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Writer's pictureLuismiguel

The Evolution of Cell Phones

Updated: May 13

The evolution of cell phones has been nothing short of impressive. Back in the day, portable phones were shaped like bricks and the only thing they could do was call people. But compared to the phones of today, phone calls look like light work. The first smartphone was released by IBM in 1992 and was called the Simon Personal Communicator. It was the first smartphone to have built-in apps like a calculator, a world clock, an address book, a notes app, and a calendar. This created the stepping stones for what the modern smartphone uses today.

The next evolution of the smartphone was getting a camera. Sharp made the J-SH04 the first consumer cell phone with a built-in camera, and in 2001, phones started to gain access to the internet starting with the Nokia 9000 communicator phone. In 2007, the most influential phone manufacturer today, Apple, released the first iPhone. It was the first commercial phone with a built-in touch screen, having all of the features the previous phones had, selling over 6 million units, making it the most selling phone of that time. It was not until 2008 when HTC created the HTC Dream, being the first Android phone directly competing against the iPhone. For the push to make cell phones more advanced, Nokia thought, “What if phones didn't need cables to charge?” So they released the Nokia Lumina 820 being the first phone with wireless charging. This was advanced at the time, but it was also the first phone to run Windows 8. However, the Windows phones were a commercial failure, so they never sold well. In 2010, Samsung released the S-series line of phones, which were their flagship phones that

were supposed to be better than the iPhone's at the time. The next year, they released their note series coming with a built-in stylus for note-taking and drawing, and in 2011, HTC released the first phone with 2 cameras, which is now a standard in our modern age. The next generation of cell phones was USB-C; all Android phones started to have except Apple which stayed with their proprietary lightning cables. In 2016, Samsung released the Galaxy S5 with a built-in heart rate sensor. This was kept in all Samsung S series phones until 2019, and in the same year, Google decided to join the cellphone market, making the first Pixel line of phones. These phones did not start to gain traction until the Google Pixel 6, and in the same year, the most controversial change in cell phone history was when Apple decided to ditch the headphone jack. This controversial change influenced all cell phones to this day. In 2019, Samsung released the most technologically advanced phone in the modern day. They made their Z series

phones; these were the first cell phones that could bend their screens, making a regular size phone into a tablet size one or cutting your phone in half for extra space in your pocket. Our modern cell phone contains all of these luxuries in a small and thin rectangle that can fit in the palm of your hand, showing how far we've come from the brick-shaped phones of the 90s.


My name is, Luismiguel Reyes Gonzalez Garcia the 5th. I am currently a junior in Poudre High School. In my spare time, I like to play games or bug my cousin to play games with me. I am currently working as a host/busboy in a restaurant. My goals are to be a successful person in life but I can't do that unless my computer turns on. If you want to see more of my stuff go here



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