Mobile Productivity History

A HISTORY OF MOBILE PRODUCTIVITY Not long ago there was a point at which "cellphone" became an insufficient term. Now even "smartphone" does not seem to quite grasp the full extent of such a mobile device's capabilities. We have replaced countless everyday tools with a single item that can fit in the palm of one's hand. Unquestionably, mobile technology has changed the world and the way we work. How quickly it has done so is just as astonishing. TIMELINE In 1946, Swedish police used devices that wirelessly con- 1970s nected to the telephone net- work. These were heavy and battery life only allowed for a handful of calls. In the '60s, "cell areas" existed but base stations 1973 d but Dr. Martin Cooper, former general manager for the systerns division at provided minimal coverage in the '70s, mobile technology picked up speed and hasn't stopped since. Motorola invents the first portable handset. He is the first person to make a call 1977 on a portable cellular phone. First public cell phone trials begin in Chicago with 2000 1974 First commercially successful pager: Motorola Pageboy customers Motorola Pageboy The pager played an important role throughout the early decades of mobile productivity. When people were out and about, getting a hold of them was a difficult, if not impossible, task. Pagers changed this, making it easy to check in with mobile employees (and employers!). 1980s 1983 With the launch of its DynaTAC BO00X. DynaTAC, an abbreviation for Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage, Motorola begins the first series of commercially available mobile phones DynaTAC 8000x The commercial availability of cell phones marked a new era of communication. Previ- ously, the idea of using a phone outside of your home or office seemed far-fetched, As the 80s progressed, the adoption of this new era of mobile communicators became more and more widespread. 1990s 1993 ( Apple Apple introduces the Newton MessagePad and the IBM Simon becomes the first publicly available smartphone. John Sculley IBM Simon 1992 Apple's CEO John Sculley introduces the term "Per- sonal Digital Assistant," or PDA, referring to a pen based device. Nokia 9000 1997 First Palmos developer conference lays the groundwork for those communities that make today's app stores so successful. 1996 The QWERTY key- board arrives on mobile phones with Palm OS the Nokia 9000 Communicator (later the best-selling PDA). 1999 Though different than the full HTML web we know today. WAP (wireless access protocol sites) first becomes accessible via mobile phones with the launch of the Nokia 7110. The Benefon Esct is the first phone with GPS integration and the Samsung SPH-M100 is the first MP3 phone. *The phone featured in The Matrix. Nokia 7110 The 1990s saw the cellphone transform into the smartphone. Aimed largely at a business audience, smartphones could do more than simply make calls. With advances from Apple, Palm, and Nokia, mobile devices received full QWERTY keyboards, contact managers, calendar applications, and more. 2000s 2000 First commercially available camera phone: Sharp 1-SHO4 with a 0.1 megapixel resolution. First mobile phone with a color display: Sony BlackBerry 5810 2002 Research in Motion (RIM) releases the first BlackBerry with calling functionality BlackBerry 5810. Sony Ericsson T68i Ericsson T68 First Palm OS phone: Treo 180. Palm OS Cobalt 6.0 2005 Motorola ROKR E1 First phone to integrate ITunes: Motorola ROKR ET 2004 Palm OS Cobalt 6.0 introduted 2007 Motorola RAZR (AA with its striking apprerance and its thin profile, became a fashion icon Apple introduces the iPhone. combining a mobile phone, an Internet communicator, and an mp3 player into one device. Apple effectively defined a new breed of smartphones. Android bought by Google. Phone HTC Dream 2008 2009 IPhone 3G, OS App Store, first Android phone and Android Market. The last Palm Os device marks the App stores explode: BlackBerry App World (April, Nokia Ovi Store (Mayl, Palm App Catalog (lunei, and Windows Marketplace for Mobile (October). Apps range from end of an era. business tools like Documents to Go to games like the still-popular Angry Birds. Color displays, the ability to capture photos and videos, the use of GPS, and other advances in technology transformed smartphones from a simple business tool to a powerful consumer device with mass appeal. 2010s 2010 iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 launches, Android's smartphone market share jumped from 5t to 29% in 2011 one year. In mid 2011, Apple announced its 15 bilionth download from its App Store and announced Apple is not the only success story. The Android platform inched past the iPhone this year in mobile browsing market share: that 1OS users purchased an average of 61% more apps this year over last 0.6% 0.5% Windows Phone Web OS BlackBerry iPod 9% 36.3% - Android 17% 34.4% iPad iPhone As phones become even faster and more powerful, devices begin to converge. Phones and tablets are now being designed to replace computers. The advent of "the cloud" ensures devices are connected and in sync. Experts forecast a paradigm shift in computing. The post-PC era is coming. 26% 50% Smartphones account for 26% of all phones across the 6 BILLION global market. 50% of all new phones purchased in the US are smartphones. By the end of 2011, there will be more than six billion mobile subscriptions. 240 HRS 59% The average mobile worker works 240 hours a year longer than those in the gen- eral population. 59% of business owners, CEOS, and presidents say wireless services are es- sential to their business Mabile users everywhere are showing an increased desire for more features, improving mobile productivity, merging business and personal data onto a single device, and becoming more connected than ever. CONCLUSION Mobile productivity has come a long way in just a few decades. Tools that were irreplaceable not long ago are now collecting dust in closets and museums across the world. Today, technology is moving faster than ever. Smartphones and tablets have become integral parts of our daily lives. New devices are changing and enhancing the way we work every day. Today's smartphone could be tomorrow's collector's item! Sources: Cellphones.org, Chitika, CNN, Futurelooks Media Inc., The Huffington Post, ReadWriteWeb, Tech-FAQ, The Business Journals CompanionLink Software www.companionlink.com 2.2%