The Evolution of the Smartphone: Now and Then

Smartphones have become deeply ingrained into our culture at an almost startling rate. They’ve gone from luxury items that were only used in certain situations, to daily necessities that the everyday person cannot be without.

The earliest smartphones are almost unrecognizable from today’s modern devices. It’s a remarkable transition that was filled with its own ups and downs along the years.

The Very First Smartphone

In 1992, IBM showed the world the first glimpse of the very first smartphone. Their Simon Personal Communicator was a rather bulky devices that was only equipped with a monochrome LCD touchscreen.

It also had the capability to connect to a standard phone jack to make landline calls and bypass the the high cellular rates of the time. Still, priced at $1,100 it didn’t perform to well in the marketplace, only selling 50,000 units in six months.

Say Hello to the Apple iPhone

Released in June of 2007, the Apple iPhone had much to do with how current smartphones evolved and progressed. With the revolutionary development and implementation of small executable programs known as Apps, the already robust feature set of the iPhone was further expanded by third-party app programmers and developers.

Priced at $499 for its 4GB sku model and $599 for its 8GB model, it was a far more affordable option than other alternatives with less capabilities. Consumers flocked to the device, having the power to do tasks that were usually reserved only for traditional computers. This trend continued with further iterations and competing devices.

Smartphones have come a very long way already, and their improvements haven’t begun to slow down at all. As the devices become more powerful, we may begin to see more of how they replace our existing computing methods and take an even larger role in our lives.

To see an expanded look at the history and evolution of the smartphone, view the infographic below.

Author bio: Nick Rojas combines 20 years of experience working with and consulting for small to medium business and a passion for journalism to help readers grow. He writes about technology, marketing, and social media for the aspiring entrepreneur. When Nick is not sharing his expertise, he can be found spending time at the beach with his dog Presto. @NickARojas