Are you wondering what people are doing with their mobile phones? Well, 90% of the time is spent on mobile apps.
We use apps to chat with friends, order food, purchase clothes, pay taxes and for lots of other stuff. On the whole, mobile applications have become an essential part of our life.
So, have you noticed the evolution of mobiles and mobile apps or is it just us?
Today, we are going to talk about the history of mobiles and mobile applications and try to understand how they became the center of our attention in a short period of time.
1973
Martin Cooper invented the first handheld cellular mobile phone
1976
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne
1979
Japan launched the first automated cellular network which was available for cars. It is now called as 1G
1983
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially available cell phone
1989
EPOC, a mobile operating system developed by Psion was released
1991
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone launched 2G digital cellular networks
1992
The first GSM phone, the Nokia 1011, was made commercially available
1993
First smartphone was announced for general use by IBM
1993
Apple’s first “tablet” the MessagePad was introduced
1994
IBM’s smartphone Simon went on sale which featured a touchscreen, email capability and built-in apps such as Address Book, Calculator, Calendar, Mail, Note Pad, and Sketch Pad
1994
Nokia also launched 2110 in Europe, it was one of the smallest GSM phones available
1997
PalmPilot was introduced which proved wanted a third type of mobile device between a cell phone and a laptop
1999
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was introduced
1999
Blackberry OS was released and made its debut for the Pager BlackBerry 850
1999
Handango, one of the first online software stores to sell mobile apps for personal digital assistants was founded
1999
The “web application” concept was introduced in the Java language in the Servlet Specification version 2.2
2000
Microsoft introduced the tablet PC
2002
BlackBerry 5810 smartphone was released
2002
Danger OS (The Danger Hiptop) was established
2003
Android Inc. was founded in California by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White
2004
2005
Google acquired Android Inc. for at least $50 million
2005
The term Ajax was coined, and applications like Gmail started to make their client sides more interactive
2007
Steve Jobs introduced the long-anticipated iPhone
2008
Apple’s App Store went online with 552 apps
2008
Android operating system was released
2008
HTC Dream the first commercially released device to use the Linux-based Android operating system was released along with the Android market
2008
Backlash from developers prompted Apple to release SDK for developers
2009
Android paid applications support was introduced for developers in the United States and the United Kingdom
2009
webOS, also known as LG webOS was introduced. It is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices like smart TVs has been used as a mobile operating system
2009
Samsung Galaxy app store for devices manufactured by Samsung Electronics was launched
2009
Aptoide, a software “marketplace” application for installing mobile applications that runs on the Android OS was released
2009
250 million devices were running Symbian
2009
JavaFX Script was a scripting language designed by Sun Microsystems was released
2009
JavaFX Mobile was publicly available as part of the JavaFX 1.1 release announced by Sun Microsystems
2010
F-Droid, a community-maintained software repository for Android, similar to the Google Play store was released
2010
Blackberry World, an application distribution service was released
2010
Android paid applications support was extended to an additional 29 countries
2010
BlackBerry Ltd. announced the QNX-based platform, BlackBerry Tablet OS, to run on its recently released BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer
2010
Apple announced the Mac App Store, a similar app distribution platform for macOS
2010
iPad was released with approximately 3,000 apps available
2010
Java ME, designed by Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle Corporation
2011
The word ‘App’ was awarded the honor of being 2010’s “Word of the Year”
2011
Amazon Appstore for Android was established
2011
Opera Mobile Store, a platform-independent browser-based app store for mobile-phone owners and a digital application distribution platform was launched
2011
2011
Cafe Bazaar an Iranian Android marketplace was founded
2012
Google rebranded the Android Market and launched ‘Google Play’
2012
Google allowed increased size of an app by allowing developers to attach two expansions. Each expansion file with a maximum size of 2 gigabytes, giving app developers a total of 4 gigabytes
2012
Google introduced a new automated antivirus system, called Google Bouncer, to scan both new and existing apps for malware
2012
Microsoft store, a unified distribution point for apps, digital videos, digital music, and console games and e-books was launched
2013
2013
Apple informed developers that they could begin using appstore.com for links to their apps
2013
Apple announced an upcoming “Kids” section in App Store
2013
Ubuntu App Store was established
2014
Developers on Google Play were required to feature a physical address on the app’s page in Google Play
2014
Wear OS by Google, a version of Google’s Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other wearables was released
2015
Google started using a combination of automated tools and human reviewers to check apps for malware and terms of service violations before publishing it in the Play Store. It also introduced a rating system for apps and games, based on a given region’s official ratings authority
2016
Google Play Store, including all Android apps, was included to Chrome OS
2016
To improve app discoverability, Apple allowed developers to purchase advertising spots in the US App Store
2016
Google introduced Instant Apps at the company’s annual I/O developer conference
2016
Java ME was replaced with similar technology, PersonalJava
2017
Google added a “Free App of the Week” section, offering one normally-paid app for free
2017
App Store submissions containing pricing details, such as “free” in the name started getting rejected
2018
Notable custom Android distributions (ROMs) of the latest Android version 9.0 Pie was released publicly
2018
Due to Chinese regulations, 25,000 illegal apps were pulled down from the App Store in China
2018
With the release of JDK 11, Oracle has made JavaFX part of the OpenJDK under the OpenJFX project
2019
As of May, 78.9% of devices have OpenGL ES 3.0 or higher
2019
Huawei has released an operating system known as Harmony OS
The Bottom Line
Mobile applications are constantly evolving and it will not stop in the near future. They are kind of a big deal and occupying a dominant position. To stay relevant, it is important to have a dedicated mobile app for your business.
Developing mobile apps require a devoted team of developers because of the investment, time and intricacy involved in developing an app. Fortunately, ColorWhistle can help you with your mobile app development needs. From defining business goals to roadmaps, we can support your business with all the customization required to develop an awesome mobile app. Contact us anytime to discuss your mobile app requirements, we are always happy to help!
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