"Cell-o-mania"
The mobile phone or mobile, also called a cellular phone, or cell phone is a long-range, portable
electronic device used for mobile communication that uses a network of specialized base stations known as
cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a
telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional
services such as
SMS for
text messaging,
email,
packet switching for access to the
Internet, and
MMS for sending and receiving
photos and
video. Most current mobile phones connect to a
cellular network of
base stations (
cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the
public switched telephone network (
PSTN) (the exception is
satellite phones).
Nokia Corporation
is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones,
with a global device market share of approximately 36% in Q1 of 2007.
[4] Other mobile phone manufacturers include
Apple Inc.,
Audiovox (now
UT Starcom),
Benefon,
BenQ-Siemens,
High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC),
Fujitsu,
Kyocera,
LG Mobile,
Mitsubishi,
Motorola,
NEC,
Neonode,
Panasonic (Matsushita Electric),
Pantech Curitel,
Philips,
Research In MotionThere
are significant questions as to who first invented the camera phone, as
numerous other people received patents filed in the early 1990s for the
device, including David M. Britz of AT&T Research in March of 1994
and
Phillipe Kahn, who claims to have first invented it in 1997.[
citation needed] The
camera phone now holds 85% of the mobile phone market[
citation needed]. Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls, including Internet browsing, music (
MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organizer functions,
e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders,
ringtones, games, radio,
Push-to-Talk (PTT),
infrared and
Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and serve as a
wireless modem
for a PC, and soon will also serve as a console of sorts to online
games and other high quality games (e.g. Final Fantasy Agito).[
citation needed]
