Top 10 trendsetting smartphones: From the IBM Simon to the iPhone
V3 celebrates 10 smartphones that changed the world
The smartphone has changed the world. Now, everywhere you look people are staring down at the small rectangle in their hand, swiping and jabbing away while they browse the web, play games and read emails.
While the smartphone is mostly a modern invention, its roots can be traced back as far as 16 August 1994, with the launch of the IBM Simon (now on display at the Science Museum). While it may have one of the worst phone names in history, it showed what a mobile phone could become.
It may have taken a few years for phones to become truly smart, but the Simon can rightly claim its place as a trendsetter in the mobile world. In honour of this occasion, V3 has listed the top 10 smartphones that have shaped the market.
As ever, let us know what you think and if anything else deserves a mention in the comments box below.
10. Dell Streak: a failed phablet ahead of its time
In today's big screen world, phablets are a common sight. While many credit this to Samsung's 2011 Galaxy Note, it was actually Dell that first came up with the idea. Released in 2010, the Dell Streak 5 is commonly credited as the first ever phablet and, at its time, was a pretty advanced bit of kit.
Powered by Google's then young Android 1.6 Donut operating system and featuring a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon ARM processor and 512MB of RAM, on paper the Dell Streak 5 should have been one of the most powerful handsets on the market when it was released.
However, despite its initial promise a number of niggling software flaws, combined with a slightly poor marketing effort by Dell explaining the benefits of having a bigger screen, the Dell Streak 5 never really took off and was discontinued a year later in December 2011.
Top 10 trendsetting smartphones: From the IBM Simon to the iPhone
V3 celebrates 10 smartphones that changed the world
9. Nokia 808 PureView: camera tech explodes
Phones have had cameras integrated into them for close to a decade. However, it's only recently that any of them have actually been good at taking photos. This is undoubtedly thanks to Nokia's efforts creating the 808 PureView in 2011.
Bizarrely unveiled after Nokia announced its move to Windows Phone, the 808 PureView reference phone grabbed the world's attention with its 41MP rear camera sensor. As we noted in our review at the time, while the 808 PureView was dire as an actual phone, it's camera was amazing.
In fact, it was so good, it caused competing hardware makers, including HTC, Samsung, Apple and LG, to begin investing and developing their own custom mobile camera technologies and led to a fresh streak of innovation in the handset market.
Now, led by the Nokia Lumia 1020, smartphones come with the kind of camera capabilities as standard that seemed incredible when the PureView was unveiled.
8. Galaxy S2: Samsung emerges as Apple's only rival
Compared with the current Galaxy S5, the Samsung Galaxy S2 doesn’t look all that. But with sales topping almost 30 million more than three years ago, the Galaxy S2 put Samsung well and truly into the smartphone limelight, as well as helping Android on its way to the global dominance it holds today. It also created a rivalry with Apple that continues to rumble on.
In terms of specs, the Samsung Galaxy S2 was – at the time – one of the market’s most impressive smartphones. There was a 480x800 Super Amoled touchscreen on its front, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor under its hood, and the device arrived running Google’s Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread software – with the phone supporting upgrades up to version 4.1 Jelly Bean.
While it drew criticism for mimicking the look and feel of the iPhone, the Galaxy S2 continued to win over buyers with its 8MP rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera, built-in HSDPA and WiFi connectivity and 1,650mAh battery, which promised almost nine hours of constant talk time – an impressive feat back in 2011.
7. Nokia N8: the Finnish firm's last throw of the Symbian dice
For years Nokia dominated the mobile market, but it never saw the smartphone revolution coming. While it persisted with tough, functional but ultimately dull feature phones, the market changed.
It did try to get in on the act in 2010 with the N8, touted as a fully flung modern day smartphone, but by then it was too late. Rivals such as Samsung, Apple and HTC – then a serious contender in the market – easily saw off the phone and it proved Nokia’s last serious attempt at using its own combination of software and hardware.
After that, Nokia turned to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform for its efforts in the smartphone sector and that too marked a milestone in both Nokia's and the smartphone market's history, as we shall see.
Top 10 trendsetting smartphones: From the IBM Simon to the iPhone
V3 celebrates 10 smartphones that changed the world
6. Nokia Lumia 800: Microsoft partnership begins
The Lumia 800 was a make-or-break device for both Nokia and Windows Phone's maker Microsoft. Arriving in 2011 – when Samsung and Apple's smartphone sales were skyrocketing – the Lumia 800 faced the difficult task of bringing Windows Phone's market share out of single digits.
While sales of the Lumia 800 alone didn't manage to do this, the device is nonetheless significant in smartphone history for a variety of reasons. As well as being the first ever smartphone to run Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, in many buyers' minds, it was also the first decent handset to use Microsoft's OS.
Featuring a wonderfully unique design, solid ClearBlack display and wealth of custom Nokia applications, the Lumia 800 showcased all of Windows Phone's best qualities and saved the OS from going the way of HP's Palm OS.
This is important not only for Microsoft, but for the smartphone industry as a whole, as it ensured the market did not turn into a two-horse race between Google and Apple – a situation many analysts felt could have led to a period of technological stagnation.
Of course the move to Microsoft also marked the beginning of the end for Nokia, and only a few short years later it was bought by Microsoft, marking the end of the firm that did as much as any to create the mobile world we now all live in.
5. IBM Simon: the smartphone as we know it is born
The smartphone that began it all, and with probably the least exciting smartphone name ever dreamt up by a marketing team.
While the specs of the Simon are now laughably antiquated, at the time, in ways no-one could possibly have imagined, the device marked the beginning of a whole new era for computing.
It was launched on 16 August 1994 at a cost of $899 per handset. It was only available in the US and only worked across a 15-state network. Battery life was one hour in talk mode and it weighed 510g. It was withdrawn from sale after just six months, although a reasonably impressive 50,000 units were sold.
In many ways it was a failure. But it was also a trendsetter, as the first mobile phone that could do so much more than just make phone calls. It could send and receive faxes and emails and had apps including an address book, calendar, calculator, and a predictive stylus input screen keyboard.
All features and functions that subsequent smartphones now include as standard. Simon, we salute you.
Top 10 trendsetting smartphones: From the IBM Simon to the iPhone
V3 celebrates 10 smartphones that changed the world
4. Ericsson R380: the first of many Symbian devices
Ericsson's R380 carried the distinction of being the first device marketed specifically as a smartphone, and was also the first such device to run the Symbian operating system, albeit a very early version.
As such, it was the forerunner of the Symbian smartphones that dominated the mobile market until the arrival of Apple's iPhone.
The R380 was basic by today's standards, with a mono screen, GSM network support only, and oddly, the user could not install extra applications to extend the set of built-in apps.
However, it was light and portable for its time, and the flip cover that included the keypad and mouthpiece became a characteristic feature of later Sony Ericsson Symbian phones.
3. Nokia Communicator: is it a phone or a mobile office?
Nokia's Communicator series of devices were way ahead of their time in many ways. Although not referred to as smartphones at the time, the early models combined PDA functions such as email and contacts with the ability to make phone calls just like modern devices.
The earliest Nokia 9000 Communicator was released way back in 1996, and was actually based on an x86 chip running the Geos operating system. It set the pattern for future models, with a clamshell design with a screen and Qwerty keyboard, but could also be used like a traditional candy bar phone when closed up.
Later models such as the Nokia 9210 Communicator (pictured) introduced a colour screen and ran the Symbian operating system, but were recognisable as having the same unique design. Eventually, the line was merged into Nokia's E-Series of corporate smartphones, delivering devices such as the Nokia E90.
Top 10 trendsetting smartphones: From the IBM Simon to the iPhone
V3 celebrates 10 smartphones that changed the world
2. BlackBerry 6200: Qwerty device creates 'CrackBerry' addicts
BlackBerry, or Research in Motion (RIM) as it was then known, had been selling an "email pager" device since 1999, but it was the BlackBerry 6200 line launched in 2003 that brought together all of the capabilities that make up the classic BlackBerry device.
These included the characteristic qwerty keypad, GSM network support, and the ability to make voice calls. Earlier devices were designed just to send and receive emails, and were built around a data-only network known as Mobitex rather than the cellular technologies used in phone networks.
With GSM support, BlackBerry was able to sign up mobile operators around the globe to operate the device, and as the firm was virtually unique in offering push email capability and device management at the time, it rapidly caught on with enterprise customers and became an executive status symbol.
1. The iPhone: Apple reinvents the concept of the mobile phone
It was tough picking a number one for this slot, but in the end we had to award it to the iPhone. Since Steve Jobs unveiled the first model all the way back in 2007, Apple has turned our notion of the phone – especially the smartphone – on its head.
While it may not have been the first smartphone to have a touchscreen it was the first that showed what was possible with the technology. At a stroke, or a swipe, it heralded the beginning of the end of the Qwerty keyboard.
It also kickstarted the app economy by taking the concept of adding services to your phone through an online store and making it easy and fun to do, which other phone makers had struggled to sell to their users.
The first iPhone wasn’t all that – it didn’t even have data connectivity – but that didn’t matter because it had what no phone before, or since, has matched: sex appeal. No-one has come close to matching its brand appeal and every year eager fans queue around the block to get their hands on each new version.
Each successive iPhone model has also introduced new features that other phones rush to copy – from ‘personal assistants’ such as Siri on the 4S (pictured) to fingerprint scanners as introduced with the iPhone 5S. No doubt the iPhone 6 will do the same.
Its success has forced every other player in the mobile market to up their game. To date only Samsung has managed to come close to Apple, with others such as BlackBerry, Motorola, Nokia and Sony all caught cold and taking years to recover.
While Apple may be at the top of the market for now, no doubt the next 20 years will see a raft of weird, wonderful and downright revolutionary devices hit the market and change the smartphone world in ways we can’t possible imagine.