The History of the Smartphone: From Brick Phones to Foldables

Quick answer: The smartphone didn’t begin with the iPhone in 2007 — it started with a 1994 IBM device called Simon, went through clunky BlackBerry keyboards and resistive touchscreens, and only became the slim glass slab we know today after a chain of small, unglamorous decisions by engineers most people have never heard of. Here’s the real, occasionally strange story.

Before “Smartphone” Was Even a Word

In 1994, IBM released the Simon Personal Communicator — a phone with a touchscreen, email, a calendar, and even a few basic apps, nearly a decade before anyone used the word “smartphone” seriously. It weighed over half a kilogram and cost roughly $900 (an eye-watering sum at the time), and it sold fewer than 50,000 units. IBM shelved the concept, and the idea of a phone-computer hybrid mostly went quiet for years.

The BlackBerry Era: Email in Your Pocket

Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, BlackBerry devices became the phone of choice for professionals who needed email on the move. Their physical keyboards were so beloved that “CrackBerry” became genuine slang for how addictive constant email access felt. It’s easy to forget now, but for years, a phone without a physical keyboard was considered a step backward for serious typing — which made what happened next genuinely controversial.

2007: The iPhone Changes the Argument Entirely

When Apple unveiled the original iPhone, critics (including BlackBerry’s own executives) doubted a touchscreen-only keyboard could work for serious typing. Apple’s bet was that most people didn’t actually want a tiny keyboard — they wanted a full-sized screen for browsing, and software smart enough to correct typing mistakes on the fly. Within a few years, physical keyboards had all but disappeared from mainstream phones, and the entire industry pivoted to touchscreen-first design.

Android Levels the Playing Field

Google’s Android, launched in 2008, took a different approach from Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem — an open operating system that any manufacturer could adopt and customise. This single decision is arguably why smartphones became genuinely affordable worldwide rather than staying a premium-only category, opening the door for the wide range of budget and mid-range Android phones available across markets like Kenya today.

The Camera Wars & The Rise of Computational Photography

For years, camera improvements meant physically bigger sensors and lenses. That changed when manufacturers, Google in particular, started using software and AI processing to dramatically improve photo quality without needing bulkier hardware — features like Night Sight and Magic Eraser owe their existence to processing power, not just optics. This shift is part of why a mid-range phone today often takes noticeably better photos than a flagship from just five years ago.

Folding Screens: The Newest Chapter

Foldable phones represent the first genuine change to the phone’s basic physical shape since the touchscreen slab took over in 2007. Early folding phones struggled with crease visibility and durability concerns, but successive hinge generations have steadily addressed both, turning what was once a gimmick into a genuinely mainstream premium category.

A Quick Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the first smartphone ever made?

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator, released in 1994, is widely credited as the first true smartphone, featuring a touchscreen, email, and basic apps over a decade before the term “smartphone” became common.

Why did physical keyboards disappear from phones?

The iPhone’s 2007 touchscreen-only design proved that a larger screen combined with smart auto-correction could replace physical keyboards for most users, and the rest of the industry followed within a few years.

Why do modern phone cameras take such good photos despite small sensors?

Computational photography — software and AI processing rather than purely bigger hardware — now handles much of the heavy lifting, letting even compact phone cameras produce results that would have needed much larger equipment a decade ago.

See How Far Things Have Come

From that 1994 IBM Simon to today’s foldables, it’s a genuinely wild sixty-year arc of engineering. If you want to see where that story stands today, browse the current Smartphones collection → at City Tech.

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