Modern smartphone (iPhone)
Smartphone moderno (iPhone)
- Date
- 2007 · confidence high
- Place
- Apple, Cupertino, California, United States
- Credited to
- Apple (Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell, Jony Ive)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A phone with a full multi-touch screen, a real web browser and a Unix-derived operating system, without a physical keyboard. It turned the mobile phone into humanity's principal computer.
The IBM Simon (1994) was the first smartphone with a touchscreen; Nokia and BlackBerry dominated earlier smartphones. The iPhone redefined the category.
What it led to
- The app economy and the mobile industry (Android, Samsung, Xiaomi)
- Internet access for billions of people without a computer
- Permanent attention, ubiquitous photography, location-based surveillance and mobile commerce
Built on
- Capacitive and multi-touch touchscreen1965
- Liquid-crystal display (LCD)1964-1971
- Handheld mobile phone (Motorola DynaTAC)1973
- Flash memory1980-1987
- RISC architecture and ARM processor1980-1985
- Solid-state drive (flash SSD)1991
- Lithium-ion battery1980-1991
- CMOS active-pixel sensor and camera phone1993-2000
- Personal digital assistant (Newton, PalmPilot)1993-1996
- Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)1997-1999
- iPod and iTunes Store2001-2003
- Mobile broadband: 3G, 4G LTE and 5G2001-2019
- PDA
- ARM architecture
- GSM/3G
Made possible
- App Store2008
- Android operating system2008
- Mobile internet messaging (WhatsApp) with end-to-end encryption2009
- Tablet computer (iPad)2010
- App-based ride-hailing (Uber)2009-2010
- Smart home (Nest thermostat, domestic IoT)2011-2014
- Wearables and smartwatch (Fitbit, Apple Watch)2015
- Instagram and TikTok
- mobile payments