touch screen aspect of a PDA with a cellular phone.
Simon also came with features: calendar, calculator, clock, a notepad app, a file manager, and a game- indeed almost everything that PDAs of the time contained.
The IBM Simon
The Birth of Smartphones
People could not browse the Internet from Simon, although they could send and receive emails, faxes, and text messages.
Simon debuted at COMDEX in 1992, was available for purchase by 1994, and was pulled off the market by 1995.
In its short life, Simon offered a magnificent lens into the smart phone’s future.
Note: COMDEX (an abbreviation of COMputer Dealers' Exhibition- a computer trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the
largest computer trade shows in the world.) The IBM Simon
The Early business phones
The challenge taken by Simon was picked by Nokia in 1996 in the form of the 9000 Communicator Series.
The 9000 series was marketed as a business phone series by Nokia.
At first glance the Nokia 9000 looked somewhat bulky candy bar-shaped device.
The Nokia 9000 launched in 1996, had a 24 MHz processor (speed of processor- 24 million cycles per second) from Intel, 8 MB RAM, and weighed almost 400 grams.
The 9000 lets people do everything that the IBM Simon did, additionally, it could browse the web over a slow CSD
(Circuit Switched Data). The Nokia 9000
Communicator
The Early business phones
In 1998-99, Nokia 9110 came with a faster 33 MHz processor and was lighter than Nokia 9000- it was just over 250 grams.
Between 2000 to 2002, Nokia continued the evolution of the 9000 series with the launch of the 9210 and 9210i.
By 2002, people were using their cell phones to browse the Internet and stream small video ad audio files over the 2.xG based GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution networks).
***Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
3G networks began to come for faster browsing and media streaming.
The Early business phones
In 2004 Nokia released 9500 with 80 MB of memory and 150 MHz processor speed.
The 9500 came with almost all the features of a modern
smartphone- having a faster processor, plenty of RAM
storage (by 2004 standards), an impressively large full-
color display, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, integrated
camera, GPRS and EDGE-based internet connectivity,
SMS, MMS, Email, FAX, support for mobile apps, a music
player and a Microsoft and PDF document viewer.
The Early business phones- Smart Phone GS 8
The term “ Smart phone” is first publicized by Ericsson in 1997 when it showcased a device that looked a bit like the Nokia 9000 communicator Ericsson’s phone was called the “Smart Phone GS 88”.
The Ericsson GS 88 “Smart Phone”
Other Iconic phones of the 1990s
Apart from the IBM Simon and the Nokia Communicator series, the 1990s saw other iconic cell phones.
Nokia 2110: released in 1994: which featured the Nokia call tune for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQzUx3QW 2Y
Motorols StarTAC was released in 1996.
Nokia 5110 was released in 1998 and it became one of the most popular phones of all time.
The Nokia 5110
The Final March towards the Smartphone
In 1991, Sony introduced Lithium Ion (Li-ion) battery which was lighter than its Nickel Predecessor.
Li-ion packed more electric charge and discharged extremely slowly when not in use.
Lithium Ion batteries turned out to be perfect for mobile phones.
Li-on and semiconductor (transistors) together solved the problem of size, weight, and power consumption problems of cell phones.
Hence, cell phone manufacturers could focus more on introducing non- telephonic features into the mobile phones and eventually SMS, editing of documents and spreadsheets, calendar, clock, simple games, audio/video players, multi-color displays, access to email, internet browsing-were possible even using the mid-priced phone models.
The Final March towards the Smartphone
Especially during the second half of the 1990s, people used their cell phones for other uses rather than making and receiving calls.
Trend of adding more and more features to the cell phone continued into the early years of the 21
stcentury (***21
stcentury: Jan 1, 2001 –Dec 31, 2100).
The first 10 years of the 21
stcentury introduced several iconic
phones.
The Final March towards the Smartphone
In 2000, the Sharp J- SHo4 was released in Japan as the world’s first phone with a fully integrated camera in which people could snap a picture and share it via email directly from the cell phone.
Also in 2000, Ericsson brought R38o which was a touch screen phone although no mobile apps could be installed on it.
The Sharp J-SHo4
The Ericsson
R38o
The Final March towards the Smartphone
2001 saw the launch of the world’s first 3G network in Japan and with it, the world’s first 3G phone, the Matsushita P2101V.
2003 saw the introduction of the Nokia 1100, a small, basic, cheap GSM phone that Nokia sold across the world.
Since the launch of Nokia 1100 in 2003, Nokia sold 250 million of these devices, making 1100 one of the best-selling consumer electronics devices of all time.
***Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).
The Nokia 1100
The Final March towards the Smartphone
In 2004, Motorola brought the Moto Razr which was one of the thinnest phones on the market.
2005 also saw the introduction of the stylish Sony Ericsson W600i, the first phone with the Sony Walkman built in.
Sony phones are still used by users who value the high-quality sound produced by these devices.
The Moto
Razr
Sony Ericsson
W600i
The Final March towards the Smartphone
The years running up to the launch of the iPhone in 2007 saw the
near-simultaneous rise of four PDA-phone style smartphone platforms-by Blackberry,
Handspring, Palm, and Windows CE.
Nokia also launched the Nokia E series phones to compete against Blackberry.
Nokia, Blackberry,
Microsoft, Handspring, and Palm lost their focus, and
Apple and Google gained the benefit of that.
The
Handspring Visor Deluxe Nokia E90
Palm Pilot
The Final March towards the Smartphone-iPhone7
Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, announced the iPhone 2G designed and marketed by Apple Inc.
Many of the features of the iPhone such as a touch screen, inertial scrolling, swipe to unlock, and skeuomorphic design were already in development for cell phone products, including in Apple’s own Macintosh product line.
Skeuomorphic (left) versus Flat (right) icon designs on the iPhone home screen.
The Post-iPhone Era
The post iOS and Android era that is after 2007/2008 has been marked mainly in the way different smartphone manufacturers have launched phones that are more and more powerful in many different ways, while still keeping an eye on the design evolutions of Apple for iPhone and iPads.
Screen sizes have gone up to more than 5 inches.
Display technology has become LED ((a light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows through it)) from LCD (A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display).
RAM- more than 4 Gigabytes.
Storage- several dozens and sometimes hundreds of gigabytes.
Processor- 6 core or 8 core units with each core running in the GHz range.
Camera-High Resolution- 40 megapixels (available in 200-dollar smartphones).
The Post-iPhone Era
Smart Phones today have begun to rival and in many cases surpass the capabilities of desktop and laptop computers.
With the advent of the all IP 4G networks, the phone function effectively becomes a digital voice over internet call, thereby completing the transformation of the mobile device into an ultra powerful, ultra portable computer that just happens to fit neatly into your pocket.
