| Its November 2009 and boy aren't we spoiled | | | | the full lifespan of the model series, easily 20% |
| with technology. Take the SmartPhone for | | | | and sometimes 40% more expensive than the |
| example. According to BBG Communications | | | | next most expensive smartphone by any major |
| London, "The first Smartphone carried the name | | | | manufacturer. |
| Simon", and was designed by International | | | | Ericsson also entered the market with its R380 |
| Business Machines in 1992. It was shown as a | | | | sold as a 'smartphone' but main criticism was that |
| concept product that year at COMDEX, the | | | | it could not run native third-party applications. In |
| computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, | | | | 2001, RIM released the first BlackBerry which was |
| Nevada. The following year, tt was released to | | | | the first smartphone optimized for wireless email |
| the public by BellSouth. Besides having mobile | | | | use and has achieved a total customer base of 8 |
| phone functions, it was designed to have a | | | | million subscribers by June 2007, of which three |
| calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, | | | | quarters are in North America alone. |
| note pad, e-mail, send and it can receive fax, and | | | | The Nokia 7650, announced in 2001, was referred |
| was also a game interface. Designed to have no | | | | to as a 'smart phone' in the media, and is now |
| physical buttons to dial, customers had to use a | | | | called a 'smartphone' on the Nokia support site, |
| touch-screen to select phone numbers with the | | | | but the press release for it called it as an 'imaging |
| finger or create facsimiles and memos with an | | | | phone'.[9][10][11] Handspring delivered the first |
| optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique | | | | widely popular smartphone devices in the US |
| on-screen "predictive" keyboard. Because of the | | | | market by marrying its Palm OS based Visor PDA |
| changes we have today in smartphone | | | | with a GSM phone module. By 2002, Handspring |
| technology, the Simon would be a fairly low-end | | | | was marketing an integrated package called the |
| smartphone. | | | | Treo; the company was subsequently bought by |
| Many smartphones were then made through the | | | | Palm primarily because the PDA market was |
| years. The Nokia Communicator line was the first | | | | becoming a sunset enterprise, but the Treo |
| of Nokia's smartphones starting with the Nokia | | | | smartphone was quickly becoming popular as a |
| 9000, released in 1996. This distinctive palmtop | | | | phone with extended PDA organizer features. |
| computer-style smartphone was the result of a | | | | That same year, Microsoft announced an overhaul |
| collaborative effort between Hewlett Packard, | | | | in its Windows CE Pocket PC OS which would be |
| which conceptualized an early successful and | | | | for sale as "Microsoft Windows Powered |
| expensive PDA model, and Nokia which was | | | | Smartphone 2002". Originally, Microsoft defined its |
| clearly the forerunner in mobile phone sales | | | | Windows Smartphone products as lacking a |
| around that time. Early prototype models had the | | | | touchscreen and offering a lower screen |
| two devices – HP’s PDA and Nokia’s | | | | resolution compared to its sibling Pocket PC |
| mobile phones - fixed via a hinge. Nokia 9210 goes | | | | devices. Palm, meanwhile, has since largely |
| down in mobile phone history as the first color | | | | abandoned its own Palm OS in favor of licensing |
| screen Communicator model and also the first | | | | Microsoft's WinCE-based operating system now |
| true smartphone with an open operating system. | | | | referred to as Windows Mobile, although WinCE |
| Although the Nokia 9210 was arguably the first | | | | and Palm OS together now amount to 10% of |
| true smartphone with an open operating system, | | | | the smartphone market. |
| Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator. | | | | Nokia, the frontrunner that it is, launched in 2005 |
| The 9500 Communicator , Nokia's first | | | | its N-Series of 3G smartphones which it started |
| cameraphone Communicator is also its first WiFi | | | | to market not as mobile phones but as multimedia |
| phone. T he 9300 Communicator was the third | | | | computers. |
| dimensional shift into a smaller form factor. | | | | The projection is that out of 1 billion camera |
| Nokia’s latest, the E90 Communicator has a | | | | phones to be shipped in 2008, smartphones, |
| built-in GPS. The Nokia Communicator model line is | | | | especially those at the higher end of the market |
| remarkable for having been the most expensive | | | | with full email support, will represent about 10% |
| phone model sold by a major brand for almost | | | | of the market or about 100 million units. |