A report on Smartphone and Tablet computer

Apple's iPad (left) and Amazon's Fire, two popular tablet computers

The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard

Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s

Wireless tablet device portrayed in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006

Apple Newton MessagePad, Apple's first produced tablet, released in 1993

The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads

A Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook tablet running Windows XP, released in 2003

The Nokia N800, the first tablet manufactured by Nokia

The Nokia 9 PureView features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors.

Steve Jobs introducing the iPad in San Francisco on January 27, 2010

The Huawei P30 features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics.

Crossover tablet device types from 2014: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 laplet and Sony Xperia Z Ultra phablet, next to a generic blue lighter for size comparison

A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch".

Comparison of several mini tablet computers: Amazon Kindle Fire (left), iPad Mini (center), and Google Nexus 7 (right)

A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera

Samsung's Galaxy Note series were the first commercially successful phablets.

Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer

Microsoft Surface Pro 3, a prominent 2-in-1 detachable tablet

Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control

Asus Transformer Pad, a 2-in-1 detachable tablet, powered by the Android operating system

"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second

Nvidia Shield Tablet, notable gaming tablet

The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button.

Games on a Ziosk table ordering tablet at an Olive Garden restaurant

Samsung Galaxy Tab demonstrating multi-touch

Tooltip in Kiwi Browser, a Google Chromium derirative, reveals the full URL by hovering over the tab list using the stylus on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Chinese characters like this one meaning "person" can be written by handwriting recognition (人-order.gif, Mandarin: rén, Korean: in, Japanese: jin, nin; hito, Cantonese: jan4). The character has two strokes, the first shown here in brown, and the second in red. The black area represents the starting position of the writing instrument.

Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010.

A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank).

Several smartphones running Google's Android OS

A Nokia N70 smartphone (2005) running Symbian OS, which was highly popular in Europe and Asia in the 2000s

A New York City driver holding two phones

A user consulting a mapping app on a phone

A sign along Bellaire Boulevard in Southside Place, Texas (Greater Houston) states that using mobile phones while driving is prohibited from 7:30 am to 9:00 am and from 2:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inch or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network.

- Tablet computer

In 2012, Asus started experimenting with a convertible docking system named PadFone, where the standalone handset can when necessary be inserted into a tablet-sized screen unit with integrated supportive battery and used as such.

- Smartphone

28 related topics with Alpha

Mobile operating system

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A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, 2-in-1 PCs, smart speakers, or other mobile devices.

Mobile devices, with mobile communications abilities (e.g., smartphones), contain two mobile operating systems – the main user-facing software platform is supplemented by a second low-level proprietary real-time operating system which operates the radio and other hardware.

Android 12 home screen with Pixel Launcher

Android (operating system)

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HTC Dream or T-Mobile G1, the first commercially released device running Android (2008)

Eric Schmidt, Andy Rubin and Hugo Barra at a 2012 press conference announcing Google's Nexus 7 tablet

Frontal buttons (home, menu/options, go back, search) and optical track pad of an HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with Android OS.

The stack of Android Open Source Project

The first-generation Nexus 7 tablet, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Ouya, a video game console which runs Android

Android-x86 running on an ASUS Eee PC netbook

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Apple Inc.

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American multinational technology company that specializes in consumer electronics, software and online services headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States.

In 1976, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in his parents' home on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California. Although it is widely believed that the company was founded in the house's garage, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called it "a bit of a myth". Jobs and Wozniak did, however, move some operations to the garage when the bedroom became too crowded.

Apple's first product, the Apple I, designed by Steve Wozniak, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and wooden case.

The Apple II Plus, introduced in 1979, designed primarily by Wozniak

The Macintosh, released in 1984, is the first mass-market personal computer to feature an integral graphical user interface and mouse.

The PenLite is Apple's first prototype of a tablet computer. Created in 1992, the project was designed to bring the Mac OS to a tablet – but was canceled in favor of the Newton.

The MacBook Pro, Apple's first laptop with an Intel microprocessor, introduced in 2006

Newly announced iPhone on display at the 2007 MacWorld Expo

Apple customers wait in line around an Apple Store in Shanghai in anticipation of a new product.

Apple Fifth Avenue, the flagship store in New York City

The Genius Bar at Apple's Regent Street store in London

The Apple store in the Carnegie Library of Washington D.C. maintains the building's historic exterior design.

Steve Wozniak and Andy Hertzfeld at the Apple User Group Connection club in 1985

Universities with the most alumni at Apple

PRISM: a clandestine surveillance program under which the NSA collects user data from companies like Facebook and Apple.

iPhone is Apple's line of smartphones that use the company's proprietary iOS operating system, derived from macOS's kernel.

iPad is Apple's line of tablet computers that use the company's proprietary iPadOS operating system, derived from macOS and iOS.

Microsoft

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American multinational technology corporation which produces computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washington, United States.

An Altair 8800 computer (left) with the popular Model 33 ASR Teletype as terminal, paper tape reader, and paper tape punch.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates on October 19, 1981, after signing a pivotal contract with IBM

Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985, as the first version of the Microsoft Windows line

In 1996, Microsoft released Windows CE, a version of the operating system meant for personal digital assistants and other tiny computers, shown here on the HP 300LX.

Microsoft released the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles in 2001. The Xbox, graphically powerful compared to its rivals, featured a standard PC's 733 MHz Intel Pentium III processor.

CEO Steve Ballmer at the MIX event in 2008. In an interview about his management style in 2005, he mentioned that his first priority was to get the people he delegates to in order. Ballmer also emphasized the need to continue pursuing new technologies even if initial attempts fail, citing the original attempts with Windows as an example.

Headquarters of the European Commission, which has imposed several fines on Microsoft

Surface Pro 3, part of the Surface series of laplets by Microsoft

Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft in February 2014

The Nokia Lumia 1320, the Microsoft Lumia 535 and the Nokia Lumia 530, which all run on one of the now-discontinued Windows Phone operating systems

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin using a Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset in September 2016

Five year history graph of nasdaq: MSFT stock on July 17, 2013

Windows 8 Launch Event in Akihabara, Tokyo on October 25, 2012

The west campus of the Microsoft Redmond campus

$2012–present: Fifth Microsoft logo, introduced on August 23, 2012<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/23/microsoft-unveils-a-new-look.aspx |title=Microsoft Unveils a New Look |work=Microsoft |date=August 2012 |access-date=August 23, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825012157/http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/23/microsoft-unveils-a-new-look.aspx |archive-date=August 25, 2012}}</ref>$

This unfolded with Microsoft acquiring Danger Inc. in 2008, entering the personal computer production market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers, and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division.

While a large majority (at least 75%) of them do not run any version of Windows Phone— those other phones are not categorized as smartphones by Gartner – in the same time frame 8 million Windows smartphones (2.5% of all smartphones) were made by all manufacturers (but mostly by Microsoft).

Microsoft Windows

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Group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft.

Windows 1.0, the first version, released in 1985

However, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones.

, the most recent version of Windows for PCs and tablets is Windows 11, version 21H2.

Mobile device

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Computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand.

Early smartphones were joined in the late 2000s by larger, but otherwise essentially the same, tablets.

Personal computer

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Multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use.

Commodore PET in 1983 (at the American Museum of Science and Energy), an early example of a personal computer

The 8-bit architecture Pravetz 82 computer produced in Bulgaria from 1982, in school class in the Soviet Union

The three personal computers referred to by Byte Magazine as the "1977 Trinity" of home computing: The Commodore PET, the Apple II, and the TRS-80 Model I.

The 8-bit PMD 85 personal computer produced in 1985–1990 by the Tesla company in the former socialist Czechoslovakia

Sun SPARCstation 1+ from the early 1990s, with a 25 MHz RISC processor

A portable computer Cambridge Z88 released in 1987

HP Compaq tablet PC with rotating/removable keyboard

A screenshot of the LibreOffice Writer software

A screenshot of Krita, which is a raster graphics editor.

Children being taught how to use a laptop computer in 2005. An older (1990s-era) desktop personal computer's CRT monitor is visible in the background.

Personal computers worldwide in million distinguished by developed and developing world

A tablet uses a touchscreen display, which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger.

Smartphones are often similar to tablet computers, the difference being that smartphones always have cellular integration.

OS/360 was used on most IBM mainframe computers beginning in 1966, including computers used by the Apollo program.

Operating system

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System software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.

PC DOS was an early personal computer OS that featured a command-line interface.

Mac OS by Apple Computer became the first widespread OS to feature a graphical user interface. Many of its features such as windows and icons would later become commonplace in GUIs.

The first server for the World Wide Web ran on NeXTSTEP, based on BSD.

Linux, a unix-like operating system was first time released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Picture of Tux the penguin, mascot of Linux.

A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer.

Privilege rings for the x86 microprocessor architecture available in protected mode. Operating systems determine which processes run in each mode.

Many operating systems can "trick" programs into using memory scattered around the hard disk and RAM as if it is one continuous chunk of memory, called virtual memory.

File systems allow users and programs to organize and sort files on a computer, often through the use of directories (or "folders").

A screenshot of the Bash command line. Each command is typed out after the 'prompt', and then its output appears below, working its way down the screen. The current command prompt is at the bottom.

A screenshot of the KDE Plasma 5 graphical user interface. Programs take the form of images on the screen, and the files, folders (directories), and applications take the form of icons and symbols. A mouse is used to navigate the computer.

In the mobile sector (including smartphones and tablets), Android's share is up to 72% in the year 2020.

Linux is also commonly used on other small energy-efficient computers, such as smartphones and smartwatches.

Mobile app

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An emulation app for the programmable pocket calculator HP-41CX from 1983. Several such apps exist for full-functionally emulating old home computers, game consoles or even mainframe computers from up to several decades ago.

A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch.

Touchscreen

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Assembly of both an input and output ('display') device.

Ecobee smart thermostat with touchscreen

The prototype x-y mutual capacitance touchscreen (left) developed at CERN in 1977 by Frank Beck, a British electronics engineer, for the control room of CERN's accelerator SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron). This was a further development of the self-capacitance screen (right), also developed by Stumpe at CERN in 1972.

Capacitive touchscreen of a mobile phone

The Casio TC500 Capacitive touch sensor watch from 1983, with angled light exposing the touch sensor pads and traces etched onto the top watch glass surface.

Back side of a Multitouch Globe, based on projected capacitive touch (PCT) technology

8 x 8 projected capacitance touchscreen manufactured using 25 micron insulation coated copper wire embedded in a clear polyester film.

This diagram shows how eight inputs to a lattice touchscreen or keypad creates 28 unique intersections, as opposed to 16 intersections created using a standard x/y multiplexed touchscreen.

Schema of projected-capacitive touchscreen

Infrared sensors mounted around the display watch for a user's touchscreen input on this PLATO V terminal in 1981. The monochromatic plasma display's characteristic orange glow is illustrated.

Fingerprints and smudges on an iPad (tablet computer) touchscreen

The display is often an LCD, AMOLED or OLED display while the system is usually a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

This type of touchscreen reduces the visible distance between the user's finger and what the user is touching on the screen, reducing the thickness and weight of the display, which is desirable in smartphones.