The first smartphone was the IBM Simon; it was designed in 1992 and shown as a concept product[5] that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was released to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail client, the ability to send and receive faxes, and games. It had no physical buttons, instead customers used a touchscreen to select telephone numbers with a finger or create faxes and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard. By today's standards, the Simon would be a fairly low-end product, lacking a camera and the ability to download third-party applications. However, its feature set at the time was highly advanced.
The Nokia Communicator line was the first of Nokia's smartphones starting with the Nokia 9000, released in 1996. This distinctive palmtop computer style smartphone was the result of a collaborative effort of an early successful and costly personal digital assistant (PDA) by Hewlett-Packard
In 2000, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone was released.[9] It was the first device to use an open operating system, the Symbian OS.[10] It was the first device marketed as a 'smartphone'.[11] It combined the functions of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).[12] In December 1999 the magazine Popular Science appointed the Ericsson R380 Smartphone to one of the most important advances in science and technology
Apple introduced the iphone in 2007, the only way to run apps on it at the time was to jailbreak it, in July 2008 Apple came out with its 2nd generation iphone and introduced the app store. The Android operating system for smartphones was released in 2008. Android is an open-source platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Motorola and Samsung, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance.[53] The first phone to use Android was the HTC Dream, branded for distribution by T-Mobile as the G1. The software suite included on the phone consists of integration with Google's proprietary applications, such as Maps, Calendar, and Gmail, and a full HTML web browser. Android supports the execution of native applications and a preemptive multitasking capability (in the form of services). Third-party apps are available via the Android Market (released October 2008), including both free and paid apps.
If Apple had not invented the ipod, the imac, itouch and iphone may have never happened. The ipod became an overnight success and the Apple company has rode that wave ever since. When Apple released the ipod the company was on the brink of failure in 2001, their computer sales were weak compared to PC sales.
Today the ipod still remains the number 1 mp3 player in the world.
Google is your friend. The iPhone took it to a whole new level. It was making all other cell/smartphones obsolete. For a lot of companies it was copy & deal with patent & copyright infringement lawsuits in order to get a piece of the pie & stay afloat. If you don't think that's the case all you gotta do is look at blackberry. Stubborn to join the copy apple revolution has them at the brink of folding. Read an article the other day where they are finally making major changes to try & save their ass. Of course they did try an iPad copy to get in on tablets but it failed miserably in no time. The other tablets are inferior to iPad as well but sell simply because they are much cheaper.
The one thing that BB does that no other smartphone can make a claim to is battery life which is why corporate America still issues BB to their employees and keeps them at #3 in market share
You're absolutely right. They were saved by one person & one product & have built off that ever since. They saved their ass with their own ideas not copying someone else's.
Iphone manufacturer - Apple
Iphone Providers - AT&T, Verizon
Android manufacturer - All cell phone companies except Apple
Android Providers - Every Provider in the country including Cricket
There is absolutely no way the Iphone with 1 manufacturer and 2 Providers be able to keep up with Droids going forward in sales since it is limited to AT&T and Verizon. One would have to be very naive to think iphone can continue to be at the top of the smart phone food chain in sales given the above information.
If they didn't revolutionize the smartphone what do you call it. It's absurd to say they didn't. A touchscreen isn't what made apple the best it's how they used it. A phone, iPod, web browser, & more in one device with tons of useful apps to simplify everything. Jailbreaking is mainly about customization & that's the only thing droid freely allows that's better but it's no big deal to jailbreak an iPhone. The iPhone is the way it is for protection & to keep everything running smooth it's not like their just being a/holes. As for sales, when you give phones away & have pay as you go phones with a watered down OS the numbers become very misleading.
Even though Jobs was co-founder of Apple, he was essentially fired at Apple, after his firing he did his own thing which included the purchase of Pixar of which he sold to Apple and returned as their CEO.