Mobile phone Wikipedia
3G is able to provide mobile broadband access of several Mbit/s to smartphones and mobile modems in laptop computers. These first-generation (1G) systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains. “Mobile phone” is the most common English-language term, while the term “cell phone” is in more common use in North America – both are in essence shorter versions of “mobile telephone” and “cellular telephone”, respectively.
- By contrast, smartphones generally use a mobile operating system that often shares common traits across devices.
- A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards, with a phone having a different device identifier for each SIM Card.
- Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators, and retail merchants.
- A cellular network mobile phone system gets its name from dividing the service area into many small cells, each with a base station with (for example) a useful range on the order of a kilometer (mile).
- The automation systems can control the “hand off” of a customer handset moving between one cell and another so that a call in progress continues without interruption, changing channels if required.
- 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%.
- In 2013, a national survey in the US reported the number of drivers who reported using their cellphones to access the Internet while driving had risen to nearly one of four.
Mobile phones are considered an important human invention as it has been one of the most widely used and sold pieces of consumer technology. A study by the London School of Economics found that banning mobile phones in schools could increase pupils’ academic performance, providing benefits equal to one extra week of schooling per year. They also stated that with the lack of data for the research and the usage periods of 15 years will warrant further research for smartphones and the cause of brain tumors. In most jurisdictions, prison inmates are forbidden from possessing mobile phones due to their ability to communicate with the outside world and other security issues.
- The exact number of cycles depends on factors such as charging habits, operating temperature, and battery management systems.
- Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses.
- The dataset contains information on 22 dichotomous, continuous or categorical variables including, for example, activities regulated (e.g., texting versus talking, hands-free versus handheld), targeted populations, and exemptions.
- 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.
- In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world’s first cellular network in Japan.
- Recently, unique content for mobile phones has been emerging, from ringtones and ringback tones to mobisodes, video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.citation needed
- “Mobile phone” is the most common English-language term, while the term “cell phone” is in more common use in North America – both are in essence shorter versions of “mobile telephone” and “cellular telephone”, respectively.
Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications are known as smartphones. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones and offer basic telephony. Additionally, short-range Wi-Fi infrastructure is often used by smartphones as much as possible as it offloads traffic from cell networks on to local area networks. The automation systems can control the “hand off” of a customer handset moving between one cell and another so that a call in progress continues without interruption, changing channels if required. In developed countries, smartphones have largely replaced earlier mobile technologies, while in developing regions, they account for around 50% of all mobile phone usage. This ensures it can be applied to mobile Internet access, VoIP, video calls, and sending large e-mail messages, as well as watching videos, typically in standard-definition quality.
A major breakthrough came in 1973, when the first 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.
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Most early content for mobile phones tended to be copies of legacy media, such as banner advertisements or TV news highlight video clips. There are a huge variety of apps, including video games, music products and business tools. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000, and subsequently many organizations provided “on-demand” and “instant” news services by SMS.
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A common data application on mobile phones is Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. Feature phones have basic software platforms whilst smartphones have a fully-featured operating system (commonly abbreviated to an OS), with the two most-used platforms being Android and iOS. The exact number of cycles depends on factors such as charging habits, operating temperature, and battery management systems. The small speakers can also be used to listen to digital audio files of music or speech or watch videos with an audio component, without holding the phone close to the ear. Because of these problems, the performance of mobile phone CPUs is often more appropriately given by scores derived from various standardized tests to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.
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This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials when attempting to distinguish one usage from another in drivers using their devices. In other countries, including the UK and France and in many US states, only handheld phone use is banned while hands-free use is permitted. Mobile phone use while driving, including talking on the phone, texting, or operating other phone features, is common but controversial. Although these phones are intended to prevent immodesty, some vendors report good sales to adults who prefer the simplicity of the devices; other Orthodox Jews question the need for them. In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobile phones to perform surveillance operations.
A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards, with a phone having a different device identifier for each SIM Card. The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device, provided that this is not prevented by a SIM lock. 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. Most modern mobile phones use lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, which are designed to endure between 500 and 2,500 charge cycles. The typical lifespan of a mobile phone battery is approximately two to three years, although this varies based on usage patterns, environmental conditions, and overall care.
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 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 cash lounge casino 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.