history of smartphones essay

The Brief History of Smartphones

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In 1926, during an interview for "Collier" magazine, legendary scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla described a piece of technology that would revolutionize the lives of its users. Here’s the quote:

When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

While Tesla might not have chosen to call this instrument a smartphone, his foresight was spot on. These future phones  have, in essence, reprogrammed how we interact with and experience the world. But they didn’t appear overnight. There were many technologies that progressed, competed, converged, and evolved toward the fairly sophisticated pocket companions we have come to rely on.

The Modern Smartphone

So who invented the smartphone? First, let's make it clear that the smartphone didn’t start with Apple—though the company and its charismatic co-founder Steve Jobs deserve much credit for perfecting a model that has made the technology just about indispensable among the masses. In fact, there were phones capable of transmitting data, as well as featured applications such as email, in use prior to the arrival of early popular devices, such as the Blackberry.

Since then, the definition of the smartphone has essentially become arbitrary. For example, is a phone still smart if it doesn’t have a touchscreen? At one time, the Sidekick, a popular phone from carrier T-Mobile, was considered cutting edge. It had a swiveling full-qwerty keyboard that allowed for rapid-fire text messaging, LCD screen, and stereo speakers. In modern times, few people would find a phone remotely acceptable that cannot run third-party apps. The lack of consensus is muddied even further by the concept of a “feature phone,” which shares some of the smartphone's abilities. But is it smart enough?

A solid textbook definition comes from the Oxford dictionary, which describes a smartphone as “a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer , typically having a touchscreen interface, internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded apps.” So for the purpose of being as comprehensive as possible, let’s begin with the very minimal threshold of what constitutes “smart” features: computing.

Who Invented Smartphones?

The first device that technically qualifies as a smartphone was simply a highly-sophisticated (for its time) brick phone. You know one of those bulky, but fairly exclusive status-symbol toys flashed in 1980s movies like "Wall Street?" The IBM Simon Personal Communicator, released in 1994, was a sleeker, more advanced, and premium brick that sold for $1,100. Sure, a lot of smartphones today cost about as much, but remember that $1,100 in the 1990s was nothing to sneeze at.

IBM had conceived of the idea for a computer-style phone as early as the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1992 that the company unveiled a prototype at the COMDEX computer and technology trade show in Las Vegas. Besides placing and receiving calls, the Simon prototype could also send facsimiles, emails, and cellular pages. It even had a nifty touchscreen for dialing numbers. Extra features included apps for a calendar, address book, calculator, scheduler, and notepad. IBM also demonstrated that the phone was capable of displaying maps, stocks, news, and other third-party applications, with certain modifications.

Tragically, the Simon ended up in the heap pile of being too ahead of its time. Despite all the snazzy features, it was cost-prohibitive for most and was only useful for a very niche clientele. The distributor, BellSouth Cellular, would later reduce the price of the phone to $599 with a two-year contract. And even then, the company only sold about 50,000 units. The company took the product off the market after six months.

The Early Awkward Marriage of PDAs and Cell Phones

The initial failure to introduce what was a fairly novel notion of phones having a multiplicity of capabilities didn’t necessarily mean that consumers weren’t keen on incorporating smart devices into their lives. In a way, smart technology was all the rage during the late 1990s, as evidenced by the widespread adoption of stand-alone smart gadgets known as personal digital assistants. Before hardware makers and developers figured out ways to successfully merge PDAs with cellular phones , most people simply made due by carrying two devices.

The leading name in the business at the time was Sunnyvale-based electronics firm Palm, which jumped to the fore with products such as the Palm Pilot. Throughout the generations of the product line, various models offered a multitude of pre-installed apps, PDA-to-computer connectivity, email, messaging, and an interactive stylus. Other competitors at the time included Handspring and Apple with the Apple Newton.

Things started to come together right before the turn of the new millennium, as device makers began slowly incorporating smart features into cell phones. The first notable effort was the Nokia 9000 communicator, which the manufacturer introduced in 1996. It came in a clamshell design that was fairly large and bulky but allowed for a qwerty keyboard , along with navigation buttons. This was so that the makers could cram in some of the more salable smart features, such as faxing, web browsing, email, and word processing.

But it was the Ericsson R380, which debuted in 2000, that became the first product billed and marketed as a smartphone. Unlike the Nokia 9000, it was small and light like most typical cell phones. Remarkably, the phone's keypad could be flipped outward to reveal a 3.5-inch black-and-white touchscreen from which users could access a litany of apps. The phone also allowed for internet access, though no web browser was available and users weren’t able to install third-party apps.

The convergence continued as competitors from the PDA side moved into the fray, with Palm introducing the Kyocera 6035 in 2001 and Handspring putting out its own offering, the Treo 180, the following year. The Kyocera 6035 was significant for being the first smartphone to be paired with a major wireless data plan through Verizon, while the Treo 180 provided services via a GSM line and operating system that seamlessly integrated telephone, internet, and text messaging service.   

Smartphone Mania Spreads From East to West

Meanwhile, as consumers and the tech industry in the West were still tinkering with what many referred to as PDA/cell phone hybrids, an impressive smartphone ecosystem was coming into its own across the way in Japan. In 1999, local upstart telecom NTT DoCoMo launched a series of handsets linked to a high-speed internet network called i-mode.

Compared to Wireless Application Protocol, the network used in the United States for data transfers for mobile devices, Japan’s wireless system allowed for a wider range of internet services such as email, sports results, weather forecasts, games, financial services, and ticket booking—all carried out at faster speeds. Some of these advantages are attributed to the use of “compact HTML” or “cHTML,” a modified form of HTML that enables a full rendering of web pages. Within two years, the NTT DoCoMo network had an estimated 40 million subscribers.

But outside of Japan, the notion of treating your phone as some sort of digital Swiss army knife hadn’t quite taken hold. The major players at the time were Palm, Microsoft , and Research in Motion, a lesser-known Canadian firm. Each had its respective operating systems. You might think that the two more established names in the tech industry would have an advantage in this respect. Yet, there was something more than mildly addictive about RIM’s Blackberry devices that had some users calling their trusty devices Crackberries.

RIM’s reputation was built on a product line of two-way pagers that, over time, evolved into full-fledged smartphones. Critical to the company’s success early on was its efforts to position the Blackberry, first and foremost, as a platform for business and enterprise to deliver and receive push email through a secure server. It was this unorthodox approach that fueled its popularity among the more mainstream consumers.   

Apple’s iPhone

In 2007, at a heavily-hyped press event in San Francisco, Jobs stood on stage and unveiled a revolutionary product that set an entirely new paradigm for computer-based phones. The look, interface, and core functionality of nearly every smartphone to come along since is, in some form or another, derived from the original iPhone’s innovative touchscreen-centric design.

Among some of the groundbreaking features was an expansive and responsive display from which to check email, stream video, play audio, and browse the internet with a mobile browser that loaded full websites, much like what’s experienced on personal computers. Apple’s unique iOS operating system allowed for a wide range of intuitive gesture-based commands and eventually, a rapidly-growing warehouse of downloadable third-party applications.  

Most importantly, the iPhone reoriented people’s relationship with smartphones. Up to then, they were generally geared toward businesspeople and enthusiasts who saw them as an invaluable tool for staying organized, corresponding over email, and boosting their productivity. Apple’s version took it to a whole other level as a full-blown multimedia powerhouse, enabling users to play games, watch movies, chat, share content, and stay connected to all the possibilities that we’re all still constantly rediscovering.

• Chong, Celena. "The inventor that inspired Elon Musk and Larry Page predicted smartphones nearly 100 years ago." Business Insider, July 6, 2015.
• "Smartphone." Lexico, 2019.
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History Cooperative

The Complete History of Phones from the Last 500 Years

Today, mobile phones fit in the palm of our hands, and laptops fit in our bags, making communication seem compact and accessible. But, the history of phones goes way back.

Teenagers today may not have experienced this, but in the olden days, before the time of the convenient handheld mobile phone, telephones had cords and antennas.

Telephone systems were usually entirely analog devices with little digital screens. At that time, no one imagined that digital cordless phones would come and take over the market.

Just like cell phones did not come out of anywhere, the telephone system has a series of predecessors too.

Here is a brief history of the telephone, beginning from the earliest forms of audio transmission to the invention of the first cell phone:

Table of Contents

The History of Phones: The Earliest Audio Communication Devices

With the industrial revolution in full swing and wars becoming increasingly mechanical, it was only a matter of time before someone came along with the idea of audio transmission.

There are a few devices that preceded and, consequently, led to the invention of the telephone:

Mechanical Devices

Mechanical and acoustic devices for the transmission of speech and music go back a long way. As far back as the 17th century, people were experimenting with pipes, strings, and similar media to transmit sound.

The earliest examples of this phenomenon were acoustic in nature like the tin can telephone.

Tin Can Telephone

A tin can telephone network was a rudimentary speech-transmitting device. If we can do away with the fancy words , it was just two cans or paper cups attached by a string.

The sound from one end would be converted into solid vibrations, also known as mechanical telephony, travel through the string and be converted back into audible sound.

Today, tin can telephones are used in science classes to demonstrate the role of vibrations in producing sound.

In the 17th century, Robert Hooke was known for conducting such experiments. He is also credited for creating an acoustic phone in 1667.

Tin can phones, or their later models, known as the lover’s telephone, were marketed in competition with the electrical telephone service in the late 19th century.

It was obviously hard to compete against a more sophisticated product and so, acoustic telephone companies quickly went out of business.

Speaking Tube

A speaking tube is exactly what it sounds like: two cones connected by an air pipe. It can transmit speech over long distances.

The father of empiricism and an influential figure of the Scientific Revolution that preceded the Enlightenment, Francis Bacon was responsible for suggesting the use of pipes for transmitting speech.

Speaking tubes were used in intra-ship communications, military aircraft, expensive automobiles, and expensive homes. But, it was another one of those gimmicky technologies that could not sustain its market against the roaring progress of the telephone.

Electrical Telegraph

An electrical telegraph was almost like the first telephone service in the world. But, it did not send and receive calls. It communicated messages.

So, it was basically the world’s first SMS service.

The precursor to the cell phone in some ways, the electrical telegraph was a point-to-point messaging system.

On the sending side, switches would control the flow of current to telegraph wires. The receiving device would use an electromagnetic charge to form the representation of the sent information.

One of the first practical applications of electrical engineering, it existed in various forms. In its two most popular forms, it existed as a needle telegraph and as a telegraph sounder.

All of these technologies remained – to some extent – in commercial use until the electrical telephone came along.

Who Invented the Telephone?

People often begin the history of the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell. It’s not a bad place to start. But, what would you say if I told you that it was not Alexander Graham Bell who created the first telephone?

At least, not technically.

Quite often, tracking the original inventor of a new device can be quite tricky. The history of the telephone is certainly one such instance.

It has remained a controversial topic over the years, garnering much attention from historians and scholars. Books, research articles, and court cases have tried to solve this puzzle to no avail.

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone was the first patented model of a series of similar inventions. It’s fine to call him the “father of the telephone,” but let us not forget others, who toiled their blood and sweat to push technology forward.

Antonio Meucci

The printing press was one of the greatest inventions in human history until the arrival of the cell phone . It served as the prime form of formal communication within a society. That changed with the arrival of telegraphs.

But, people had been sending and receiving letters for the longest of time.

One guy thought that paper was far too slow and inefficient. Why not develop a device that could get over these barriers? Such a device would be quicker and be able to communicate intonation, instead of implying it.

An Italian innovator, Antonio Meucci , had just this idea. He wanted to create a simpler and more efficient way of long-distance communication. So, he started working on developing a design for a talking telegraph. He is now credited with creating the first basic phone in 1849.

Charles Bourseul

Born in Belgium and raised in France, Charles Boursel worked as an engineer for a telegraph company. He made improvements to existing models of the telegraph before deciding to experiment with electrical systems.

He was able to transmit speech electrically by creating an electromagnetic telephone. Unfortunately, his receiving device was unable to convert the electric signal back into clear, audible sounds.

He also wrote a memorandum on the transmission of human speech by using an electric current. He published the article in a Paris magazine. Meucci claimed his first attempt to make a telephone came shortly afterward.

Johann Phillip Reis

Phillip Reis was instrumental in the invention of the telephone. In 1861, he created a device that captured the sound and converted it into electrical impulses. These would, then, travel through wires and reach the receiver.

Reis called his microphone “the singing station” since he wanted to invent a device for broadcasting music. A patent dispute ensued in which Thomas Edison came out on top, despite having made the device after Reis.

Thomas Edison used the ideas provided by Reis to develop his carbon microphone. About Reis, he said :

The first inventor of a telephone was Phillip Reis of Germany [. . .]. The first person to publicly exhibit a telephone for transmission of articulate speech was A. G. Bell. The first practical commercial telephone for transmission of articulate speech was invented by myself. Telephones used throughout the world are mine and Bell’s. Mine is used for transmitting. Bell’s is used for receiving.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is a popular name, known primarily for his contributions to introducing a lightbulb . But, Thomas was less of an inventor and more of an entrepreneur, who was often more interested in gathering novel things than inventing them.

For instance, his contributions to the electric light often spark much controversy when compared to the work of Nikola Tesla . But, like in his other inventions, he did add important flourishes to the final, practical product.

When it comes to the carbon microphone, he was experimenting with it at the same time when David Edward Hughes was working on transmitters and “the microphone effect” and Emile Berliner was working on a loose-contact transmitter. All three of them based their works on the study of Phillip Reis.

David Edward Hughes

David Edward Hughes was the real force behind the invention of the carbon microphone, even though Edison took all the credit. Hughes had demonstrated his device to the members of the public and most people consider him the “real” inventor of the carbon microphone.

Hughes chose not to take out a patent. He wanted his gift to be a gift to the world. On the other side of the world, in the US, both Edison and Emile Berliner competed in a race for acquiring the patent.

When Edison won the patent, he was officially credited with the invention of the microphone, even though the word itself was coined by Hughes. The microphones we use today are direct heirs of the carbon microphone.

Elisha Gray

Before we get to Bell, here is another significant name to add to the list: Elisha Gray.

Elisha Grey was the co-founder of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company and is remembered for the development of the telephone prototype in the late 1800s. This was a few years after Alexander Graham Bell obtained the patent for telephone technology.

Here’s the catch: there have been several allegations that Bell stole the idea of a liquid transmitter from Elisha, who had been experimenting with and using them for years.

This entire matter is shrouded in controversy and some people claim that Elisha Grey should be credited for the invention of the telephone. After many legal battles, courts have mostly favored Bell.

Alexander Graham Bell

And, so we finally get to Alexander Graham Bell, the man who went to the patent office and, supposedly, influenced the people there to grant him the patent before others.

Bell patented the phone as an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically.”

Both Antonio Meucci and Phillip Reis were the foremost pioneers but they were unable to make a complete device that performed in all practical arenas. Alexander Graham Bell’s device, on the other hand, could be seen as the first practical telephone.

The claims and counterclaims regarding the invention of early telephones abound, only the patents of Bell and Edison are commercially decisive. The zeitgeist flowers Bell with all the praise.

The telephone started evolving from this point forward. All forms of the modern telephone can be traced back to the inventions of all the aforementioned gentlemen.

When Was the Telephone Invented?

It depends on what you consider the “invention of the telephone.”

The Analog Devices

The earliest form of the mechanical telephone, the one invented by Robert Hooke, was made in 1667. In 1672, Francis Bacon suggested the use of pipes for transmitting sound. In 1782, a French monk, Dom Gauthey, started experimenting with Francis’ idea.

The First Telegraphs

The first working telegraph was made in 1816 by an English inventor, Francis Ronalds. Baron Schilling made an electromagnetic telegraph in 1832, followed by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber in 1883, who made a different electromagnetic telegraph.

The First Telephones

By improving all these devices, we eventually got to the telephone in the mid-19th century. Antonio Meucci constructed his telephone-like device during the years 1849-1854. 1854 is also the year in which Charles Bourseul wrote his memorandum on the transmission of sound.

Reis constructed his first prototype in the year 1862, a few years before Bell would perfect the design. His work was presented in the United States in 1872, where it started to pique the interest of entrepreneurs and engineers.

David Edward Hughes invented his carbon microphone in 1878 in England . Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner followed suit in the US. Interestingly, Edison was awarded the patent for the microphone in 1877, but Hughes had demonstrated his device much earlier but took the time to work out the kinks.

Elisha Gray made his telephone in 1876, the same year as Alexander Graham Bell. Here is where the story gets interesting.

Gray had signed the documents, had them notarized, and submitted them to the US Patent Office on the 14th of February, 1876. The very same morning, Bell’s lawyer submitted a patent application. Whose application arrived first was contested. Gray believed that his application had reached the offices before Bell’s application.

The Patent Drama

According to one account, Bell’s lawyer found out about Gray’s device and his lawyer’s intention of delivering the application on the morning of the 14th. He then added similar claims to Bell’s application and delivered it to the office. It reached the office at noon. Gray’s application had made its way to the office in the morning.

Well then, how was Bell awarded the patent?

Bell’s lawyer hustled to get the application to submit the application on the same day, so he could later claim that it had arrived first – since the record would show that both applications had arrived on the same day. Bell was away during this period of time and in all probability, could not have known that his application had been filed.

The examiner was annoyed at the issue and suspended Bell’s application for 90 days. During this time, Bell was informed of the situation and he resumed his work. After the mess of all the legalities and technicalities, the examiner noted that:

. . . while Gray was undoubtedly the first to conceive of and disclose the [variable resistance] invention, as in his caveat of February 14, 1876, his failure to take any action amounting to completion until others had demonstrated the utility of the invention deprives him of the right to have it considered.

The entire incident did not sit well with Gray, who challenged Bell’s claims. Two years of litigation yielded nothing but disappointment for him as Bell was awarded the rights to the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell was the official inventor of the telephone.

The First Telephone Call

The first telephone call was made by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 when he said the words:

“Mr [Thomas] Watson, come here. I want to see you.”

Evolution of the Telephone

A mobile phone is a cool little gadget, but it took a long time to make the first cellular phone. Charting the progress from electrical telephones to cell phones is certainly no easy task. But, let’s try it, anyway.

Get ready for a lot of firsts as we look at some of the most important innovations along the way:

The First Permanent Outdoor Telephone Wire

The first permanent outdoor telephone wire was placed in Nevada County, California in 1877. It was 97km long and was operated by the Ridge Telephone Company.

Along with the rise of the commercial telephone service phenomenon, outdoor wiring helped the telephone network become increasingly dense.

The Arrival of the Telephone Service

By the time, the telephone was available as a product, electrical telegraphs were already a common phenomenon. Stock exchanges, governmental institutions, large corporations, and the homes of the elite class already employed and used them.

The underlying structure and network of the telegraph systems allowed the telephone networks to easily map themselves according to the existing schema.

Telephones had already arrived in the market and were being used. But, they had to be connected directly, which of course, restricted their use in a major fashion. All of this had to change, and change it did, with the arrival of the telephone exchange.

By 1877, Friedrichsberg near Berlin had a commercial telephone company, the first one of its kind.

The Telephone Exchange

The telephone exchange was a big deal at the time. It was single-handedly responsible for the commercial rise of telephone technology.

A telephone exchange connects individual subscriber lines, enabling users to connect with each other. It was a web of sorts: all paths led here. Calls would arrive here and the operators would forward them to the desired receiver.

This idea was the brainchild of a Hungarian engineer, Tivadar Puskas. When Bell invented the telephone or claimed to have done so, Puskas was working on his idea of an exchange.

“Tivadar Puskas was the first person to suggest the idea of a telephone exchange,” claimed Thomas Edison, with whom Puskas started working shortly afterward.

Based on Puskas’ ideas, the Bell Telephone Company built the first exchange in 1877 – thanks to George W. Coy, Herrick P. Frost, and Walter Lewis -, and Puskas set up one in Paris, a couple of years later. The former is often considered the first telephone exchange in the world. Before you know it, commercial telephone service became a thing.

Puskas later developed the technology for “Telephone News Service” and was awarded a patent in 1892. His model was the precursor to the radio .

The First Transcontinental Telephone Line

The first long-distance call took place in 1915. A transcontinental telephone line was placed for this purpose between New York City and San Francisco.

Graham Bell placed the call from 15 Dey Street and it was received at 333 Grant Avenue by his former assistant and colleague, Thomas Watson.

The transcontinental telephone line linked the Atlantic seaboard with the West Coast. It is generally referred to as the New York-San Francisco line.

The First Transatlantic Telephone Line

Transatlantic telephone cables were placed to take the idea of a local telephone network to the global level.

This was, by no means, the first remote transatlantic communication. Transatlantic telegraphs had existed before. But, once the transatlantic telephone cables were installed, there was no need for telegraphs anymore.

The first transatlantic call took place between the President of the company now known as AT&T, Walter S. Gifford, and the head of the British General Post Office, Sir Evelyn P. Murray.

The Humble Beginnings of the Mobile Phone

The cell phone is a fairly modern invention, but its roots go back to the early years of the 20th century, the first mobile phone service started appearing in German railway systems. In 1924, Zugtelephonie AG was founded and they started supplying telephone equipment for use in trains. By 1926, mobile telephone systems were being used by Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany.

Instead of hampering the progress of mobile technology, the Second World War quickened it. With the increased military urgency, there were many advances in mobile communications. Gradually, military vehicles started using two-way radios to coordinate their movements and plans.

After the war, vehicles like railroad trains, taxicabs, and police cruisers started using two-way mobile communication systems. Companies in US and Europe were offering these large systems. They were large, power-hungry devices that were not exactly practical.

From here, small advances would take us to the inevitable launch of the first cell phone.

Mobile Phone Networks

AT&T’s Bell Labs introduced a mobile service in 1946, which was commercialized by 1949 as the Mobile Telephone Service.

The First Handheld Mobile Phone

In 1973, Motorola built the first cell phone. Martin Cooper and his team beat Bell Labs to the punch and stepped into a news conference to unveil the product. The product would go on to revolutionize communication in the next couple of decades.

The DynaTAC 8000x, although demonstrated earlier, came out a decade later and the rest is history.

We could go on to discuss digital cordless phones, the first tri-band GSM phone, the first camera phone, the first touchscreen phone, and several other firsts in the world of cellular phones, such as the first Android phone and the first iPhone .

The history of the telephone is a messy web of separate incidents and narratives, all of which happen to intersect and coincide in a unique fashion. From the controversy surrounding the first telephone to the development of the telephone network, all offer an insight into the minds of the pioneers who helped shape the modern understanding of our world.

How to Cite this Article

There are three different ways you can cite this article.

1. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper , use:

<a href=" https://historycooperative.org/history-of-phones/ ">The Complete History of Phones from the Last 500 Years</a>

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On the origin of the smartphone

Huub Ehlhardt, Arthur O. Eger

Smartphones have become a hallmark of our time. The smartphone has enabled a stream of new applications and become a topic of many debates. Its presence is now being questioned during dinner, driving and in bed. Clearly it has an unavoidable nature and far reaching influence.

This article is the fourth in a series of five on product evolution. They illustrate that technological evolution can explain ‘the origin of products’, although one of a different nature than we know from biological species.

Landline telephones

The first patent for the electric telephone was granted in 1876 to Alexander Graham Bell. However, there is disagreement about who should be given credit for the invention of the telephone as several pioneering inventors worked on devices to transmit spoken word.

In the following decades the network systems of landlines were built and use of telephones spread. The first telephones used were simple wooden boxes to which a speaker and mouthpiece were connected. From the initial box designs, the so-called candlestick telephone evolved in the 1890s and became hugely popular. It still consisted of a separate mouthpiece and speaker but got rid of the box. In these days the telephone exchange required manually operated switchboards to make connections. This opened up new job opportunities for women as switchboard operators. The telephone soon proved to be an indispensable tool for trade and fuelled economic development. All in all the telephone and its network system had a large societal impact.

Increased demand made landline networks evolve from hand-operated switchboards to mechanised pulse networks for which the telephone received a dial. Further increasing demands fuelled development towards tone networks which are operated by push buttons using the 12-digit keypad we still find on smartphones. Again driven by increasing demands, networks evolved to digital transmission.

Mobile phones

Just like for landlines, the history of mobile phones is intertwined with a series of consecutive network technologies. The first experimental mobile networks developed to circumvent restrictions of landline-based telephones are collectively designated by the name 0G. These 0G networks could only handle few calls and were very expensive.

The first commercially operated wireless telephone networks are referred to as 1G and used analogue network technologies. These networks are made up of many cells, each with its own base station, which connects to the terrestrial phone network. The base stations allow connections being handed over from one cell to the next. Hence the used devices are also named cell phones. Without this cell network structure mobile phone users would not be able to travel while calling.

The first 1G cellular network was launched in 1979 in Japan by the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) company. The technology spread and in 1981 Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden received their Nordic Mobile Telephone system. Then in 1983 also in the USA a 1G network became operational using the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone. Now referred to as the ‘brick phone’, this first of a kind weighted about 800 grams and was priced close to four thousand dollars or more than three times the average worker’s monthly salary. Nevertheless, because of its novelty soon after introduction there was already a waiting list. The following years Motorola developed into a leading mobile telephone manufacturer.

The second generation of wireless telephone networks also referred to as 2G are based on a standard developed in Europe. The protocol used by 2G is based on the Global System for Mobile Communications and simply referred to as GSM. Deployed in Finland in December 1991, 2G was the first digital cellular network.

Building on the success of early mobile phones additional text messaging services were developed using the same network technology. This became known as Short Message Service (SMS) and was commercially introduced in 1993 in Finland. SMS did not require any additional infrastructure and soon became hugely popular. This made it a cash cow for mobile operators around the world in the years to follow.

The first mass-produced GSM telephone was the Nokia 1011 introduced in 1992. The popularity of the mobile phone opened a huge market and production numbers rose rapidly. Many other companies started producing mobile phones, however Nokia and Motorola dominated the market. The mobile phones later became known as feature phones (to distinguish them from smartphones). Feature phones have been produced in a few typical designs known as candy bar, clamshell and flip phone.

Feature phones became a huge success. Annual production amounts of feature phone handsets rose to well over hundred million a year by end of the 1990s. By 2002 the amount of mobile phones had outgrown the amount of landline phones in use. The wide availability of mobile phones changed our perception of what it means to ‘keep in touch’.

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From “brick” to smartphone: the evolution of the mobile phone

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• Published: 05 March 2021
• Volume 46 , pages 287–288, ( 2021 )

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Telephony began in the 1870s with the invention of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for his version of the telephone at the US Patent Office in Washington, DC, on February 14, 1876, just a few hours before his competitor Elisha Gray filed his patent based upon independent work. 1 Since then, materials research has pushed this field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services, particularly in recent years.

The proliferation of telephones did not make a great overnight leap. In fact, as late as 1950, only 62% of American households contained a telephone, 2 and that number had been significantly smaller before World War II. Most communications were by telegram, letter, or through face-to-face discussions. One significant hindrance to communication was natural disasters, which often led to long periods of no information between family and friends.

On the evening of January 3, 1949, a devastating tornado struck the small town of Warren, Ark. 3 The tornado left more than 50 dead and more than 300 injured. My dad’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew, as well as many friends, lived in Warren at that time and were affected. Telephone lines were destroyed. My parents and I lived far away and had no way to get in contact with them. More than a week passed before we received word that they were okay.

My father later accepted a faculty position at Arkansas A&M College in Monticello, 16 miles from Warren, to be closer to his family. When we moved to a farm near the campus, our first telephone line was a party line, which consisted of a single channel shared by many people. This offered little in the way of privacy, as others outside of your household could listen to conversations. We eventually upgraded to a private landline. The phone was located in a central part of the house, and the cord was only a few feet long, which meant that you were essentially tethered to that spot when making or answering a call, not ideal for any teenager craving privacy.

People then didn’t have the luxury of cell phones, and instead often used pay phones by inserting money or calling collect. Jim Croce has a wonderful song, “Operator,” 4 about an unsuccessful attempt to connect with some old friends. I often wonder if younger people understand the significance of the lyrics, including the phrase “You can keep the dime.”

Today, humanity is more connected than ever through the use of cell phones. However, mobile phones didn’t start in their current, sleek style. The first mobile phone by Motorola in 1983 5 was so big and heavy that it was nicknamed “the brick.” Current phones are significantly more lightweight and compact and have the capability to text, email, access social media, access the Internet, and much more.

According to recent surveys, 75% of the world’s population owns a cell phone. 6 , 7 Surveys in 2019 indicated that there were 5.11 billion unique mobile phone users, and that 2.71 billion of them used smartphones. People from China (> 782 million users) and India (> 386 million users) are the largest consumers of smartphones, followed by the United States (> 235 million users).

If you search for technological advances that facilitated progress to the current state of cell phone technology, you will find lists that include the Internet, global positioning systems, touch screens, cameras, high-speed modems, displays, batteries, and a host of other materials and technologies. 8 , 9

The computers that drive recent smartphones have 64-bit architectures. 10 , 11 They are usually fabricated as a system-on-a-chip and include multiple cores and extra features, such as neural engines and embedded motion coprocessors. They contain cameras with more than 10 megapixels and multi-element lens systems and include zoom capabilities and two-axis stabilization. The phones support a wide variety of standard communication protocols, including accessibility features for those who wear hearing aids. Recent smartphone microprocessors have been built with fin field-effect transistors (finFETs) 12 manufactured at the 10 nm, 7 nm, and 5 nm processing scales. They also include a range of sensors, including for facial identification, a barometer, a three-axis gyro, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, a Hall sensor, and a RGB light sensor. 10 , 11

These systems are also designed to take advantage of fifth-generation (5G) cell phone networks with advantages in bandwidth and data rates (eventually up to 10 Gbps). 13

Integrating even a fraction of these capabilities into the early Motorola mobile phone would have likely expanded the size, weight, and power requirements well beyond what one person could have easily carried. (As I write this, an image of a famous body-builder, Arnold Schwarzenegger, struggling to lift this enhanced “brick” popped into my head, as he was trailed by a large generator on wheels to power the phone.) This does not factor in the fact that many of these technologies did not exist at the time.

Microelectronics has evolved through a range of technologies and materials developments over the years 14 , 15 that have affected transistors (bipolar junction transistors, various metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors, including finFETs), dielectrics (thermal oxides, high- k dielectrics), metallization (aluminum, polysilicon, copper, tungsten vias), high levels of integration, including multilayer metallization, and integration of billions of transistors per chip. Fabrication of modern microchips involves many hundreds of process steps that have to be performed within narrow tolerances. It is remarkable that these fabrication lines yield in numbers high enough to be economically viable. If any step falls outside of the tolerances, then yield can fall catastrophically. This would kick off an investigation to determine the root cause(s) of the problem and can shut down fabrication lines for long periods of time—an expensive proposition. Developing these technologies and the processes that allow them to be inserted into high-yield fabrication lines have occupied hordes of materials researchers for decades.

I could write similar discussions of materials advances in batteries, displays, touch screens, and camera systems that have relied on similar hordes of materials researchers. However, I’m out of space for this article, so those stories will have to wait until another time.

The features described, the ease of carrying modern cell phones, and their economic affordability are driving the surge in worldwide usage. Access to information is only as good as the information. We are constantly bombarded with inaccurate information as well as disinformation. Filtering all of that can be difficult and time consuming. Instantaneous access to information using cell phone and other electronic technologies provides the unwary with an opportunity to make huge mistakes quickly.

The use of landline phones reached a peak in the 2000s. Now they are down to around 40% of American households and declining. 16 I am one of those neo-Luddites who has chosen to keep my landline. I find that, for now, it gives me some comfort to have it available.

Warts and all, the proliferation of cell phone systems is good. Widespread outages due to local events are unlikely to destroy all cell towers in a local community. Therefore, people are likely to maintain some capability for communication, even if impacted by tornados such as the one on January 3, 1949, in Warren, Ark.

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A Brief History of the Smartphone

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The Past, Present, and Future of Smartphone

“The term ‘smartphone’ did not actually exist then but few would contest that Simon was, indeed, a smart phone.” (Pothitos, 2016) Although iPhone has been dominated the smartphone industry with advanced technology since 2007, it is not the first smartphone in the world.

A prototype of the first smartphone named “Angler” was invented by Frank James Canova and exhibited at the COMDEX computer industry trade show on November 23 rd , 1992 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Then the final version named “Simon Personal Communicator” was developed by IBM and formally released to the market by BellSouth in 1994 . “Aside from its telephony features, Simon also featured many applications and services including email, calendar, calculator, address book, world time clock, notepad, multiple on-screen keyboards, and even the ability to send and receive faxes”( Pothitos, 2016). It is more like a “mobile office” or a “life assistant”. In fact, the term “smartphone” was created in 1995, one year after the appearance of the Simon. “Even though Simon only sold 50,000 units and lasted for a mere six months on the market”( Pothitos, 2016), it can represent the progress of communicative technology and be the world-recognized first smartphone because its characteristics and features like a computer had never ever heard before that time .

Nowadays, smartphone still remains revolution and becomes more crucial for people as a basic need that equates with water and food. For example, with the increase of intelligent products, such as furniture, appliances and vehicles, smartphone will become a main multifunctional remote control to manipulate our lives. However, despite that smartphone brings plenty of conveniences to make life become easier, it is a double-edged sword. Negative effects accompany with the quick revolution of smartphone. Because the revolution of smartphone can fully satisfy or even exceed users’ demands, the smartphone addiction phenomenon become serious gradually so that it impacts capabilities and leads to negative psychological consequences. It is problematic that “ the device takes over a function that human brain is capable to perform perfectly”(Sarwar & Soomro, 2013). People’s capabilities will decrease if smartphone can replace people to help them do something. Hartanto and Yang (2016) concluded several psychological consequences of smartphone dependency, such as impulsive behaviors, lack of perseverance and cognitive failures. “ Since the smartphone is perceived as an extension of the self, smartphone separation induces perceived loss of self, which in turn causes anxiety” (Hartanto & Yang, 2016). Problematic smartphone use can impair people’s psychological endurance and leave negative consequences.

In addition, smartphone also has some negative social effects from a contemporary perspective. Spreading rumors and dispelling rumors are common phenomena nowadays. Smartphone becomes the main tool of networks to spread information due to its quick revolution and popularization. Although it is very useful and accelerates speed and range of spreading, the quality of information cannot be guaranteed; it is inevitable that some people will utilize advantages of this tool to spread fake information and rumors to achieve their own intrigues. As an example of Arab Spring, it was very efficient that protesters relied on electronic mediums, such as smartphones, emails and video clips, to access various social media platforms to gather more protesters, while some people chose to propagate violence and spread rumors so that the protest was disrupted and led to many negative social effects. Based on this event, the degree of government’s surveillance on spreading information becomes a determining factor of social movements security and directions. Whatever new social media, developed social media or any other online communicative tools, reliability of information needs to be further verified due to the complicated social environment. Thus, it is problematic to identify social movements or eras by communicative tools.

Personal information becomes exposed after people fully enjoy conveniences of intelligent technological products and powerful features of network. Therefore, smartphone technology is revolutionary on protecting individual privacy. In the recent one year, most smartphone added facial recognition system to promote the security of personal information and use conveniences as well as added more privacy settings to limit the accessibility of different applications. Recent popular wearable networked device is Apple Watch. According to the trend of its technological updates, wearable networked devices will almost have all features of the latest smartphone gradually. So wearable networked devices will be revolutionary to equate with or even replace smartphone.

In my opinion, the contemporary stage of online-social-mobile media revolution have many useful features and positive influences that match a very Hauberian sense, which means that the net is still open to everyone to connect publicly and it is easier for people to arrange information, share thoughts to the world or control one’ life; while the Hauberian sense is idealistic about commercial and privatized aspects .At present, personal information and browsing records are collected by social media platforms to establish database to make database commercialized and privatized. Personal privacy does not exist anymore.The nascent “hacker-geek” cultureis the most insecurity factor to network and users’ privacy, but it indeed contributed to accelerate the development of network to prevent illegal invasions.

Pothitos , A. (2016, October 31). The History of the Smartphone. Retrieved from http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2016/10/the-history-of-the-smartphone.html

Sarwar, M., & Soomro, T. R. (March, 2013). Impact of Smartphone’s on Society.  European Journal of Scientific Research,98 , 216-226. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c28/0b6a690442a97a571e09b2404e2d21720db4.pdf

Hartanto, A., & Yang, H. (2016). Is the smartphone a smart choice? The effect of smartphone separation on executive functions.  Computers in Human Behavior,64 , 329-336. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.002

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Smartphone innovation in the third decade of the 21st century

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2019 was a year of triumphs and challenges for the smartphone industry. It was a time when manufacturers encountered an almost continual decline of global shipments—but it also marked the introduction of sophisticated new features such as foldable screens and long-awaited 5G technology. Though far from mature, these early drafts are helping establish a solid foundation and direction for smartphone technology in 2020.

From the day they debuted, mobile phones have been evolving. The world has now entered an era of cell phones with superior functions. Over the past 20 years, the following aspects of mobile devices have undergone significant changes:

Style and appearance. One of the most observable changes is the look and feel of mobile phones. They have morphed from their original candy-bar form to the iconic flip phone, which enjoyed great popularity for a long time. Then the slide phone took its place, thanks to its modern design and convenient operation. Next was the touchscreen phone, the most widely available style in the current smartphone market.   

Size. Like computers, when mobile phones first came out, they were big and bulky; today they’re small and lightweight. The goal throughout their evolution was to meet the needs and expectations of users—to be more portable and user-friendly.

Function. Of course, mobile phones, starting way back with telephones, were invented for communication. In the past, phones played a single role: they allowed people to make calls. Thanks to the development of networks, technology, and social needs, phones today let users do much more—send and receive text messages and emails, take photos and videos, access the internet, listen to music, and play games, among many other functions. That’s not to mention artificial intelligence (AI) technology, steadily making its way into mobile phones and allowing for things like human-machine interaction—“Alexa, add milk and eggs to my shopping list.”   

Image/camera technology. The photography function is one of the most remarkable changes in modern smartphones. In the beginning, most smartphones had a single, rear-facing camera for photo shooting. Then the smartphone camera came of age: it moved to the screen display, facing the user, then adding video, high-definition, night-mode, and anti-shake technology. All these features together make the photography function the most valuable addition to the modern smartphone.

Stepping into 2020, here are six trends that users can expect to see in the latest generation of smartphones:

More screen. Most smartphone companies have introduced phones with full screens. There’s no denying that full screens have advantages—they give the smartphone an outstanding screen display and stunning visual effects. The full-screen design, to some extent, drives creative development in the smartphone industry.

One important feature of full-screen displays over the past few years is the notch—the black cutout, typically rectangular, at the top of the phone that houses sensors, speaker, and the phone’s front-facing camera. Two new designs attempting to maximize screen space—the water-drop notch and no-notch displays—will most likely be the dominant smartphone design in 2020. Compared with the more prominent monobrow notch, the water-drop notch display takes up less room and can have a screen-to-body ratio of 85%. The no-notch display is new to the market and has the highest screen-to-body ratio, in some phones thanks to a pop-up camera at the top of the phone.

Mobile photography. Super-high-definition cameras are a goal that smartphone companies will continue to chase after, as social media becomes an increasingly important part of modern life. People are spending more time on social media than ever before. Not only do they send and receive written messages through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, they are also using smartphone cameras to capture and share important life moments, hence the demand for ever-higher photo quality.

In the second half of 2019, smartphones with 64-megapixel cameras were released to the market. This high-res imaging technology will be a big selling point in 2020, with 80% of smartphone companies putting out smartphones fitted with these cameras. The demand for better mobile photography dovetails with the introduction of 5G technology, which allows more data to be transmitted over wireless networks.

Foldable phones. 2019’s CES show in Las Vegas highlighted that foldable technology is on the rise, particularly foldable personal computers. Limited by cost and technology, foldable smartphones have not been widely accepted by consumers. However, with the potential for an even greater screen size, an evolution back towards foldable phones may be likely. Smartphone manufacturers are continuing to innovate around foldable models and the industry expects to see new breakthroughs in the decade ahead.

Artificial intelligence. AI technology will significantly enhance the user experience, improving smartphones’ sensing, analyzing, and interacting functionality. For example, with on-device sensors such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Global Positioning System technology, a smartphone can create a rich, offline profile of its user and even foresee his or her needs, then make suggestions that will help fulfill them. And through machine-human interaction, the smartphone can collect feedback, continually correcting mistakes so that it’s in lockstep with the user.

As AI gets infused into smartphones in 2020 and beyond, it will also help improve photos, battery life, and cybersecurity.

5G. 2020 is considered the “first year” of 5G communication, which many analysts and observers predict will invigorate and restructure the telecoms industry. 5G technology promises to vastly boost the speed and widen the coverage of wireless networks, and its advent is a huge opportunity for smartphone companies, with hundreds of millions of 5G phones expected to ship in 2020.

Processors. There is still room for improving mobile processors in 2020, to keep pace with smartphone industry trends. More powerful processors mean improved graphics performance. The success of the Nintendo Switch video game console shows that smartphones with high-quality visuals are popular among users. Moreover, modern mobile chips that can support a smartphone’s camera, video, audio, gesture recognition, and other functionality have become mainstream, overtaking simple processor design. Smartphones this year will also see built-in 5G connectivity.

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The First Mobile Phone Call Was Made 75 Years Ago

The evolution of the cell phone illustrates what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time

Daniel Bliss, The Conversation

I have a cell phone built into my watch. People now take this type of technology for granted, but not so long ago it was firmly in the realm of science fiction. The transition from fantasy to reality was far from the flip of a switch. The amount of time, money, talent and effort required to put a telephone on my wrist spanned far beyond any one product development cycle.

The people who crossed a wristwatch with a cell phone worked hard for several years to make it happen, but technology development really occurs on a timescale of decades. While the last steps of technological development capture headlines, it takes thousands of scientists and engineers working for decades on myriad technologies to get to the point where blockbuster products begin to capture the public’s imagination.

The first mobile phone service, for 80-pound telephones installed in cars, was demonstrated on June 17, 1946 , 75 years ago. The service was only available in major cities and highway corridors and was aimed at companies rather than individuals. The equipment filled much of a car’s trunk, and subscribers made calls by picking up the handset and speaking to a switchboard operator. By 1948, the service had 5,000 customers .

The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated in 1973 , nearly three decades after the introduction of the first mobile phone service. It was nearly three decades after that before half the U.S. population had a mobile phone .

Big history in small packages

As an electrical engineer , I know that today’s mobile phone technology has a remarkable number of components, each with a long development path. The phone has antennas and electronics that allow signals to be transmitted and received. It has a specialized computer processor that uses advanced algorithms to convert information to signals that can be transmitted over the air. These algorithms have hundreds of component algorithms. Each of these pieces of technology and many more have development histories that span decades.

A common thread running through the evolution of virtually all electronic technologies is miniaturization . The radio transmitters, computer processors and batteries at the heart of your cellphone are the descendants of generations of these technologies that grew successively smaller and lighter.

The phone itself would not be of much use without cellular base stations and all the network infrastructure that is behind them. The first mobile phone services used small numbers of large radio towers, which meant that all the subscribers in a big city shared one central base station. This was not a recipe for universal mobile phone service.

Engineers began working on a concept to overcome this problem at about the time the first mobile phone services went live, and it took nearly four decades to roll out the first cellular phone service in 1983. Cellular service involves interconnected networks of smaller radio transceivers that hand off moving callers from one transceiver to another.

Military necessity

Your cell phone is a result of over a hundred years of commercial and government investment in research and development in all of its components and related technologies. A significant portion of the cutting-edge development has been funded by the military.

A major impetus for developing mobile wireless technologies was the need during World War II for troops to communicate on the move in the field. The SRC-536 Handie-Talkie was developed by the predecessor to Motorola Corporation and used by the U.S. Army in the war. The Handie-Talkie was a two-way radio that was small enough to be held in one hand and resembled a telephone. Motorola went on to become one of the major manufacturers of cell phones.

The story of military investment in technology becoming game-changing commercial products and services has been repeated again and again. Famously, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed the technologies behind the internet and speech recognition. But DARPA also made enabling investments in advanced communications algorithms, processor technology, electronics miniaturization and many other aspects of your phone.

Looking forward

By realizing that it takes many decades of research and investment to develop each generation of technology, it’s possible to get a sense of what might be coming. Today’s communications technologies – 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and so on – are fixed standards, meaning they are each designed for a single purpose. But over the last 30 years, the Department of Defense and corporations have been investing in technologies that are more capable and flexible.

Your phone of the near future might not only fluidly signal in ways that are more efficient, enable longer ranges or higher data rates, or last significantly longer on a charge, it might also use that radiofrequency energy to perform other functions. For example, your communications signal could also be used as a radar signal to track your hand gestures to control your phone, measure the size of a room, or even monitor your heart rate to predict cardiac distress.

It is always difficult to predict where technology will go, but I can guarantee that future technology will build on decades upon decades of research and development.

Daniel Bliss is a professor of electrical engineering at Arizona State University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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Smartphone Essay

500 words essay on smartphone.

Smartphones have become a very important form of communication these days. It is impossible for a rational person to deny the advantages of smartphones as they are devices suitable for a wide variety of tasks. Let us try to understand smartphones along with their benefits with this smartphone essay.

                                                                                                                                    Smartphone Essay

Understanding the Smartphone

A smartphone is a mobile device that facilitates the combination of cellular and mobile computing functions into one single unit. Moreover, smartphones have stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems in comparison to feature phones.

The strong operating systems of smartphones make possible multimedia functionality, wider software, and the internet including web browsing. They also support core phone functions like text messaging and voice calls.

There are a number of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips within a smartphone. Moreover, such chips include various sensors whose leveraging is possible by their software.

The marketing of early smartphones was primarily towards the enterprise market. Furthermore, the attempt of the smartphone manufacturers was to bridge the functionality of standalone personal digital assistant (PDA) devices along with support for cellular telephony. However, the early smartphones had problems of slow analogue cellular network, short battery life, and bulky size.

With the passage of time, experts were able to resolve these issues. Furthermore, this became possible with faster digital mobile data networks, miniaturization of MOS transistors down to sub-micron levels, and exponential scaling. Moreover, the development of more mature software platforms led to enhancement in the capability of smartphones.

Benefits of Smartphone

People can make use of smartphones to access the internet and find out information regarding almost anything. Furthermore, due to the portability of a smartphone, people can access the internet from any location, even while travelling.

Smartphones have greatly increased the rate of work. This is possible because smartphones facilitate a highly efficient and quick form of communication from anywhere. For example, a person can participate in an official business meeting, without wasting time, from the comfort of his home via a live video chat application of a smartphone.

Smartphones can also be of tremendous benefit to students in general. Furthermore, students can quickly resolve any issue related to studies by accessing the internet , using a calculator, reading a pdf file, or contacting a teacher. Most noteworthy, all of this is possible due to the smartphone.

People can get in touch with the larger global community by communicating and sharing their views via social media. Furthermore, this provides a suitable platform to express their views, conduct business with online transactions , or find new people or jobs. One can do all that from anywhere, thanks to the smartphone.

These were just a few benefits of smartphones. Overall, the total benefits of a smartphone are just too many to enumerate here. Most importantly, smartphones have made our lives more efficient as well as comfortable.

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Conclusion of Smartphone Essay

Smartphones have proven to be a revolution for human society. Furthermore, they have made the whole world united like never before. In spite of its demerits, there is no doubt that the smartphone is a tremendous blessing to mankind and it will continue to play a major role in its development.

FAQs For Smartphone Essay

Question 1: How is a smartphone different from a feature phone?

Answer 1: Smartphones have stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems when compared to feature phones. Furthermore, the smartphone can perform almost all computing functions that a feature phone can’t. The internet and camera capabilities of a feature phone are nowhere near as powerful as that of a smartphone.

Question 2: What is meant by a smartphone?

Answer 2: A smartphone refers to a handheld electronic device that facilitates a connection to a cellular network. Furthermore, smartphones let people access the internet, make phone calls, send text messages, along with a wide variety of functions that one can perform on a pc or a laptop. Overall, it is a fully functioning miniaturized computer.

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Power source

Switch hook.

• Transmitter
• Anti-sidetone circuit
• Early sound transmitters
• The first devices
• The search for a successful transmitter
• Development of the modern instrument
• Cordless telephones
• Personal communication systems
• Manual switching
• Electromechanical switching
• Electronic switching
• Digital switching
• The switching network
• Rotary dialing
• Push-button dialing
• In-band signaling
• Out-of-band signaling
• From single-wire to two-wire circuits
• Problems of interference and attenuation
• From analog to digital transmission
• Coaxial cable
• Microwave link
• Optical-fibre cable
• Terrestrial radio
• Undersea cable

When was the telephone patented?

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• Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Telephones
• Elon University - Imagining the Internet - 1870s – 1940s: Telephone
• Business LibreTexts - Telephone/VoIP Communication
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Telephone
• PBS - American Experience - The Development of the Telephone
• telephone - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• telephone - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

What is a telephone?

A telephone is an instrument designed for the simultaneous transmission and reception of the human voice. Telephones are inexpensive and simple to operate, and they offer an immediate, personal type of communication. Billions of telephones are in use around the world.

On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applied for a U.S. patent for the telephone. On March 7, 1876, Bell was awarded U.S. patent 174,465. This patent is often referred to as the most valuable ever issued by the U.S. Patent Office, as it described not only the telephone instrument but also the concept of a telephone system.

When was the telephone introduced to the public?

One of the earliest demonstrations of the telephone occurred in June 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

Who is credited as the inventor of the telephone?

Alexander Graham Bell is credited with developing the telephone because he received the first patent.

When did the first transmission of speech occur with a telephone?

The first transmission of speech with a telephone occurred on March 10, 1876, from Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson, which Bell transcribed in his lab notes as “Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.”

telephone , an instrument designed for the simultaneous transmission and reception of the human voice. The telephone is inexpensive, is simple to operate, and offers its users an immediate, personal type of communication that cannot be obtained through any other medium. As a result, it has become the most widely used telecommunications device in the world. Billions of telephones are in use around the world.

This article describes the functional components of the modern telephone and traces the historical development of the telephone instrument. In addition it describes the development of what is known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). For discussion of broader technologies, see the articles telecommunications system and telecommunications media . For technologies related to the telephone, see the articles mobile telephone , videophone , fax and modem .

The telephone instrument

The word telephone , from the Greek roots tēle, “far,” and phonē, “sound,” was applied as early as the late 17th century to the string telephone familiar to children, and it was later used to refer to the megaphone and the speaking tube, but in modern usage it refers solely to electrical devices derived from the inventions of Alexander Graham Bell and others. Within 20 years of the 1876 Bell patent , the telephone instrument, as modified by Thomas Watson , Emil Berliner , Thomas Edison , and others, acquired a functional design that has not changed fundamentally in more than a century. Since the invention of the transistor in 1947, metal wiring and other heavy hardware have been replaced by lightweight and compact microcircuitry. Advances in electronics have improved the performance of the basic design, and they also have allowed the introduction of a number of “smart” features such as automatic redialing, call-number identification, wireless transmission, and visual data display. Such advances supplement, but do not replace, the basic telephone design. That design is described in this section, as is the remarkable history of the telephone’s development, from the earliest experimental devices to the modern digital instrument.

Working components of the telephone

As it has since its early years, the telephone instrument is made up of the following functional components: a power source, a switch hook, a dialer, a ringer, a transmitter, a receiver , and an anti-sidetone circuit . These components are described in turn below.

In the first experimental telephones the electric current that powered the telephone circuit was generated at the transmitter, by means of an electromagnet activated by the speaker’s voice. Such a system could not generate enough voltage to produce audible speech in distant receivers, so every transmitter since Bell’s patented design has operated on a direct current supplied by an independent power source. The first sources were batteries located in the telephone instruments themselves, but since the 1890s current has been generated at the local switching office. The current is supplied through a two-wire circuit called the local loop. The standard voltage is 48 volts.

Cordless telephones represent a return to individual power sources in that their low-wattage radio transmitters are powered by a small (e.g., 3.6-volt) battery located in the portable handset. When the telephone is not in use, the battery is recharged through contacts with the base unit. The base unit is powered by a transformer connection to a standard electric outlet.

The switch hook connects the telephone instrument to the direct current supplied through the local loop. In early telephones the receiver was hung on a hook that operated the switch by opening and closing a metal contact. This system is still common, though the hook has been replaced by a cradle to hold the combined handset, enclosing both receiver and transmitter. In some modern electronic instruments, the mechanical operation of metal contacts has been replaced by a system of transistor relays .

When the telephone is “on hook,” contact with the local loop is broken. When it is “off hook” (i.e., when the handset is lifted from the cradle), contact is restored, and current flows through the loop. The switching office signals restoration of contact by transmitting a low-frequency “dial tone”—actually two simultaneous tones of 350 and 440 hertz.

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• School Education /

Essay on Mobile Phone: 100 Words, 300 Words, 500 Words

• Updated on  
• Feb 21, 2024

Mobile Phones are portable electronic devices used to make calls, browse the internet, click pictures, and do several other tasks. However, the mobile phones discovered in the early 1970s were quite different from the compact and slim devices we use today. Cell phones were invented by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973.

As modern humans, we all use mobile phones for our day-to-day functioning. At academic and higher education levels, students are given the task of writing an essay on mobile phones. An essay on mobile phones requires a comprehensive and detailed study of their history, major developments and the purposes it serve. In this article, we have provided essays on mobile phones for class 6,7,8.9, 10, and 12th standard students. Students can refer to these sample essays on mobile phones to write their own. Keep reading to find out essays on mobile phones and some fun facts about the device.

Table of Contents

• 1 Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (100 Words)
• 2 Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (300 words)
• 3 Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (500 words)
• 4 Essay on Mobile Phone: 5+ Facts About Smartphones

Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (100 Words)

Also Read: The Beginner’s Guide to Writing an Essay

Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (300 words)

Also Read: Essay on Importance of the Internet

Sample Essay on Mobile Phone (500 words)

Essay on Mobile Phone: 5+ Facts About Smartphones

Here we have listed some of the interesting facts about smartphones. These facts can be added to the ‘essay on mobile phones’ to make it more interesting. Below are the 5 interesting facts about smartphones:

• The most expensive smartphone in the world is the Falcon Supernova iPhone 6 Pink Diamond. It is worth  $48.5 million.
• The cheapest mobile phone in the world is the Freedom 251. It just cost INR 251.
• Apple is the world’s most popular smartphone
• The first phone greeting was “Ahoy-hoy, who’s calling please?” 
• The first smartphone was invented by IBM. It was released by IBM in 1994. The original screen name of the 1st smartphone was “Simon.” 
• The first text message in the world was ‘Merry Christmas’

Also Read: Holi Essay: Free Sample Essays 100 To 500 Words In English

A mobile phone system gets its name from diving the service into small cells. Each of these cells has a base station with a useful range in the order of a kilometre/mile.

Mobile phones have become extremely important due to the ease of communication it has brought about. Moreover, it can perform several major tasks easily and effectively. For example, a calculator. Aside from this mobile phones can help a user connect to the internet, and use social media applications, and other applications. Mobile phones can even assist in online payment. 

The full form or the meaning of a Moble is Modified, Operation, Byte, Integration, Limited, Energy”. John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola discovered the device in 1973. An essay on mobile phones can include the mobile phone full form.

Related Articles

Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our lifestyle. There are several advantages and disadvantages of having a smartphone. However, the pros outweigh the cons. A mobile phone essay can be written by including both the advantages and disadvantages. To discover more articles like this one, consult the study abroad expert at Leverage Edu.

Blessy George

Blessy George is a Content Marketing Associate at Leverage Edu, boasting over a year of experience in the industry. Her expertise lies in crafting compelling content tailored to online courses, making her a go-to source for those navigating the vast landscape of digital learning. In addition to online classes, she writes content related to study abroad, English test preparation and visas. She has completed her MA degree in Political Science and has gained valuable experience as an intern.She is known for her extensive writing on various aspects of international education, garnering recognition for her insights and contributions. Apart from her professional pursuits, Blessy is passionate about creative writing, particularly poetry and songwriting.

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