The smartphone
A pocket computer with a camera, a map and the internet becomes universal.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
The iPhone launches in June 2007 with a capacitive multitouch screen and no keyboard, and the App Store follows in 2008; Android arrives the same year and takes the larger share. Within fifteen years the majority of people on Earth carry one. It merges the camera, telephone, computer, map, wallet, music player and television into one object, and it makes continuous connectivity and continuous surveillance the default condition.