By Vaughn Bui
To your grandparents, the smartphone was the landline. To your parents, the flip phone. To you, it’s likely the iPhone. After all, at a quick glance, it is obvious that the most popular phone at Fountain Valley High School is the iPhone. But how did we get to the rectangular slab designs in modern smartphones?
When we take a look at the history of the smartphone since its inception, we’ll start to notice that mobile technology has always held an exciting history.
The early phone
Alexander Graham Bell, a Canadian-American, invented the telephone (1876). The device largely remained simple until telecommunications company Motorola mobilized the cellular phone with DynaTac (1973). While Bell’s telephone was limited to landline calls, the DynaTac enabled the average American to make wireless calls. Unfortunately, its thick and blocky shape made it look like a brick.
Seeking to make the cellular phone more portable, Motorola created the MicroTac (1989). Its distinct sleek, compact and clamshell flip design contrasted the blocky phones common of the time. The launch of the MicroTac triggered a new era of technology, defined by wacky, colorful and “smart” phones.
The rise of the early smartphone
IBM, an electronics company, released the first smartphone, the IBM Simon (1994), characterized by a display and software that enabled users with a stylus to draw, take notes, plan a schedule, send emails and text others. The inclusion of a screen gave Simon a thickness that resembled the “brick” phone of the DynaTac. Large blocky phones were the most efficient means of including a screen, yet as technology progressed, phones gradually became thinner once again.
German-based technology company Siemens introduced the color display in the Siemens S10 (1997). Vivid colors would be brought to the design of phones by the Finnish telecommunications company Nokia in the Nokia 5110 (1998). This period saw the rise of experimental designs: folding and sliding keyboards, rotating “swivels” and cameras on phones.
The introduction of the modern smartphone
In 2007, Apple stunned the world with its radically futuristic smartphone. The iPhone challenged every aspect of early smartphone design: it had few buttons, a camera, a large finger-controlled touchscreen and a sleek, minimal gray and black design. The iPhone made the early smartphones, once praised for their capabilities, seem primitive as many companies failed to match Apple’s smartphone. For more than a year after the iPhone’s debut, the smartphone market was dominated by Apple.
Following the launch of the iPhone, Google would cease development of their first smartphone, the Google Sooner, in favor of a large-screened phone that could rival the iPhone. Partnering with Chinese technology corporation HTC, the HTC Dream (2008) would become the first Android smartphone released. Though the Dream had a sliding keyboard, it retained the rectangular design of the iPhone. Smartphone companies would follow the design as the Dream became a success; the variety of early smartphones had begun to disappear.
Modern smartphones
Though many smartphones followed the same rectangular glass or metal slabs, some companies would experiment with new designs. Oppo, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, released the Oppo N3 (2015), featuring a camera that could “turn around” to take higher-quality front photos. Blackberry created the niche Blackberry KeyOne (2017), featuring a modern smartphone with a physical keyboard. Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and OnePlus made large-screen phones with motorized pop-up cameras in the Oppo Find X (2018) and OnePlus 7 Pro (2019). Although the OnePlus 7 pro would see mild success in North America, smartphones with motorized cameras failed to take on as companies looked to other ideas.
As smartphones grew larger every year, foldable displays allowed phones to be folded for easier portability. Motorola introduced the Motorola Razr (2019) offering the size of an iPhone “Plus” with the transportability of a wallet. Samsung challenged Motorola with the Galaxy Z Flip (2020) and Galaxy Z Fold (2019). Microsoft experimented with the Surface Duo (2020), which was later discontinued due to poor sales. Most recently in September 2024, Chinese manufacturer Huawei released the Mate XT Ultimate, a tri-fold phone. Despite a folding smartphone’s utility, the fragility and price of folding smartphones have made them slow to become mainstream.
Other companies have tested other ideas to make phones fun. Take the Nothing Phone (2) (2023) and CMF Phone (2024), characterized by flashing LEDs and a modular design respectively. Bringing fun designs back to smartphones is the aim of the London-based manufacturer Nothing. South Korean technology company LG attempted an unusual two-screen swivel design with the LG Wing (2022). However, poor sales with the Wing led to LG’s ultimate departure from the smartphone industry.
Final thoughts
From Bell’s telephone to folding screens on modern devices, the design of smartphones has changed drastically since its creation. But with many iterations, a smartphone’s main purpose has always been to make calls, text and utilize the Internet. You don’t need special designs or gimmicks on an interesting-looking phone to do so; the smartphone you have does just the trick.
