Mobile devices have exploded in popularity over the last decade. Since their inception, they have become much more than a portable telephone and are now one of the primary modes of content and media consumption. I recently found this infographic which details the rise of mobile devices, which I would like to share here:

1. The Rise
of Mobile
Devices
By Richard Horowitz

2. 1999: NTT Docomo released the first
widely-received services of
smartphones in Japan.

3. 2007: Apple released
the iPhone & iOS,
introducing multi-touch
functionality to the
mass market.

4. 2008: The HTC Dream is the first device to run the
open source Android platform. This means that
anyone has the ability to create applications for the
device.

5. 2010: Microsoft
restructured their
Windows Mobile
business with the
Windows Phone 7.

6. 2015: Google says more internet
searches now on mobile than on
desktop.

7. Most Popular
Apps…

8. With an astonishing 118,023,000 average unique users
in 2014, Facebook was the most popular application.

9. Google is the distributor of some of the most popular applications. More
than half of the apps in the top ten list belong to Google, including: Google
Search, YouTube, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Mail, and Google Plus.

10. Operating
System
Dominance

11. • Android has
dominated the
operating
system
landscape over
the last several
years. !
• From 2009 to
2010, Android’s
worldwide
market share
rose from 1.8%
to 17.2%. By
September 2014,
Android’s global
market share
rose to 85%.