A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone[1][2][3] which combines the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone. Today's models typically also serve as portable media players and camera phones with high-resolution touchscreens, web browsers that can access and properly display standard web pages rather than only mobile-optimized sites, GPS navigation, Wi-Fi and mobile broadbandaccess. The term smartphone is usually used to describe phones with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporaryfeature phone, although the distinction can be vague and there is no official definition for what constitutes the difference between them. The definitions also shift over time since many phones that are considered feature phones today can have capabilities that exceed those of phones that had been promoted as smartphones in the past.
While some feature phones also may be thought of as handheld computers integrated with mobile telephones, a feature phone is typically based on proprietary firmware, while a smartphone runs a more open and complete mobile operating system.[2] Widespread examples of smartphone operating systems are Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, Nokia's Symbian, RIM's BlackBerry OS, andembedded Linux distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo. Such systems can be installed on many different phone models, and typically each device can receive multiple OS software updates over its lifetime. Smartphones can run third-party applications using advancedapplication programming interfaces (APIs).[4]
Although most of today's feature phones are also able to run third-party applications, for example mobile games, these applications are based on rather limited platforms such as Java ME (a virtual machine) or BREW (a pseudo-OS for native code).[1] A smartphone mobile app integrates more tightly with the user interface and other phone features than a feature phone application, and relies on a more powerful application programming interface (API).[4]
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[edit]History
[edit]Early years
The first smartphone was the IBM Simon; it was designed in 1992 and shown as a concept product[5] that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was released to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail client, the ability to send and receive faxes, and games. It had no physical buttons, instead customers used a touchscreen to select telephone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard. By today's standards, the Simon would be a fairly low-end product, lacking a camera and the ability to download third-party applications. However, its feature set at the time was highly advanced.
The Nokia Communicator line was the first of Nokia's smartphones starting with the Nokia 9000, released in 1996. This distinctive palmtop computer style smartphone was the result of a collaborative effort of an early successful and costly personal digital assistant (PDA) by Hewlett-Packardcombined with Nokia's bestselling phone around that time, and early prototype models had the two devices fixed via a hinge. The communicators are characterized by clamshell design, with a feature phone display, keyboard and user interface on top of the phone, and a physical QWERTY keyboard, high-resolution display of at least 640x200 pixels and PDA user interface under the door. The software was based on the GEOS V3.0 operating system, featuring email communication and text-based web browsing. In 1998, it was followed by Nokia 9110, and in 2000 by Nokia 9110i, with improved web browsing capability.
In 1997 the term 'smartphone' was used for the first time when Ericsson unveiled the concept phone GS88,[6][7] the first device labelled as 'smartphone'.[8]
[edit]Symbian
In 2000, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone was released.[9] It was the first device to use an open operating system, the Symbian OS.[10] It was the first device marketed as a 'smartphone'.[11] It combined the functions of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).[12] In December 1999 the magazine Popular Science appointed the Ericsson R380 Smartphone to one of the most important advances in science and technology.[13] It was a groundbreaking device since it was as small and light as a normal mobile phone.[14] In 2002 it was followed up by P800, the first camera smartphone.[15]
Also in 2000, the Nokia 9210 communicator was introduced, which was the first color screen model from the above Nokia Communicator line. It was a true smartphone with an open operating system, the Symbian OS. It was followed by the 9500 Communicator, which also was Nokia's first cameraphone and first Wi-Fi phone. The 9300 Communicator was the third dimensional shift into a smaller form factor, and the latest E90Communicator includes GPS. The Nokia Communicator model is remarkable for also having been the most costly phone model sold by a major brand for almost the full life of the model series, costing easily 20% and sometimes 40% more than the next most expensive smartphone by any major producer.
In 2007 Nokia launched the Nokia N95 which integrated a wide range of multimedia features into a consumer-oriented smartphone: GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and TV-out. In the next few years these features would become standard on high-end smartphones. The Nokia 6110 Navigator is a Symbian based dedicated GPS phone introduced in June 2007.
In 2010 Nokia released the Nokia N8 smartphone with a stylus-free capacitive touchscreen, the first device to use the new Symbian^3 OS.[16] It featured a camera that Mobile Burn described as the best camera in a phone,[17] and satellite navigation that Mobile Choice described as the best on any phone.[18]
[edit]Palm, Windows and BlackBerry
In the late 1990's the vast majority of mobile phones had only basic phone features and many people who needed functionality beyond that also carried PDA and/or pager type devices running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, Blackberry OS or Windows CE/Pocket PC.[1]Later versions of these systems started integrating cell phone capabilities with their PDA and messaging features and support of third-party applications. Today, high-end devices running these systems are often branded smartphones.
In early 2001, Palm, Inc. introduced the Kyocera 6035, the first smartphone to be deployed in widespread use in the United States. This device combined the features of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a wireless phone that operated on the Verizon Wireless network. For example, a user could select a name from the PDA contact list, and the device would dial that contact's phone number. The device also supported limited web browsing.[19] The device received a very positive reception from technology publications, but the product line never became widespread outside North America.[20]
In 2001 Microsoft announced its Windows CE Pocket PC OS would be offered as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002."[21] Microsoft originally defined its Windows Smartphone products as lacking a touchscreen and offering a lower screen resolution compared to its sibling Pocket PC devices.
In early 2002 Handspring released the Palm OS Treo smartphone, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar, and contact organizer with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.[22]
In 2002 RIM released their first BlackBerry devices with integrated phone functionality and shifted the positioning of their products from 2-way pagers to email-capable mobile phones. The BlackBerry line evolved into the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use and had achieved a total customer base of about 32 million subscribers by December 2009.[23]
In February 2011 Nokia announced a plan to make Microsoft Windows Phone 7 its high end smartphone operating system, reducing MeeGo to a research platform while still keeping Symbian for mid range and low range products.[24]
[edit]iPhone
In 2007, Apple Inc. introduced its first iPhone. It was initially costly, priced at $499 for the cheaper of two models on top of a two year contract. It was one of the first[citation needed] mobile phones to be mainly controlled through a touchscreen without a stylus, keyboard, or keypad, the others being theLG Prada and the HTC Touch (also released in 2007), though the iPhone was the first mobile phone to use a multi-touch interface. The iPhone featured a web browser that Ars Technica then described as "far superior" to anything offered by that of its competitors.[25] Initially lacking the capability to install native applications beyond the ones built-in to its OS, at WWDC in June 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone would supportthird-party "web 2.0 applications" running in its web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface.[26] As a result of the iPhone's initial inability to install third-party native applications, some reviewers considered the originally-released device to be more akin to a featurephone than a smartphone.[27] A process called jailbreaking emerged quickly to provide unofficial third-party native applications. Steve Jobs publicly stated that the original iPhone lacked 3G support due to the immaturity, power use, and physical size requirements of 3G chipsets at the time.[28]
In July 2008, Apple introduced its second generation iPhone with a lower list price starting at $199 and 3G support. Released with it, Apple also created the App Store, adding the capability for the iPhone and iPod Touch to officially install and execute additional native applications (both free and paid). The App Store can deliver applications directly over a Wi-Fi or cellular network without requiring a PC for installation. It can also be accessed through the iTunes software client on Macintosh and Windows PCs to download applications that will be later synchronized to a device once it is connected to that computer. The App Store has been a huge success for Apple going from over 500 applications at launch[29] to 65,000 applications and over 1.5 billion downloads in the first year.[30] The App Store hit 3 billion application downloads in early January 2010,[31] 10 billion downloads by January 2011,[32] and 15 billion downloads, of over 425,000 applications, in early July 2011.[33]
In June of 2010, Apple introduced iOS 4, which included APIs to allow third-party applications to multitask,[34] and the iPhone 4, which included a 960×640 pixel display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch (ppi), a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash capable of recording HD video in 720p at 30 frames per second, a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing, a 1 Ghz processor, and other improvements.[35] In early 2011 the iPhone 4 became available through Verizon Wireless, ending AT&T's exclusivity of the handset in the U.S.,[36][37][38] and allowing the handset's 3G connection to be used as a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot for the first time, to up to 5 other devices.[39] Software updates subsequently added this capability to other iPhones running iOS 4.[40][41]
[edit]Android
The Android operating system for smartphones was released in 2008. Android is an open-source platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Motorola and Samsung, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance.[42] The first phone to use Android was the HTC Dream, branded for distribution by T-Mobile as the G1. The software suite included on the phone consists of integration with Google's proprietary applications, such as Maps, Calendar, and Gmail, and a full HTML web browser. Android supports the execution of native applications and a preemptive multitasking capability (in the form of services). Third-party apps are available via the Android Market (released October 2008), including both free and paid apps.
In January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One smartphone using its Android OS. Although Android has multi-touch abilities, Google initially removed that feature from the Nexus One,[43] but it was added through a firmware update on February 2, 2010.[44]
Concerning the Xperia Play smartphone, an analyst at CCS Insight said in March 2011 that "Console wars are moving to the mobile platform".[45] In the same month, the HTC EVO 3D was announced by HTC Corporation, which can produce 3D effects with no need for special glasses (autostereoscopy).[46] The HTC EVO 3D was officially released on June 24, 2011.[47]
[edit]Others
The Bada operating system for smartphones was announced by Samsung on 10 November 2009.[48][49] The first Bada-based phone was the Samsung Wave S8500, released on June 1, 2010,[50][51] which sold one million handsets in its first 4 weeks on the market.[52]
Samsung shipped 3.5 million phones running Bada in Q1 of 2011.[53] This rose to 4.5 million phones in Q2 of 2011.[54]
[edit]Patent licensing and litigation
Recently the number of lawsuits, trade complaints, and countersuits and complaints based on patents and designs in the markets for smartphones, and devices based on smartphone OSes such as Android, has been increasing significantly.
Timeline[55][56][57][58][59] (initial suits, countersuits, rulings, licence agreements, and other major events in bold):
- 2009, Oct 22: Nokia sues Apple over 10 patents.[60][61]
- 2009, Dec 11: Apple countersues Nokia over 13 patents.[62]
- 2009, Dec 29: Nokia files a second lawsuit[63] and a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaint against Apple over 7 more patents.[64]
- 2010, Jan 15: Apple files an ITC complaint against Nokia over 9 patents.[65][66]
- 2010, Feb 19: Apple drops 4 patents from their countersuit against Nokia that are in their ITC complaint against Nokia.
- 2010, Feb 24: Apple countersues Nokia in Nokia's second lawsuit, over the 9 patents that are in Apple's ITC complaint.
- 2010, Mar 02: Apple sues HTC over 10 patents and files an ITC complaint against HTC over 10 other patents.[67][68][69][70][71]
- 2010, Apr 26: 5 of the patents in Apple's ITC complaint against Nokia are merged into their ITC complaint against HTC.
- 2010, Apr 27: HTC signs an agreement with Microsoft to licence Microsoft patents in return for royalties on HTC's devices[72][73] (rumored to be $5 per handset).
- 2010, May 07: Nokia files a third lawsuit against Apple over 5 more patents.[74]
- 2010, May 12: HTC files an ITC complaint against Apple over 5 patents.
- 2010, Jun 28: Apple countersues Nokia in Nokia's third lawsuit, over 7 more patents.
- 2010, Jul 06: HTC countersues Apple over 3 patents.
- 2010, Jul 21: Nokia drops 1 patent from their ITC complaint against Apple.
- 2010, Aug 12: Oracle sues Google over 7 patents relating to the use of Java in Android.[75]
- 2010, Sep 17: Nokia adds 2 more patents to their third lawsuit against Apple.
- 2010, Sep 27: Apple sues Nokia in the UK and Germany over 9 patents.
- 2010, Sep 30: Nokia countersues Apple in Germany over 4 patents.
- 2010, Oct 01: Microsoft files an ITC complaint and a lawsuit against Motorola over 9 patents.[76][77]
- 2010, Oct 06: Motorola sues Apple over 18 patents, and files an ITC complaint against Apple over 6 of them.[78]
- 2010, Oct 08: Motorola files a request for declaratory judgement that they do not infringe 12 Apple patents, and that those patents be declared invalid.[79][80]
- 2010, Oct 12: Nokia adds 3 more patents to their countersuit against Apple in Germany.
- 2010, Oct 25: Nokia sues Apple in another German court over 5 patents.
- 2010, Oct 28: Apple drops 4 patents from their ITC complaint against HTC and/or Nokia.
- 2010, Oct 29: Apple sues Motorola over 6 patents, and files an ITC complaint against Motorola over 3 of them.[81][82]
- 2010, Nov 05: HTC drops 1 patent from their ITC complaint against Apple.
- 2010, Nov 09: Microsoft alleges Motorola has failed to comply with RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations.
- 2010, Nov 10: Motorola sues Microsoft over 7 patents in one court and 9 patents in another.
- 2010, Nov 18: Apple makes counterclaims against Motorola over 6 patents.
- 2010, Nov 22: Motorola files an ITC complaint against Microsoft over 5 patents.
- 2010, Dec 01: Apple adds the 12 patents to their suit against Motorola that Motorola previously requested declaratory judgement that they do not infringe.[83]
- 2010, Dec 03: Nokia countersues Apple in the UK over 4 patents, and files a new suit against Apple in the Netherlands over 2 patents.
- 2010, Dec 03: Apple countersues Nokia in Nokia's second German lawsuit, over 1 patent and 2 utility models.
- 2010, Dec 06: Nokia drops 1 patent from their ITC complaint against Apple.
- 2010, Dec 15 and 22: Nokia and Apple take their first German suit/countersuit to the Federal Patent Court of Germany.
- 2010, Dec 23: Motorola files a third lawsuit against Microsoft over 3 patents.
- 2010, Dec 23: Microsoft countersues Motorola over 7 patents.
- 2011, Jan 06: The third Nokia/Apple lawsuit/countersuit is transferred to the location of the first and second ones.
- 2011, Jan 18: Apple seeks to invalidate one Nokia patent in the UK, which it was not yet being sued over.
- 2011, Jan 18: Motorola drops 1 patent from their lawsuits against Microsoft.
- 2011, Jan 19: Microsoft counterclaims against Motorola, asserting 5 patents.
- 2011, Jan 25: Microsoft counterclaims against Motorola, asserting 2 patents.
- 2011, Feb 14: Motorola adds 2 patents to their lawsuits against Microsoft.
- 2011, Feb 22: Apple drops 1 more patent from their ITC complaint against HTC and Nokia.
- 2011, Mar 21: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble over the Android operating system in the Nook ebook reader.[84]
- 2011, Mar 25: ITC finds that Apple does not infringe on 5 Nokia patents.
- 2011, Mar 28: Nokia files an ITC complaint against Apple over 7 more patents, and a fourth lawsuit over 6 of those.
- 2011, Apr 15: Apple sues Samsung for patent and trademark infringement (7 utility patents, 3 design patents, 3 registered trade dresses, 6 trademarked icons) with its Galaxy line of mobile products, including the Galaxy S smartphone and the Galaxy Tab tablet.[85][86]
- 2011, Apr 22: Samsung sues Apple in South Korea (5 patents), Japan (2 patents), and Germany (3 patents).[87]
- 2011, Apr 28: Samsung countersues Apple over 10 patents.[88]
- 2011, Apr 29: Apple drops 1 more patent from their ITC complaint against HTC.
- 2011, May 18: Samsung ordered to provide Apple samples of the announced Galaxy S2, Infuse 4G, and Infuse 4G LTE smartphones, as well as the Galaxy Tab 8.9 andGalaxy Tab 10.1 tablets as part of Apple's lawsuit against the company.[89][90]
- 2011, May 18: Samsung files a court motion for Apple to provide samples of the unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3 prototypes.[91]
- 2011, Jun 14: Nokia and Apple settle their litigation with Apple agreeing to pay Nokia an undisclosed one-time payment as well as continuing royalties.[92][93]
- 2011, Jun 16: Apple amends its lawsuit against Samsung, dropping 2 utility patents and 1 design patent, and adding 3 new utility patents plus 4 trade dress applications, now covering the Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_10.1[94]
- 2011, Jun 22: Apple countersues Samsung in South Korea over an unknown number of patents.
- 2011, Jun 22: Samsung's motion to be provided samples of Apple's unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3 prototypes is denied.[95]
- 2011, Jun 28: Samsung files an ITC complaint and a lawsuit against Apple over 5 patents.
- 2010, Jun 29: Samsung sues Apple in London, UK over an unknown number of patents, and a Samsung lawsuit against Apple in Italy becomes known (details unknown).
- 2010, Jun 30: Samsung converts its countersuit against Apple into counterclaims against Apple's suit, dropping 2 patents but adding 4 more.
- 2011, Jun 30: A consortium of companies made up of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony win against Google[96] in an auction of over 6,000Nortel mobile-related telecommunications patents for $4.5 billion USD.[97][98]
- 2011, Jul 01: Apple files for preliminary injunction against 4 Samsung products: Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 based on 3 design patents and 1 utility patent.[99]
- 2011, Jul 05: Apple files an ITC complaint against Samsung over 6 smartphones and 2 tablets infringing 5 utility patents and 2 design patents.
- 2011, Jul 06: Microsoft goes after Samsung, seeking $15 licensing fees for a range of claimed patent violations on every Android device, increasing the cost of ownershipof the formerly free Android, in order to drive manufacturers back to Windows Mobile.[100][101]
- 2011, Jul 11: Apple files a second ITC complaint against HTC over 5 more patents, and sues HTC over 4 patents from this second ITC complaint that they weren't already suing HTC over.
- 2011, Jul 14: ITC finds HTC infringes on 2 Apple patents.
- 2011, Jul 29: HTC sues Apple in London, UK over an unknown number of patents.
- 2011, Aug 02: Samsung delays the launch and stops advertising of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia to an indefinite date due to their patent disputes with Apple.[102][103]
- 2011, Aug 09: A German court issues a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Apple's lawsuit against Samsung which causes its sale to be banned in most of Europe.[104][105]
- 2011, Aug 16: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban in Europe is lifted outside of Germany.[106][107]
- 2011, Aug 15: Google announces its intention to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion USD. Eighteen of Motorola's patents could potentially be used for defense or countersuits against Apple and Microsoft, and may influence the smartphone war. These patents may change the balance of power, and force the various players to settle their lawsuits.[108][109]
- 2011, Aug 23: Microsoft files a complaint with the ITC requesting a ban on several key Motorola smartphones and devices in the USA based on infringements of 7 patents.[110][111]
- 2011, Aug 24: A court in the Netherlands rules that Samsung will be banned from selling the Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Ace in a number of European countriesdue to Apple's patent infringement claims.[112]
- 2011, Sep 02: Apple granted preliminary injunction against Samsung preventing display of the prototype Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet at the IFA trade show in Berlin.[113]
- 2011, Sep 09: HTC countersues Apple using nine patents from Google. The move is seen as a possible first step for Google giving direct support in lawsuits involving manufacturers using Android.[114][115]
- 2011, Sep 09: Apple's preliminary injunction against sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany is upheld.[116]
[edit]Screen
Screens on smartphones vary largely in both display size and display resolution. Screen sizes range from 2 inches to 5 inches (measured diagonally), while resolutions vary from 240 × 320 to 640 × 960; a common resolution for smartphones is 480 × 800.[117]
[edit]Application stores
The introduction of Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications focused on a single platform. Prior to this, smartphone application distribution was largely dependent on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar, Handango, Handmark, PocketGear, and others.
The iPhone's platform is officially restricted to installing apps only through Apple's App Store, though via jailbreaking it can install apps from other sources. Other platforms may allow application distribution through additional sources outside of their manufacturer-provided app stores, such as third-party app stores and downloads from individual websites.
Following the success of Apple's App Store other smartphone manufacturers quickly launched application stores of their own. Google launched the Android Market in October 2008. RIM launched its app store, BlackBerry App World, in April 2009. Nokia launched its Ovi Store in May 2009. Palm launched its Palm App Catalogfor webOS in June 2009. Microsoft launched an application store for Windows Mobile called Windows Marketplace for Mobile in October 2009, and then a separate Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 in October 2010. Samsung launched Samsung Apps for its bada based phones in June 2010. Amazon launched its Amazon Appstore for the GoogleAndroid operating system in March 2011.
[edit]
Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors and graphics processing units, abundant storage (flash memory) for applications and media files, high-resolution screens with multi-touch capability, and open operating systems has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years.[118]
According to an early 2010 study by ComScore, over 45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones out of 234 million total subscribers.[119] Despite the large increase in smartphone sales in the last few years, smartphone shipments only made up 20% of total handset shipments as of the first half of 2010.[120]
According to Gartner in their report dated November 2010, total smartphone sales doubled in one year and now smartphones represent 19.3 percent of total mobile phone sales.[121]Smartphone sales increased in 2010 by 72.1 percent from the prior year, whereas sales for all mobile phones only increased by 31.8 percent.[122][123]
According to an Olswang report in early 2011, the rate of smartphone adoption is accelerating: as of March 2011 22% of UK consumers had a smartphone, with this percentage rising to 31% amongst 24–35 year olds.[124]
In March 2011 Berg Insight reported data that showed global smartphone shipments increased 74% from 2009 to 2010.[125]
