Today, the smartphone industry represents an astounding 900 billion dollar market, serving millions of people on all of the continents except Antarctica, but do any of us really know how the devices we know and love came into being?

Many teenagers have essentially ‘grown up’ alongside technology, with many key advances occurring during our young lives. What many people might take for granted must be appreciated as a golden era of tech development.

We’ve all heard the story about Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone from 1875, which was a huge development for the entire world. An equally important invention was the first personal computer, the IBM 610 revolutionized computing accessibility in 1957. These two breakthroughs remained fairly independent, until the genii at Apple brought these devices together.

This started the craze for the smartphone, which has evolved significantly over time. From the iphone 1 to the 5s, some huge jumps in performance have been made. For example, memory has increased 8 times, weight has dropped 20% (even with a size increase) and the price has actually dropped $200.

It is fascinating to take a look back through this little blip in time to see all of the cellular advancements it had to offer.

2007  The first of any modern smartphone came in the form of the original iphone that was released June 29, 2007. This device represented the first smartphone with a full touch screen integration and a unique operation system. This device, along with the following 3 and 3s models really sparked the wildfire of smartphone production and evolution. These two, which were released in rapid succession resulted in over 80 million sales worldwide.

2009  It seemed as though apple was the only dominant smartphone producer, however April 2009 witnessed a shakeup in the telephone market. Samsung came in swinging with the Galaxy i7500 which ran android 1.5. This represented a whole new market craze for a new type of phone; one manufactured by Samsung and with an Android operating system. This phone and similar Samsung devices sold over 22 million devices. In addition to the Samsung devices, other non-apple products amassed a total of over 75 million sales.

2010  In response to these developments, Apple hit back with the introduction of the iPhone 4. This mobile handset device introduced many new features, most notably the first apple front-facing camera. the new hardware and integrity of the Apple name boosted yearly international sales to over 28 million in 2010.

The Samsung equivalent of the iPhone 4 was unveiled March 2010. This was an improvement to previous Samsung devices, which had a much higher processing speed and a more vivid display.

2011  The following year, Apple introduced the 4s which featured the retina display and the Siri assistant. The sales for this model fell a little shorter than analysts were predicting, with more people saving their upgrade for the iPhone 5.

In between the two iPhones came the Samsung galaxy s3, which was seen as the direct competitor to the upcoming iphone 5. The s3 showcased intense graphics and a much larger screen size.

2012   By September 2012, the iphone 5 was unveiled, causing a buying frenzy in the international markets. The new iphone, with a larger screen was innovative enough to attract over 75 million customers.

2013  The iPhone models such as the 5s and 5c, with their new design and features earned 10 million dollars.