Dr. Neil's Notes
Software > Development > Being Early
Smartphones Before the Word Existed
Introduction
In 1998, I was building software for phones that could connect to the internet. The word "smartphone" had not yet been coined, or at least had not entered the vocabulary of anyone I was working with. What we had were devices that were half phone, half small computer, and fully awkward to use given the network speeds and screen sizes of the era.
It was not a guaranteed path to success. It was, however, absolutely the right direction.
What Those Early Devices Were
The phones of the late 1990s that could access the internet were, by any modern measure, painful. Screens were small, monochrome in many cases, and low resolution. Network connections were slow, unreliable, and expensive by the minute. Entering text on a keypad using multi-tap was the opposite of pleasant.
And yet the direction was unmistakeable. The phone was becoming something more than a phone. It was moving toward a device that carried information, enabled communication beyond voice, and placed computing in a pocket rather than on a desk. The hardware was not yet capable of delivering the vision. The trajectory was clear.
The Signal Was There
Looking back, the signals pointing toward the smartphone were not hidden or obscure. Mobile phones were becoming ubiquitous faster than almost any technology before them. The internet was redefining how information was accessed and shared. The miniaturisation of hardware was following a consistent curve.
The combination of those three forces, mobile, internet, miniaturised compute, was always going to produce something like the smartphone. The question was when, and who would make it usable.
What was harder to read was the specific path: which operating systems would survive, which form factors would win, which interaction models would feel natural. Those details took another decade to resolve. The direction, though, was visible to anyone paying attention.
Building in the Fog
Working on internet-connected phone software in 1998 meant building in conditions of genuine uncertainty. The platforms were unstable. Standards were contested. Carrier relationships were complicated. The business models were unclear.
This is, it turns out, the normal condition for early work in any technology that will eventually matter. The fog is part of the experience. The people who build in the fog develop a tolerance for ambiguity and an ability to move forward without complete information that becomes one of the most durable professional skills they carry.
The smartphone arrived in force with the iPhone in 2007. By then, nearly a decade of early work had shaped how developers, designers, and product thinkers approached the problem. The fog years were not wasted. They were where the foundations were laid.
Part of the Being Early series.