Welcome to today’s news article, where we will be talking about smartphones and their founder. This news article will give you the benefit of knowing the founder of your smartphone, how and when it was founded.
iPhone – Steve Jobs
The historical background of the iPhone begins from early 2000s to about 2010.
On January 9, 2007, the first iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs at the Macworld convention, which caught the attention of the media. Later that year, on June 11 (2007), Apple announced at the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference that the iPhone would support third party applications using the safari engine.
The idea of making an Apple Phone came from jean- Marie Hullot, a software engineer who worked at NeXT, and later, and later Apple. Initially making an Apple phone was not favored by CEO Steve Jobs, but eventually Hullot was able to convince him. The first team was created in Paris; however it was not until a few years later that he took the project more seriously: the French engineer were asked to worked back in the US, but Hullot declined and resigned from Apple with his team. Another engineer, Henri Lamiraux, became the new head of he project with Scott Forstall, to develop the iPhone software.
Samsung – Lee Byung-chul
Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-Chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail.
Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. After Lee’s death in 1987, Samsung was separated into five business groups: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group, and JoongAng Group.
Xiaomi – Lei Jun, Lin Bin and Others…
Xiaomi was founded by Lei Jun alongside with six associates. Lei Jun is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the company, Lin Bin co-founder and vice chairman, Lu Weibing partner and president, Liu De co-founder executive director and senior vice president, Zhou Guangdong, Li Wanqiang, Wong Kong-Kat, Hong Feng, and Wang Chuan.
The company Xiaomi was founded in 2010, and released its first smartphone in August 2011, and by 2014, it had the largest market share of smartphones sold in China. Initially the company only sold its products online; however it later opened brick and mortar stores. By 2015, it was developing a wife range of consumer electronics. In 2020 the company sold 149.4 million Smartphones and it’s MIUI (now Xiaomi HyperOS) mobile operating system has over 500 million monthly active users.
As of August 2024, Xiaomi is the second-largest seller of Smartphones worldwide, with a market share of about 12%, according to counterpoint.
Google Pixel – Rick Osterloh
Rick Osterloh has worked in mobile his entire career, including Good Technology, Motorola, and Android. He founded Google Pixel’s smartphone program in 2016, and earlier this year took over leadership of Android and Chrome as well.
The Google Pixel is a brand of portable consumer electronic device developed by Google that run either chromeOS or the pixel version of the Android Operating System. The main line of Pixel products consists of Android-powered Smartphones, which have been produced since October 2016. It was produced as the replacement of the older Nexus, and of which the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL are the current models. The Pixel brand also includes laptop, tablet computers, and some other accessories, and was originally introduced in February 2013 with the Chromebook Pixel.
Tecno – George Zhu, Nnamdi Ezeigbo
Tecno Mobile is a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China founded by George Zhu and Nnamdi Ezeigbo. It was established in 2006 as a subsidiary of Transsion Holdings. It was first founded as Tecno Telecom Limited, but later changed its name to Transsion Holdings with Tecno Mobile serving as one of its subsidiaries. In 2007, Tecno created a second brand, itel that sold in Africa. In early 2008, Tecno focused entirely to Africa following market research, and by 2010, it was among top three mobile phone brands in Africa.
Realme – Sky Li
Realme is a multinational Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer based in Shenzhen, Guangdong. It was founded by Lei Bingzhong (known as Sky Li) on May 4, 2018, whi was a former vice president of Oppo. Starting originally as a sub-brand of Oppo, Realme eventually ventured as it’s own brand. Realme then became the fastest-growing 5G smartphone brand in Q3 2021.
In June 2020, the number of Realme’s global smartphone users reached 35 million, and a Alot product sales broke a record of 1 million. According to Counterpoint statistics, Realme ranked 7th in the ranking of the number of smartphones produced globally in the first quarter of 2020, with an annual growth rate of 157%, ranking first in the world.
