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Smartphones: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The iPhone Moment
Apple’s iPhone, launched in 2007, made the touchscreen smartphone mainstream. The first Android phone followed in 2008.
Key fact
The App Store opened in 2008 with about 500 apps.
What’s Inside
A smartphone packs a processor, memory, battery, cameras, GPS, several radios, and sensors like an accelerometer that knows which way is up.
Key fact
The accelerometer is what rotates your screen.
Phone Cameras
Phone cameras use tiny sensors, but clever software combines several shots in a split second to make photos sharper and brighter.
Key fact
This is called computational photography.
Phones Everywhere
Over 4 billion people own a smartphone, and many people check theirs dozens of times a day.
Key fact
Phones now outsell all other kinds of computer combined.
From 1G to 5G
Each mobile generation added something: 1G carried voice, 2G added texts, 3G brought the mobile internet, 4G fast video, and 5G much lower delays.
Key fact
Texting arrived with 2G in the 1990s.
The App Economy
App stores turned phones into platforms for millions of apps. Developers earn money from paid apps, subscriptions and in-app purchases.
Key fact
Most apps are free to download.
Phones & the Planet
Phones contain gold, cobalt and rare-earth metals. Keeping phones longer and recycling them saves resources.
Key fact
A tonne of old phones holds far more gold than a tonne of gold ore.
Fun facts
The first iPhone couldn’t copy and paste. That arrived in 2009.
Your phone buzzes thanks to a tiny motor spinning an off-centre weight, or a small magnet shaking back and forth.
The first photo shared from a phone, in 1997, showed an inventor’s newborn daughter.
There are more mobile phone subscriptions in the world than there are people.
Calls on early 1G phones were unencrypted: anyone with a radio scanner could listen in.
In 2008, an iPhone app called I Am Rich cost 999 dollars and did nothing but show a glowing red gem.
Many old phones are never recycled; they sit forgotten in drawers.
Story: The First Mobile Call
The First Mobile Call
3 April 1973, New York. Motorola engineer Martin Cooper stands on Sixth Avenue holding a phone the size of a brick.
He calls the rival he’s racing to build one: Joel Engel at Bell Labs. “Joel, I’m calling you from a real cellular phone.” The line goes quiet.
The prototype weighed over a kilo and its battery lasted about half an hour. Ten years later it went on sale, for nearly $4,000.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
The first iPhone launched in 2007.
Show the answer
True. Presented by Steve Jobs in January 2007.
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Question 2 of 10
An accelerometer helps your screen rotate.
Show the answer
True. It senses how the phone is tilted.
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Question 3 of 10
Phone cameras often combine several shots into one photo.
Show the answer
True. Taken in a fraction of a second.
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Question 4 of 10
Phones now outsell all other kinds of computer combined.
Show the answer
True. By a wide margin.
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Question 5 of 10
2G networks brought text messaging.
Show the answer
True. SMS arrived in the 1990s.
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Question 6 of 10
Most apps are free to download.
Show the answer
True. Many earn money in other ways.
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Question 7 of 10
Phones contain small amounts of gold.
Show the answer
True. In their circuit boards.
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Question 8 of 10
The first Android phone came out before the iPhone.
Show the answer
False. It followed in 2008.
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Question 9 of 10
Smartphones contain no sensors.
Show the answer
False. They’re packed with them.
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Question 10 of 10
Phone cameras use film.
Show the answer
False. They use digital sensors.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Smartphones has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Apple Newsroom — iPhone (2007) and App Store (2008) launches
- GSMA — The Mobile Economy 2024
- ITU — Facts and Figures 2024
- UN Environment Programme — E-waste and precious metals in phones
- European Commission — Ecodesign rules for smartphones and batteries
- Apple — About Face ID advanced technology
- Arm — Company overview
