When did the first smartphone appear? The first mobile phone prototype came from Motorola in 1973. The first one approved, affectionately called The Brick, came out in 1983. In 1992 an IBM engineer created the Sweetspot but it didn't hit the market until 1994, as the IBM Simon Personal Communicator. The first text message was sent in December 1992. The first time we see the term "smartphone" used, was by Ericsson with their GS88 that came out in 1997. Mobile gaming didn't begin until 1997.
- The first game Snake appeared on the Nokia 6110 from a Finnish developer. We had to wait until 1999 for the front-facing facing camera, the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, and GPS functionality with the Benefon ESC. The back-facing camera appearing in 2000 from Sharp with their J-SH04. Then 2001 brought 3G and 2004 came with live assisted GPS technology from Qualcomm. Doom first appeared on mobile phones in 2005, on the Motorola Razr V3. Yes, the flip phone some of us had.
- By 2007, we had the iPhone and that for me is the start of the real smartphone era. By 2008, we had the first Android phone called the T-Mobile G1, or HTC Dream. This unit came with a slide-out keyboard and a touchscreen. In 2009, we got the 4G network and in 2019, 5G arrived.
