Smartphones are so ubiquitous in our culture today that sometimes we forget how they came to be. There was a point, only a short ten or fifteen years ago, when people didn’t carry around little computers in their pockets all the time. It was a time when you had to carry around a PDA and a cell phone—in addition to a bunch of printed out MapQuest instructions.
As a means of being thankful for the convenience and affordability of smart technology we enjoy today, lets take a look back at the 10 most important and influential smartphones of all time:
10. Kyocera 6035 (2001)
The Kyocera 6035 is often declared as the first serious smartphone sold in the American market. When the flap of the 6035 was flipped up, it looked like your everyday average cell phone. But when you flipped it down, it revealed the Palm buttons and Graffiti handwriting area that made this thing a cell phone / Palm PDA two-in-one.
It was a startling design that was the first step toward a complete realization of this two-in-one that would later come to be in Blackberry, Palm, and Apple devices. It’s hard to look at the Kyocera 6035 and see how it evolved into an iPhone 6, but all the conceptual bits are there if you peel back the layers.
9. Samsung Galaxy Note (2011)
When the Galaxy Note first came out, iPhone users scoffed at the massive 5.3-inch screen. How could use this thing with one screen? Would it even fit in your pocket? It’s a funny scenario to imagine when a 5.5-inch iPhone is available on the market.
There were a number of attempts at blowing up the “phablet” model before—Samsung wasn’t the first. However, it really was the Galaxy Note that changed the course of what smartphones would look like in the future. Not only did the Note eventually push Apple to make a bigger iPhone, it also set in place the idea that smartphone manufacturers needed two models—a bigger model for power users and a smaller model that comes at a cheaper price. The Galaxy Note made phablets so commonplace that the word term is no longer necessary—and that’s something we can all be thankful for.
8. Nokia 9210 Communicator (2003)
The 9210 Communicator was the kind of device that felt straight out of a science fiction film when it hit the scene. The clamshell design allowed for the front to remain a simple-looking cell phone, while the inside was an attempt at a tiny laptop experience.
It had a full color screen, a full-functioning media player, and even the ability to edit word processing documents! The price of owning a Nokia 9210 was hefty—both in dollar amount and in physical weight. One thing is for sure though: this beloved device was ahead of the game when it came to implementing smart features into a phone.
7. Apple iPhone 3G (2008)
Every iteration of the iPhone over the years has added some features and interesting pieces of technology. None, however, made a leap forward quite like the second generation iPhone did. Not only did the 3G finally include 3G support (hence the name), it also brought arguably the most important feature to iPhone users: the App Store. Apple was now open to accepting third-party apps of all kinds, meaning innovation and creativity would now flood in from every industry imaginable.
It’s strange to think about, but if you look at the sales data it really was the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS that convinced the world to buy Apple smartphones, not the original iPhone.
6. LG Prada (2007)
Setting aside the controversy around the original iPhone’s relationship to the previously released LG Prada, there’s no questioning that the Prada had a massive influence on the direction of the industry. This was the first device to be released with a capacitive touchscreen and the simple slate form factor. Not only that, but the LG Prada clearly had a higher-end feel to it. Everything from the name to the sleek design, to the very modern interface just emanated the word ‘premium.’
While it didn’t have the impact that the iPhone would end up having, it’s hard not to look back at the LG Prada as one of the most innovative, forward-looking, and trendsetting smartphones of all time.
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