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Mobile phone Wikipedia
In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Former systems would cover a service area with one or two powerful base stations with a range of up to tens of kilometers’ (miles), using only a few sets of radio channels (frequencies). The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries.
Feature phones typically provide voice calling and text messaging functionality, in addition to basic multimedia and Internet capabilities, and other services offered by the user’s wireless service provider. Feature phone is a term typically used as a retronym to describe mobile phones which are limited in capabilities in contrast to a modern smartphone. The International Telecommunication Union measures those with Internet connection, which it calls Active Mobile-Broadband subscriptions (which includes tablets, etc.). The term “5G” was originally used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase in mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. The first publicly available LTE service was launched in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera in 2009. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming media.
- The cell towers are usually interconnected to each other and the phone network and the internet by wired connections.
- Mobile phone use while driving, including talking on the phone, texting, or operating other phone features, is common but controversial.
- The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries.
- Japan prohibits all mobile phone use while driving, including use of hands-free devices.
- Mobile phone technology has progressed significantly since its origins, evolving from large car-mounted systems to compact, handheld devices.
- A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable wireless telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phones).
- Up until that point, smartphone application distribution depended on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar, Handango, Handmark, and PocketGear.
The growth in popularity has been rapid in some places; for example, in the UK, the total number of mobile phones overtook the number of houses in 1999. Mobile phones are considered an important human invention as they have been one of the most widely used and sold pieces of consumer technology. For feature phones as of 2016update, the top-selling brands were Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel. In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world’s first cellular network in Japan.
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The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City on 3 April 1973, using a handset weighing c.
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- In 2001, the third-generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.
- 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.
- A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering.
- Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, such as keeping in touch with family members, for conducting business, and in order to have access to a telephone in the event of an emergency.
- Other countries, such as China and the Netherlands, have introduced special lanes for smartphone users to help direct and manage them.
- The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit.
- Today, mobile phones are globally ubiquitous, and in almost half the world’s countries, over 90% of the world population, or approximately 7.2 billion people, owns at least one.
In addition, they enable multimedia playback and streaming, including video content, as well as radio and television streaming. These include text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, and internet access (via LTE, 5G NR or Wi-Fi), as well as short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth, infrared, and ultra-wideband (UWB). This radio frequency link connects to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, providing access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). While there are rumors of mobile phones causing cancer, there was a study conducted by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that stated the there could be an increase risk of brain tumors with the use of smartphones, this is not confirmed. In Europe, regulations and technology have allowed the limited introduction of the use of passenger mobile phones on some commercial flights, and elsewhere in the world many airlines are moving towards allowing mobile phone use in flight.
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Smartphones are defined by their advanced computing capabilities, which include internet connectivity and access to a wide range of applications. Mobile phone technology has progressed significantly since its origins, evolving from large car-mounted systems to compact, handheld devices. Furthermore, mobile phones offer satellite-based services, such as navigation and messaging, as well as business applications and payment solutions (via scanning QR codes or near-field communication (NFC)). The Motorola Razr V3 and LG Chocolate are two examples of devices that were popular for being fashionable while not necessarily focusing on the original purpose of mobile phones, i.e. a device to provide mobile telephony.
The petition is part of a joint effort by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and was directed to the CEOs of the major smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers. Studies have shown that around 40–50% of the environmental impact of mobile phones occurs during the manufacture of their printed wiring boards and integrated circuits. China has proposed using this technology to track the commuting patterns of Beijing city residents. Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators, and retail merchants. A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank, Bank Mandiri.
The introduction of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications (software and computer programs) focused on a single platform. A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone. Of the two, Android has been the best-selling system worldwide on smartphones since 2011, and as of March 2025, Android had 71.9% of the overall market share, while iOS had 27.7%. SIM and R-UIM cards may be mixed together to allow both GSM and CDMA networks to be accessed.
A major breakthrough came in 1973, when the first cash lounge casino handheld cellular mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola, using a handset weighing 2 kilograms (4.4 lb). Early mobile phones required vehicle installation due to their size and power needs. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported a few simultaneous calls, and were very expensive. 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. A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering.
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Some audio-quality enhancing features, such as Voice over LTE and HD Voice, have appeared and are often available on newer smartphones. Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, and AMOLED displays. Screen sizes are often measured in diagonal inches or millimeters; feature phones generally have screen sizes below 90 millimetres (3.5 in). Depending on the device’s type and design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device’s front surface. Mobile processors commonly use heterogeneous multicore architectures, combining cores with different performance and power characteristics so that computational workloads can be distributed according to their processing requirements and energy constraints. With smartphones, NAND flash memory was adopted as it has larger storage capacities and lower costs, but causes longer boot times because instructions cannot be executed from it directly, and must be copied to RAM memory first before execution.
