The mobile phone (also called a wireless phone
or cellular phone)[1] is a short-range, portable electronic device used for
mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialized base stations
known as cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone,
current mobile phones may support many additional services, and accessories,
such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the
Internet, gaming, bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for
sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a
cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected
to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite
phones).
Overview
According to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph discussed developing
a wireless phone in 1915, but were afraid deployment of the technology could
undermine its monopoly on wired service in the U.S.[2]
The first commercial mobile phone service was launched in Japan by NTT in 1978.
By November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world
had reached 3.3 billion, or half of the human population (although some users
have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the
mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic
device in the world.[3]
The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the
Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use
devices called smartphones. In 1999 the first mobile internet service was
launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service. By 2007 over 798
million people around the world accessed the internet or equivalent mobile
internet services such as WAP and i-Mode at least occasionally using a mobile
phone rather than a personal computer.
Handsets
Nokia is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, with a
global device market share of approximately 40% in 2008. Other major mobile
phone manufacturers (in order of market share) include Samsung (14%), Motorola
(14%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG (7%).[4] These manufacturers account for over
80% of all mobile phones sold and produce phones for sale in most countries.
Other manufacturers include Apple Inc., Audiovox (now UTStarcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens,
CECT, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi
Electric, NEC, Neonode, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel,
Philips, Research In Motion, Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sendo, Sierra
Wireless, SK Teletech, Sonim Technologies, T&A Alcatel, Huawei, Trium and
Toshiba. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but
distinct from) mobile phones.
There are several categories of mobile phones, from basic phones to feature
phones such as musicphones and cameraphones, to smartphones. The first
smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which incorporated PDA
functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturization and
increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be
added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a
high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today. Several phone
series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM
Blackberry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the
SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones;
the Nokia N-Series of multimedia phones; and the Apple iPhone which provides
full-featured web access and multimedia capabilities.