The predictions, the invention and the evolution.

A mobile phone, known as a cell phone in North America, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and, therefore, mobile telephones are called cellular telephones or cell phones, in North America. In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, video games, and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2] and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs). In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world's first cellular network in Japan. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion, penetrating virtually 100% of the global population and reaching even the bottom of the economic pyramid. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone developers worldwide were Samsung, Apple, and Huawei (and "[s]martphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales"). For feature phones (or "dumbphones") as of 2016, the largest were Samsung, Nokia, and Alcatel.

A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a "pocket-size folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains. The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. The advances in mobile telephony have been traced in successive "generations", starting with the early zeroth-generation (0G) services, such as Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service and its successor, the Improved Mobile Telephone Service. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, and were very expensive.

The first handheld cellular mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2] and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c. 4.4 lbs (2 kg).[3] The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979. This was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone(NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.[8] Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s.

In April 1973, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper made the first call from a “real handheld portable cell phone,” a point he made very clear during that historic conversation with Joel Engel, the head of rival research firm Bell Labs. Fast forward to June 29, 2007, and the iPhone was born. Now in 2014, innovation is showing no sign of slowing down.

Since that fateful phone call four decades ago, mobile phones have evolved dramatically. Those magical portable technology boxes have become an essential part of interpersonal communication, and their significance will only increase with time. From the rise of SMS to anywhere, anytime Internet connectivity to mobile photography5, cell phones have been the catalyst for cultural and technological changes over the past 41 years. Let’s relive the defining moments and trends of the mobile era.

A smartphone is a handheld personal computer with a mobile operating system and an integrated mobile broadband cellular network connection for voice, SMS, and Internet data communication; most if not all smartphones also support Wi-Fi. Smartphones are typically pocket-sized, as opposed to tablets, which are much larger in size. They are able to run a variety of software components, known as “apps”. Most basic apps (e.g. event calendar, camera, web browser) come pre-installed with the system, while others are available for download from places like the Google Play Storeor Apple App Store. Apps can receive bug fixes and gain additional functionalitythrough software updates; similarly, operating systems are able to update. Modern smartphones have a touchscreen color display with a graphical user interface that covers the front surface and enables the user to use a virtual keyboard to type and press onscreen icons to activate "app" features. Mobile payment is now a common theme amongst most smartphones.

Today, smartphones largely fulfill most people's needs for a telephone, digital camera and video camera, GPS navigation, a media player, clock, news, calculator, web browser, handheld video game player, flashlight, compass, an address book, note-taking, digital messaging, an event calendar, etc. Typical smartphones will include one or more of the following sensors: magnetometer, proximity sensor, barometer, gyroscope, or accelerometer. Since 2010, smartphones adopted integrated virtual assistants, such as Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant and Samsung Bixby. Most smartphones produced from 2012 onward have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE capability and are still developing and we hope to let it go higher in the future.

The future is coming.......