<P> A smartphone is a portable personal computer with a mobile operating system with features useful for handheld use . Smartphones, which are typically pocket - sized (as opposed to tablets, which are much larger than a pocket), have the ability to place and receive voice / video calls and create and receive text messages, have virtual assistants (such as Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana, Bixby), a note - taking application, an event calendar, a media player, video games, GPS navigation, digital camera and video camera . Smartphones can access the Internet through a cellular network or Wi - Fi and can run a variety of third - party software components ("apps" from places like Google Play Store or Apple App Store). They typically have a color display with a graphical user interface that covers the front surface . The display is almost always a touchscreen that enables the user to use a virtual keyboard to type words, numbers, and other characters, and press onscreen icons to activate "app" features . </P> <P> In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country . Smartphones became widespread in the late 2000s, following the release of the iPhone . Most of those produced from 2012 onward have high - speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, and mobile payment features . In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide . Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for feature phones in early 2013 . </P> <P> The first few purposes of smartphones were telecommunications, timekeeping, note taking, calculation, and basic computing functionality . This was first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993 . Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concept of telephony into computers . In 1971, while he was working with Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama, Paraskevakos demonstrated a transmitter and receiver that provided additional ways to communicate with remote equipment, however it still did not yet have general purpose functionality . They were installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies . The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos . </P>

When did the first smart phone come out