<P> Today, smartphones largely fulfil their users' needs for a microphone (smartphones often have one to four microphones), a digital camera (most smartphones are made with one front - facing and one to three rear - facing integrated digital cameras), a communications device (smartphones can transmit online chat, e-mails, telephone calls and video chat through the Internet by Wi - Fi as well as mobile broadband; a smartphone uses its camera in video chat, as well as its microphone in video chat and telephone calls), a handheld audio recorder (using the microphone), a satellite navigation system and trip planner, weather forecasting, a media player, a clock, news, a calculator, a web browser, a video game player, a flashlight (smartphones may possess one to two LEDs for illumination and photographic flash needs), a compass (smartphones that contain built - in magnetometers are able to function as a compass), an address book, a note creator, an event calendar, etc . Some apps allow sending and receiving facsimile (fax) over a smartphone, including raster facsimile data generated directly and digitally from document and image file formats . Internal storage of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512 gigabytes, or removable SD card storage, allows for digital storage of software and personal data (including digital photographs and videos). This is often augmented by cloud storage . Internally, many smartphones contain a vibrator, often used as a method of alerting of a notification or call, and as a way to evoke a more vibrant experience while playing video games . Typical smartphones will include one or more of the following sensors: magnetometer, proximity sensor, barometer, gyroscope and accelerometer . Since 2010, smartphones have adopted integrated virtual assistants, such as Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant and Samsung Bixby . Mobile payment is now a feature of most smartphones . Some smartphones have a fingerprint sensor, an iris scanner or face recognition technology as a form of biometric authentication . </P> <P> In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country . Smartphones sales started to grow rapidly by the late 2000s . 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 commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a "smartphone" began as a prototype called "Angler" developed by Frank Canova in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated in November of that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show . A refined version was marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator . In addition to placing and receiving cellular calls, the touchscreen - equipped Simon could send and receive faxes and emails . It included an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, and notepad, as well as other visionary mobile applications such as maps, stock reports and news . The term "smart phone" or "smartphone" was not coined until a year after the introduction of the Simon, appearing in print as early as 1995, describing AT&T's PhoneWriter Communicator . </P> <P> The first integration of data signals with telephony was conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and pioneered by Theodore Paraskevakos beginning in 1968 with his work on transmission of electronic data through telephone lines . 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 . This formed the original basis for what is now known as caller ID . The first caller ID equipment was installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and was demonstrated to several telephone companies . The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos . </P>

When was the first touch screen phone released