See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/355041882

Evolution of Smartphone

Article · October 2021

CITATIONS READS
0 7,560

1 author:

Ahsan Kabir Nuhel

American International University-Bangladesh
12 PUBLICATIONS   2 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Simulation analysis on coordination between directional over current relays (DOCR) serving to a ring main system. View project

Gsm Based Gas Leakage Monitor & Alarming System View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ahsan Kabir Nuhel on 04 October 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Evolution of Smartphone
Ahsan Kabir Nuhel
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
American International University- Bangladesh (AIUB)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: nuhel@ieee.org
Abstract-- Including the novel improvement of science
and technologies, smartphones have become one of the
most embedded elements of life. Modern technology's
whole idea is to make life easier and more efficient, and
smartphones play a significant role in that achievement.
Nowadays, smartphones act as personal assistance, event
organizer, communication device, and media of
entertainment. Smartphones fulfilled these massive
features within the last 40 years. In this paper, the modern
smartphone structure, its evolution, and the current
generator network are discussed.
Index Terms— smartphone, latency, processor, GPS
I. INTRODUCTION
Smartphones usually work as a go-to source
for staying notified about breaking news and
community incidents, getting from place to place,
conducting transactions, and cruising life events such
as finding a new job or getting information about a
health condition. It is also a medium of communication
and entertainment. Smartphones are being used from
the start of a person's day to the end. They are being
used as an alarm clock, calendar, meeting organizer.
Smartphones are also being used to run businesses,
order foods, booking tickets, ordering medicines,
sharing media and files. These options were not always
in the palm of hands. Now, the average person rubs
their phone an unreal 2,617 times per day. More people
in the world have access to a mobile phone than a toilet.
In an average year, people spend just under 800 hours
on their mobile phones (that’s over a whole month!).
And with these figures rising all the time, it’s no
surprise that the last ten years have been labelled as the
‘decade of the smartphone’
II. INTRODUCTION TO SMARTPHONES
Back in the early days of mobile phones, their sole
use was for calling other people whilst on the move.
Soon after, the capability to 'text' other mobile phones
was included.
Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola,
made history when he called a competitive
telecommunications organization and told them that he
was conversing from a mobile phone [1]. The call was
made with a prototype of their DynaTAC model – the
first handheld mobile phone on the market was released
a whole ten years later. Saying that this sort of 'mobile
phone' was more like a two-way radio than the phones
that we are familiar with today. First launching in 1994,
IBM's Simon Personal Communicator is widely
considered as the world's first 'smartphone.' Way ahead
of its time, and the IBM Simon featured a touchscreen
display and countless pre-installed apps such as an
address book, calculator, calendar, digital notepad,
world clock and more. While it was only on the market
for six months, IBM still managed to sell 50,000 units
of the handset [2].
Today, giant tech companies like Apple, Samsung,
Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola, and Sony
dominate the smartphone market. These smartphones
start from 50 $ and can be as expensive as 2000 $.
Although these smartphones' form factor and features
are almost the same, the price tag depends on their
quality and extra features..
III. EVOLUTION OF SMARTPHONES:
The Simon Personal Communicator, created by
IBM, revealed in 1992 and launched in 1994, was the
leading smartphone. At that time, after only six months
of being in the market, it sold 50,000 units.
Smartphones began to familiarize through the year
2007-2010. The LG Prada, being the first touchscreen
device to hit the market. However, the 1st generation
iPhone, with its touch screen device, genuinely set the
path for smartphone trend. The notable features of
smartphones in this era were NFC (Nokia 6131, 2006),
Capacitive Touchscreen (LG Prada, 2007), Mobile
Apps (Apple App Store, 2008), Wireless Charging
(Palm Pre, 2009) [3].
In 2010, Samsung entered the smartphone market
with Samsung Galaxy S, operating on Android 2.1 and
possessed an 800 x 480 Super AMOLED display. It
also had a single-core 1GHz processor and 0.5GB of
RAM. The rear camera was 5-megapixels, while the
front was just 0.3-megapixels. The thing that stood out
about it was the customization of Android [4].
Although people had seen some of TouchWiz on other
devices, it felt like it just worked flawlessly on the
Galaxy S. Since then, Samsung has been dominating
the smartphone market to this date. Now every year,
Samsung launches about 30 new smartphones in the
different price range. The Samsung Galaxy S and
Samsung Galaxy Note lineup are the high-end
smartphones that Samsung offers right now, with a
hefty price tag. They also manufacture the Samsung
Galaxy A and Samsung Galaxy M lineup, targeting the
mid and low budget range [5].
From 2007 to 2020, Smartphones have changed
drastically. It is not just the product that has changed;
smartphones also changed the entire world
economically, culturally, socially. As a typical lifestyle
was becoming integrated into smartphones, everyone
started adding tons of other features. Now smartphones
have up to 6 cameras, capable of taking DSLR level
pictures, 6.5 inches screen, long battery life that lasts
up to two days, fast charging technology that can
charge a phone within 1 hour, wireless charging,
wireless fast charging, extra storage that are super-fast,
state of the art level processing power, FM radio, High-
Speed internet that is compatible with 5G [7], Maps,
GPS tracker, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Support. The evolution of smartphone throughout the
year is presented below [6]:
TABLE I. Evolution of smartphone throughout decades
1994 IBM brought out the Simon which had a
touchscreen and a very early form of what
we all know today as ‘Apps’. It cost $899
and only worked in 15 states in the US.
1996 The first ever phone with the ‘slider’ form
factor came in the shape of the Nokia 8110.
It had the nickname the banana phone due to
its shape and even made an appearance on
the big screen in the Matrix. It was also the
first device to feature a monochrome LCD
screen
1999 WAP launches on the Nokia 7110 making it
the first phone capable of browsing the web
albeit a trimmed down version which didn’t
provide the full HTML experience we know
today.
2000 The Sharp J-SH04 becomes the first camera
phone on the market but only available in
Japan. BlackBerry launch their 857 which
support email and web browsing signifying
the start of BlackBerry’s reign as the
business phone kings.
2001 Full-colour displays start to hit the market
first with the Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse but
the Ericcson T68i.
2002 Europe’s first camera phone, the Nokia
7650, was released.
2003 The Finnish giant’s best-selling phone of all
time, the Nokia 1100, hit the shelves and has
since sold over 200 million units.
2005 Android, the mobile operating system was
acquired by Google which sent the message
the Mountain View giant was serious about
mobile technology.
2006 The Nokia N95 launched providing the first
real smartphone experience. It ran on
Symbian, had 160mb of RAM, the world's
first 5-megapixel phone camera, Bluetooth
and Wi-Fi.
2007 June 2007 saw the launch of the 1st
generation iPhone, unveiled by Steve Jobs.
2008 The first Android phone is released called
the G1. It has a limited touchscreen and a
slide out keyboard.
2010 Google release the Nexus One.
2011 Samsung cements their place as the biggest
global smartphone vendor thanks to the
Galaxy S II which packs an 8MP camera and
an AMOLED display.
2012 iPhone 5 was launched, selling 5 million
units within a week.
2013 Fingerprint scanning went mainstream when
it launched on the iPhone 5S via the touch
button.
2015 Chinese firms Huawei and Xiaomi make
strides in Western Markets, but both
Samsung and Apple continue to dominate
with the Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6S
respectively holding 38% of the global
market share between them.
2016 Google ditch their Nexus branding and
replace it with the Pixel.
2017 Microsoft ended support for the Windows
Phone OS.
2018 Chinese manufacturer Ulefone launches the
Power 5 incorporating a 13,000 mAh
battery, the largest ever seen in a mobile
phone.
2019 The UK & US begin to deploy 5G network,
initial indications point to real-world data
transfer speeds 10 times faster than 4G.
2020 Samsung launches the Samsung Galaxy
S20, with a 108 megapixels camera.
IV. CURRENT SMARTPHONES
All smartphones have some basic structure and
components. The basic components of a smartphones
are as follows:
A. Display
It is the most important component of any
smartphone. Although it seems like it is an external
component but it is an internal part of the whole device.
There are two major types of display LCD and LED.
1) LCD
The LCD display has a backlight which lights up
through some filters and some polarizers. On the back
side of display there are a huge of amount of color
available. The lights that we see as output are not
generated by the display rather the lights behind the
display generates it. This display consumes a lot power
than LED. While generating a black color the crystal
display gets manipulated so that no light can pass
through the display and shown outside. But the lights
behind the display are still on which consumes a part
of battery life. The LCD display are pretty chip than
LED displays [7].
2) LED
These displays have small but a lot number of light
emitting diodes attached with the display. They emit
red, green and blue lights. Which then combinedly
forms up the pictures shown as output of the
smartphone. These displays are known as AMOLED or
Super AMOLED. It has a clear advantage in terms of
battery consumption. If a pixel is off the LED behind is
turned off and black color on that region can be seen.
So it has a lot less battery consumption than LCD
displays [7].
B. Battery
The smartphones manufacturers are using lithium-
ion battery which are removeable or non-removeable.
These battery have high charge density and high
production cost [7] .
C. SoC (System-on-a-chip)
This component of smartphone consists of CPU,
GPU, LTE modem, display processor, video processor
and many other chips. Qualcom, MediaTek, Huawei
are some of the best SoC makers in the market.
D. Camera
All smartphones right now have multiple camera
attached to its body. It has three main part: Lens, light
senor, image processing unit.
E. Storage and memory
RAM and memory is one the key component of
smartphones. The smartphones are now using
LPDDR4 and LPDDRX RAM. LP stand for low
power. The memory used in smartphones are flash
memory. The size varies from 32GB to 256GB [8] .
F. Modems
This part is used for communication purpose. It
can receive and send calls and messages. The most
fastest LTE modem is CAT.9 [7-8].
G. Sensors
There are lot of sensors available in smartphones
for giving a better user experience. GPS sensor,
accelerometer, gyroscope scope sensor. They are
mostly used by application [7-8].
H. Manufacturer of smartphone parts
Samsung is produces the best memory card in the
market. Samsung Evo plus microSD has ranked top in
2020 microSD market which cost 10.99 dollar. Apple
A14Bionic is the best SoC of 2020. The best camera
maker in the industry is also Apple [7-8].
V. CURRENT CELLULAR NETWORK
A. Structure of a Cellular Network:
Cellular systems offer wireless and mobile
telephone stations for the same service provided by
fixed stations over conventional wired loops. The
components of the cellular system, which we shall see
now, facilitate the interconnectivity of different cells
and cell networks. Figure 1 gives a brief overview of
all the components in the Cellular Network.
Figure 1: Structure of a cellular network
B. Functions of Major Cellular Network Equipment:
1. BTS (Base Transceiver Station) -
The function of BTS is it connects the cells or
mobile devices to the network. For data transmission
it sends and receive the radio signals to mobile
devices and converts them to digital signals so that it
passes on the network. For transmission of data it uses
several antennas for spread across the cell [9].
2. BSC (Base Station Controller) –
The function of BSC is it manages the BTSs and
radio sources. Also controls and monitors a number of
BS (Base Station) and provide the interface between
the cell sites and the MSC (Mobile Switching Center)
[9].
3. MSC (Mobile Switching Center)-
MSC is the coordinator of a cellular network. The
function of MSC is logging calls, controlling calls and
switching calls. It routes calls between BSCs and
mobility management over the radio network and
other networks. It interfaces with PSTN, ISDN,
PSPDN [9].
4. Home Location Register (HLR)-
The HLR is a database that holds information
upon the subscribers. It is considered as the most
important database. The HLR stores following
information [10]-
• The subscription information.
• The International Mobile Station Identity
(IMSI)
• One or more Mobile Station International
ISDN numbers (MSISDN)
• Some location information enabling the
charging and routing calls towards the MSC
where the MS is registered.
5. Visitor Location Register (VLR)-
VLR is database that stores temporary data about
a subscriber. It contains a copy of most of the data that
stored at the HLR. The VLR provides a temporary
local database for the subscriber. This function
reduces the need for excessive and time-consuming
references to the HLR database [10].
The additional data stored in the VLR is listed below:
• Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity
(TMSI).
• Location Area Identity (LAI).
• Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN).
6. Equipment Identity Register (EIR) –
The EIR is a database located near the MSC and
it stores IMEI for all registered mobile equipment
which is unique to every ME [10].
EIR contains three lists:
• White list (for valid MS equipment)
• Black list (for stolen or denied service MS)
• Gray List (IMEI having problems like faulty
software, wrong make of equipment etc.)
C. Mobile Phone –
A Mobile phone consists of few components.
Their functions are given below [6] :
SIM: The basic functions of a Sim card are
identification and authentication. It is an integrated
circuit card that stores the identity information of
subscriber.
Radio Transceiver: Radio Transceiver is used for both
transmit and receive information through a
transmission medium. It is a low power radio
transmitter and receiver.
Antenna: Antenna is located inside the phone and the
function of it is to receive and transmit signals from
mobile to MSC (Mobile Switching Center). There are
also some other antennas for different purposes like
Wi-Fi antenna, GPS antenna, Bluetooth antenna and
so on.
Control Circuitry: It formats the data sent to and
from the BTS. Also control signal transmission and
reception.
Man-machine interface: It consists of a keypad and a
display and is managed by the control circuitry.
Battery: The power unit of the phone usually Li-ion.
VI. MANUFACTURERS OF MAJOR CELLULAR
NETWORK EQUIPMENT:
Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi,
LG, Lenovo, ZTE and Alcatel Lucent are some
manufacturers of the mobile phones of our uses.
VII. FUTURE OF SMARTPHONES:
The recent innovations with smartphones contain
5G technology and Foldable Screen. Manufacturers are
continuously researching about new features to add to
smartphones. The top companies also introduce
concept phones to gather data about public appeals.
Here are some of the features that could make its way
to the smartphone industry:
1.Flip Phones: While many people want bigger
smartphones with full screens, there are a lot of people
looking for smaller smartphones and a bit of nostalgia
too. So, in the next few years, expect the return of the
flip phone. Motorola, Huawei Samsung have already
launched a total of five Flip Phones and specialists are
assuming that this number will continue to grow [11].
2.More Diverse Interfaces: With more non-screen
devices coming on the market, like AirPods, people are
moving away from always using a touchscreen.
Instead, users may use the interface that feels most
natural, which could be voice, motion or even another
IoT device. The smartphone may exist as the brain and
connection but will combine with other devices around
it to create something larger than the component parts.
3.5G-Enabled Hardware: New smartphones will come
with hardware that fully supports 5G. This will unlock
the potential of tech that the future promised us. Lag
free streaming and seamless switching between office
and home features would be possible [12].
4.Integrated SIM: In 2019, embedded SIM (eSIM)
gained further momentum in flagship smartphones like
iPhone 11, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Google Pixel 4 and
Motorola Razr. But eSIM is expected to be included in
every new smartphone by default as it evolves into an
"iSIM," or an integrated SIM built into the device
processor by chipmakers [11].
5.3D Face Mapping: Artificial intelligence (AI) is
going to be able to improve 3D face mapping to predict
what users would look like if they made changes to
their appearance [12].
6.Thin, Stretchable Screens: Almost everybody wants
a big screen on their phones. But nobody wants to put
a tablet size phone in their pockets. This ever-growing
want is not going to stop at foldable phones, which in
some sense fulfill both of these requirements.
However, to bridge the gap between phones and
laptops, we need even bigger phone screens. A
stretchable thin screen would fix this issue [11].
7. Increased Interactions With Voice Assistants: As
NLP and AI improve digital assistants and voice
interactions with technology, greater integration into
smartphone controls and applications will be seen.
More uses of Alexa, Cortana, Siri and similar AIs in
our day-to-day lives, both personally and
professionally will be common [12].
8.Hand Free Experience: The new phone won't be a
phone that known to us now. Rather, it may be an
augmented reality device that user perceives the world
through. The screen time of phones will grow
exponentially. But it's 5G that will make hands free
experience and make the eyes and ears see and feel the
world that was never experienced before—an
augmented world [11].
VIII. EFFECTS OF SMARTPHONE:
Smartphones have grown to be such an important
part of our lives because they are constructed with
communication capabilities that are extremely similar
to that of a computer, just more convenient due to their
portability. There have been several studies performed
by different groups of individuals that show a
correlation between individual’s personalities and
emotions and cell phone/smartphone usage. Social
anxiety and loneliness happen to be two important
characteristics that can be negatively correlated with
smartphone usage. Social anxiety and loneliness are
both factors that add to most poor-quality relationships
or the lack there of. Social anxiety is characterized by
an intense, pervasive fear of negative evaluation or of
acting in a manner that is potentially embarrassing
while under the scrutiny of others. A recent study
showed that the Big Five personality traits
(extraversion, agreeableness, openness,
conscientiousness, and neuroticism) are displayed
 through smartphone usage. In a study done by several
contributors, participants were separated into different
groups based on the levels of social anxiety or
loneliness that they displayed. The Wilcoxon-Mann-
Whitney test was used to evaluate the factors of social
anxiety and loneliness brought about by smartphone
usage and dependence [3]. This demonstrated that the
individuals basically avoided confrontation with
others, based on their smartphone usage [4] . As far as
loneliness, the individuals barely received any
incoming calls under any circumstance. Social stress is
said to come from an over excessive use of
smartphones, too. Because there are so many
individuals who use smartphones to communicate so
frequently, certain maladaptive habits are or can be
formed. According to a study in Computers in Human
Behavior, maladaptive habits can cause unintended
behavior to include constant unintentional urges to
check the smartphone at random, or possibly, the
wrong times. Since overusing smartphones can lead to
addictive behavior, emotions come into play. Because
so many individuals are devoted to their smartphones,
it is possible for them to develop anxiety or social stress
when the phone is not in clear sight or reach. It is
evident that it is harder for individuals to interact in
social settings, if the smartphone is not there to guide
them, in a way.
IX. CONCLUSIONS
By analyzing technical features incorporated into
the smartphone models, we have the following findings
on current industrial dynamics in the smartphone
industry. First, novel categorical features are in
different stages of diffusion, implying that smartphone
vendors might choose to retrofit certain features to
smartphone models in response to market demand. For
example, the need for taking self-portrait photos
popularizes smartphones equipped with secondary
cameras. Second, core hardware components, such as
CPU, RAM, and storage, still undergo significant
improvement to support faster processing power, as
more computing resources are required for the
increasing usage of sophisticated mobile apps. Third,
smartphone screens have become more extensive with
a better resolution due to the advances in display
technology. Fourth, more battery capacity may help to
ensure steady battery life given the growing power
consumption. Fifth, performance benchmarks further
provide us with a holistic view of the technological
View publication stats
evolution of smartphones. Moreover, the benchmark
allows customers to quickly grasp the smartphone
performance and compare across models without
comprehending all technical specification details.
X. REFERENCES
[1] 3DMark.
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark.
[2] AnTuTu Benchmark.
http://www.antutu.com/en/index.shtml.
[3] Bitemark OS II Benchmark. http://www.basemark.
com/product-catalog/basemark-os-ii.
[4] C. Benkard and P. Bajari. Hedonic price indexes with
unobserved product characteristics, and application to
personal computers. Journal of Business and
Economic Statistics, 23(1):61{75, 2005.
[5] E. Berndt and Z. Griliches. Price indexes for
microcomputers: An explorative study. NBER
Working Paper No. 3378, 1990.
[6] D. Byrne, S. Oliner, and D. Sichel. How fast are
semiconductor prices falling? NBER Working Paper
No. 21074, 2015.
[7] M. Campbell-Kelly, D. Garcia-Swartz, R. Lam, and
Y. Yang. Economic and business perspectives on
smartphones as multi-sided platforms.
Telecommunications Policy, 39(8):717{734, 2015.
[8] G. Cecere, N. Corrocher, and R. D. Battaglia.
Innovation and competition in the smartphone
industry: Is there a dominant design?
Telecommunications Policy, 39(3-4):162{175, 2015.
[9] P. Chwelos. Approaches to performance
measurement
in hedonic analysis: Price indexes for laptop
computers in the 1990s. Economics of Innovation and
New Technology, 12(3):199{224, 2003.
[10] P. Chwelos, E. Berndt, and I. Cockburn. Faster,
smaller, cheaper: An hedonic price analysis of PDAs.
Applied Economics, 40(22):2839{2856, 2008.
[11] L. Einav, J. Levin, I. Popov, and N. Sundaresan.
Growth, adoption and use of mobile e-commerce.
American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings,
104(5):489{494, 2014.
[12] D. Garcia-Swartz and F. Garcia-Vicente. Network
effects on the iPhone platform: An empirical
examination. Telecommunications Policy,
39(10):877{895, 2015.