document_title: The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

question_text: where did 12 days of christmas song come from

text: The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

text: Lyrics[edit]

text: "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by "my true love" on one of the twelve days of Christmas. There are many variations in the lyrics. The lyrics given here are from Frederic Austin's 1909 publication that first established the current form of the carol.[4] The first three verses run, in full, as follows:

text:
On the First day of Christmas my true love sent to me
a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

On the Second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

On the Third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French Hens,[5]
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

text: Subsequent verses follow the same pattern, each adding one new gift and repeating all the earlier gifts so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor:

text: Variations of the lyrics[edit]

text: The earliest known version of the lyrics was published in London under the title "The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin's Ball", as part of a 1780 children's book, Mirth without Mischief.[6] Subsequent versions have shown considerable variation:

text:
In the earliest versions, the word on is not present at the beginning of each verse—for example, the first verse begins simply "The first day of Christmas". On was added in Austin's 1909 version, and became very popular thereafter.
In the early versions "my true love sent" me the gifts. However, a 20th-century variant has "my true love gave to me"; this wording has become particularly common in North America.[7]
In one nineteenth century variant, the gifts come from "my mother" rather than "my true love".
Some variants have "juniper tree" or "June apple tree" rather than "pear tree", presumably a mishearing of "partridge in a pear tree.
The 1780 version has "four colly birds"—colly being a regional English expression for "black" (the name of the collie dog breed may come from this word).[8][9] This wording must have been opaque to many even in the 19th century: "canary birds", "colour'd birds", "curley birds", and "corley birds" are found in its place. Frederic Austin's 1909 version, which introduced the now-standard melody, also altered the fourth day's gift to four "calling" birds, and this variant has become the most popular, although "colly" is still found.
The "five gold rings" may become "five golden rings", especially in North America.[7] In the standard melody, this change enables singers to fit one syllable per musical note.[10]
The gifts associated with the final four days are often reordered. For example, the pipers may be on the ninth day rather than the eleventh.[9]

text:
For ease of comparison with Austin's 1909 version given above:
(a) differences in wording, ignoring capitalisation and punctuation, are indicated in italics;
(b) items that do not appear at all in Austin's version are indicated in bold italics.

text:
Source
Giver
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Mirth without
Mischief, 1780[6]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a pear-tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Swans a swimming
Maids a milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping

Angus, 1774–1825[11]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Swans a swimming
Maids a milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping

Halliwell, 1842[12]
My mother sent to me
Partridge in a pear-tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Canary birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Swans a swimming
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping
Ships a sailing
Ladies spinning
Bells ringing

Rimbault, c. 1846[13]
My mother sent to me
Parteridge in a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Canary birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Swans a swimming
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping
Ships a sailing
Ladies spinning
Bells ringing

Halliwell, 1853[14]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Swans a swimming
Maids a milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping

Salmon, 1855[15]
My true love sent to me
Partridge upon a pear-tree
Turtle-doves
French hens
Collie birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a-leaping

Husk, 1864[16]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a pear-tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colley birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a-leaping

Hughes, 1864[17]
My true love sent to me
Partridge and a pear tree
Turtle-doves
Fat hens
Ducks quacking
Hares running
"and so on"
—
—
—
—
—
—

Cliftonian, 1867[18]
My true-love sent to me
Partridge in a pear-tree
Turtle-doves
French hens
Colley birds
Gold rings
Ducks a-laying
Swans swimming
Hares a-running
Ladies dancing
Lords a-leaping
Badgers baiting
Bells a-ringing

Clark, 1875[19]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colour'd birds
Gold rings
Geese laying
Swans swimming
Maids milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords leaping

Kittredge, 1877 (1917)[20]
My true love sent to me
Some part of a juniper tree, And some part of a juniper tree
French hens
Turtle doves
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
[forgotten by the singer]
Lambs a-bleating
Ladies dancing
Lords a-leading
Bells a-ringing

Henderson, 1879[21]
My true love sent to me
Partridge upon a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Curley birds
Gold rings
Geese laying
Swans swimming
Maids milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
—
—

Barnes, 1882[22]
My true love sent to me
The sprig of a juniper tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Coloured birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Hares a-running
Bulls a-roaring
Men a-mowing
Dancers a-dancing
Fiddlers a-fiddling

Stokoe, 1888[23]
My true love sent to me
Partridge on a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping

Kidson, 1891[24]
My true love sent to me
Merry partridge on a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colley birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Drummers drumming
Pipers piping
Ladies dancing
Lords a leaping

Scott, 1892[25]
My true love brought to me
Very pretty peacock upon a pear tree
Turtle-doves
French hens
Corley birds
Gold rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Pipers playing
Drummers drumming
Lads a-louping
Ladies dancing

Cole, 1900[26]
My true love sent to me
Parteridge upon a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Colly birds
Gold rings
Geese a laying
Squabs a swimming
Hounds a running
Bears a beating
Cocks a crowing
Lords a leaping
Ladies a dancing

Sharp, 1905[27]
My true Love sent to me
Goldie ring, and the part of a June apple tree
Turtle doves, and the part of a mistletoe bough
French hens
Colley birds
Goldie rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Boys a-singing
Ladies dancing
Asses racing
Bulls a-beating
Bells a-ringing

Austin, 1909[4]
My true love sent to me
Partridge in a Pear Tree
Turtle Doves
French Hens
Calling Birds
Gold Rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Ladies dancing
Lords a-leaping
Pipers piping
Drummers drumming

Swortzell, 1966[7]
My true love gave to me
Partridge in a pear tree
Turtle doves
French hens
Collie birds
Golden rings
Geese a-laying
Swans a-swimming
Maids a-milking
Pipers piping
Drummers drumming
Lords a-leaping
Ladies dancing

text: Scotland[edit]

text: A similar cumulative verse from Scotland, "The Yule Days", has been likened to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in the scholarly literature.[28] It has thirteen days rather than twelve, and the number of gifts does not increase in the manner of "The Twelve Days". Its final verse, as published in Chambers, Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland (1842), runs as follows:[29]

text:
The king sent his lady on the thirteenth Yule day,
Three stalks o' merry corn,
Three maids a-merry dancing,
Three hinds a-merry hunting,
An Arabian baboon,
Three swans a-merry swimming,
Three ducks a-merry laying,
A bull that was brown,
Three goldspinks,
Three starlings,
A goose that was grey,
Three plovers,
Three partridges,
A pippin go aye;
Wha learns my carol and carries it away?

text: "Pippin go aye" (also spelled "papingo-aye" in later editions) is a Scots word for peacock[30] or parrot.[31]

text: Faroe Islands[edit]

text: In the Faroe Islands, there is a comparable counting Christmas song. The gifts include: one feather, two geese, three sides of meat, four sheep, five cows, six oxen, seven dishes, eight ponies, nine banners, ten barrels, eleven goats, twelve men, thirteen hides, fourteen rounds of cheese and fifteen deer.[32] These were illustrated in 1994 by local cartoonist Óli Petersen (born 1936) on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office.[33]

text: France[edit]

text: "Les Douze Mois" ("The Twelve Months") (also known as "La Perdriole"—"The Partridge")[34] is another similar cumulative verse from France that has been likened to The Twelve Days of Christmas.[28] Its final verse, as published in de Coussemaker, Chants Populaires des Flamands de France (1856), runs as follows:[35]

text:
Le douzièm' jour d'l'année , [the twelfth day of the year]
Que me donn'rez vous ma mie? [what will you give me, my love?]
Douze coqs chantants, [twelve singing cockerels]
Onze plats d'argent, [eleven silver dishes]
Dix pigeons blancs, [ten white pigeons]
Neuf bœufs cornus, [nine horned oxen]
Huit vaches mordants, [eight biting cows]
Sept moulins à vent, [seven windmills]
Six chiens courants, [six running dogs]
Cinq lapins courant par terre, [five rabbits running along the ground]
Quat' canards volant en l'air, [four ducks flying in the air]
Trois rameaux de bois, [three wooden branches]
Deux tourterelles, [two turtle doves]
Un' perdrix sole, [one lone partridge]
Qui va, qui vient, qui vole, [who goes, who comes, who flies]
Qui vole dans les bois. [who flies in the woods]

text: According to de Coussemaker, the song was recorded "in the part of [French] Flanders that borders on the Pas de Calais".[35]

text: Origins and meaning[edit]

text: The exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children's memory and forfeit game.[36]

text: The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (26 December) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr), to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January, or the Twelfth Day). Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking."[37]

text: The best known English version was first printed in English in 1780 in a little book intended for children, Mirth without Mischief, as a Twelfth Night "memories-and-forfeits" game, in which a leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as offering up a kiss or a sweet.[38]

text: Halliwell, writing in 1842, stated that "[e]ach child in succession repeats the gifts of the day, and forfeits for each mistake."[12]

text: Salmon, writing from Newcastle, claimed in 1855 that the song "[had] been, up to within twenty years, extremely popular as a schoolboy's Christmas chant".[15]

text: Husk, writing in 1864, stated:[39]

text: This piece is found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years. On one of these sheets, nearly a century old, it is entitled "An Old English Carol," but it can scarcely be said to fall within that description of composition, being rather fitted for use in playing the game of "Forfeits," to which purpose it was commonly applied in the metropolis upwards of forty years since. The practice was for one person in the company to recite the first three lines; a second, the four following; and so on; the person who failed in repeating her portion correctly being subjected to some trifling forfeit.

text: Thomas Hughes, in a short story published in 1864, described a fictional game of Forfeits involving the song:[17]

text: [A] cry for forfeits arose. So the party sat down round Mabel on benches brought out from under the table, and Mabel began, --

text: The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge and a pear-tree;

text: The second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

text: The third day of Christmas my true love sent to me three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

text: The fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

text: The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five hares running, four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree.

text: And so on. Each day was taken up and repeated all round; and for every breakdown (except by little Maggie, who struggled with desperately earnest round eyes to follow the rest correctly, but with very comical results), the player who made the slip was duly noted down by Mabel for a forfeit.

text: Lady Gomme wrote in 1898:[40]

text: "The Twelve Days" was a Christmas game. It was a customary thing in a friend's house to play "The Twelve Days," or "My Lady's Lap Dog," every Twelfth Day night. The party was usually a mixed gathering of juveniles and adults, mostly relatives, and before supper — that is, before eating mince pies and twelfth cake — this game and the cushion dance were played, and the forfeits consequent upon them always cried. The company were all seated round the room. The leader of the game commenced by saying the first line. […] The lines for the "first day" of Christmas was said by each of the company in turn ; then the first "day" was repeated, with the addition of the "second" by the leader, and then this was said all round the circle in turn. This was continued until the lines for the "twelve days" were said by every player. For every mistake a forfeit — a small article belonging to the person — had to be given up. These forfeits were afterwards "cried" in the usual way, and were not returned to the owner until they had been redeemed by the penalty inflicted being performed.

text: "Twelve days of Christmas" was adapted from similar New Years' or spring French carols,[citation needed] of which at least three are known, all featuring a partridge, perdriz or perdriole, as the first gift. The pear tree appears in only the English version, but this could also indicate a French origin. According to Iona and Peter Opie, the red-legged (or French) partridge perches in trees more frequently than the native common (or grey) partridge and was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770.[3] Cecil Sharp observed that "from the constancy in English, French, and Languedoc versions of the 'merry little partridge,' I suspect that 'pear-tree' is really perdrix (Old French pertriz) carried into England"; and "juniper tree" in some English versions may have been "joli perdrix," [pretty partridge]. Sharp also suggests the adjective "French" in "three French hens", probably simply means "foreign".[41][42]

text: In the northern counties of England, the song was often called the "Ten Days of Christmas", as there were only ten gifts. It was also known in Somerset, Dorsetshire, and elsewhere in England. The kinds of gifts vary in a number of the versions, some of them becoming alliterative tongue-twisters.[43] "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was also widely popular in the United States and Canada. It is mentioned in the section on "Chain Songs" in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (Indiana University Studies, Vol. 5, 1935), p. 416.

text: There is evidence pointing to the North of England, specifically the area around Newcastle upon Tyne, as the origin of the carol. Husk, in the 1864 excerpt quoted above, stated that the carol was "found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years", i.e. from approximately 1714. In addition, many of the nineteenth century citations come from the Newcastle area.[15][21][23][25]

text: Meanings of the gifts[edit]

text: According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, "Suggestions have been made that the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty."[3]

text: In 1979, a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh D. McKellar, published an article, "How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas" in which he suggested that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" lyrics were intended as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was criminalised in England (1558 until 1829).[44] Three years later in 1982, Fr. Hal Stockert wrote an article (subsequently posted on-line in 1995) in which he suggested a similar possible use of the twelve gifts as part of a catechism.[45][46] The possibility that the twelve gifts were used as a catechism during English and Irish Catholic penal times was also hypothesized in this same time period (1987 and 1992) by Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York.[47][48] Snopes.com, a website reviewing urban legends, Internet rumours, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin, also concludes that the hypothesis of the twelve gifts of Christmas being a surreptitious catechism is incorrect.[38]

text: William S. Baring-Gould suggests that the presents sent on the first seven days were all birds—the "five gold rings" were not actually gold rings, but refer to the five golden rings of the ringed pheasant.[49] Others suggest the gold rings refer to "five goldspinks"—a goldspink being an old name for a goldfinch;[50] or even canaries.[51] However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the "five gold rings" as being jewellery.[6]

text: Music[edit]

text: Standard melody[edit]

text: The now-standard melody for the carol was published in 1909 by Novello & Co.. English composer Frederic Austin fitted the words to a traditional melody, to which he added his own two-bar motif for "Five gold rings".[52][53][54] Many of the decisions Austin made with regard to the lyrics subsequently became widespread:

text:
The initial "on" at the beginning of each verse.
The use of "calling birds", rather than "colly birds", on the fourth day.
The ordering of the final four verses.

text: The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music. This irregular meter perhaps reflects the song's folk origin. The introductory lines, such as "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me", are made up of two 4/4 bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one 3/4 bar per gift with the exception of "Five gold(en) rings," which receives two 4/4 bars, "Two turtle doves" getting a 4/4 bar with "And a" on its fourth beat and "Partridge in a pear tree" getting two 4/4 bars of music. In most versions, a 4/4 bar of music immediately follows "Partridge in a pear tree." "On the" is found in that bar on the 4th (pickup) beat for the next verse. The successive bars of three for the gifts surrounded by bars of four give the song its hallmark "hurried" quality.

text: The second to fourth verses' melody is different from that of the fifth to twelfth verses. Before the fifth verse (when "five gold(en) rings" is first sung), the melody, using solfege, is "sol re mi fa re" for the fourth to second items, and this same melody is thereafter sung for the twelfth to sixth items. However, the melody for "four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves" changes from this point, differing from the way these lines were sung in the opening four verses.

text: In the final verse, Austin inserted a flourish on the words "Five Gold Rings". This has not been copied by later versions, which simply repeat the melody from the earlier verses.

text: Earlier versions[edit]

text: In the 19th century, most sources for the lyrics do not include music, and those that do often include music different from what has become the standard melody.

text: Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs from Somerset (1905) contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody.[27]

text:
Older Musical settings of "Twelve Days of Christmas"

Musical setting from Edward Rimbault's Nursery Rhymes, with the Tunes to which They Are Still Sung in the Nurseries of England (c. 1846).[13] According to its preface, this book was "the first attempt to preserve by notation the ancient melodies to which these ditties are commonly chanted".[55]

This melody for "The Twelve Days" was published in 1888. It was "collected by the late Mr. John Bell, of Gateshead, about eighty years ago" [i.e. around 1808][23]  Play (help·info)

This melody was current in "country villages in Wiltshire", according to an 1891 newspaper article.[24]

text: Parodies and other versions[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters recorded the traditional version of this song on 10 May 1949 for Decca Records.[56]
Burl Ives, backed by Percy Faith and his Orchestra and Chorus, recorded a traditional version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in 1951.
The Ray Conniff Singers also recorded a traditional version in 1962, appearing on the album We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Jasper Carrott performed "Twelve Drinks of Christmas" where he appears to be more inebriated with each successive verse.[57]
Perry Como recorded a traditional version of "Twelve Days of Christmas" in 1953 but varied the lyrics with "11 Lords a Leaping", "10 Ladies Dancing", and "9 Pipers Piping". It was musically supervised by Mitchell Ayres.
Allan Sherman released two different versions of "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas".[58] Sherman wrote and performed his version of the classic Christmas carol on a 1963 TV special that was taped well in advance of the holiday. Warner Bros. Records rushed out a 45 RPM version in early December.[59]
Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1963 album Christmas with The Chipmunks, Vol. 2.
The illustrator Hilary Knight included A Firefly in a Fir Tree (later rereleased independently with the subtitle A Carol for Mice) in his 1963 Christmas Nutshell Library, a boxed set of four miniature holiday-themed books.[60] In this rendition, the narrator is a mouse, with the various gifts reduced to mouse scale, such as "nine nuts for nibbling" and "four holly berries."[61]
Frank Sinatra and his children, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra, and Tina Sinatra, included their own version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on their 1968 album, The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.[62]
Fay McKay, an American musical comedian, is best known for "The Twelve Daze of Christmas", a parody in which the gifts were replaced with various alcoholic drinks, resulting in her performance becoming increasingly inebriated over the course of the song.[63]
A radio play written by Brian Sibley, "And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 1977.[64] Starring Penelope Keith, it imagines the increasingly exasperated response of the recipient of the "twelve days" gifts.[65] It was rebroadcast in 2011.[66]
The Muppets and singer-songwriter John Denver performed "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on the 1979 television special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. It was featured on the album of the same name. The song has been recorded by the Muppets five different times, featuring different Muppets in different roles each time.[67]
In 1975, the Sesame Street characters recorded a version of this song, using different lyrics. The 12 things are: one delicious cookie (Cookie Monster), two baby frogs (Hardhead Henry Harris, Elmo in the 1995 version), three footballs (Prairie Dawn), four wooly bears (Grover), five argyle socks (Bert), six rubber duckies (Ernie), seven rusty trashcans (Oscar the Grouch), eight counts a' counting (Count von Count), nine pounds of birdseed (Big Bird), ten wind-up rabbits (Smart Tina, later replaced by ten triangles Telly Monster), eleven broken buildings (Herry Monster) and "Twelve.... I can't remember!" (Mr. Snuffleupagus).[citation needed]
A Māori / New Zealand version, titled "A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree," written by Kingi Matutaera Ihaka, appeared as a picture book and cassette recording in 1981.[68][69]
On the late-night sketch-comedy program Second City TV in 1982, the Canadian-rustic characters Bob & Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) released a version on the SCTV spin-off album Great White North.[70]
Roger Whittaker recorded the traditional version with Angus' format in 1984.
The Twelve Days of Christmas (TV 1993), an animated tale which aired on NBC, features the voices of Marcia Savella, Larry Kenney, Carter Cathcart, Donna Vivino and Phil Hartman.[71]
Walt Kelly did a number of takes on the carol in Pogo. In one of them, the various characters, in fantastic hats, bring the gifts to Miz Beaver. By the 11th day, she, having run out of room -and patience-, calls a halt to the proceedings and speaks to Mr.Miggle, the general store proprieter, about taking them all off her hands.
Christian rock band Relient K released a recording of the song on their 2007 album Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer. This version known for its slightly satirical refrain: "What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me. But I can bet those are terrible gifts to get." [72]
A program hosted by Tom Arnold, The 12 Days of Redneck Christmas, which takes a look at Christmas traditions, premiered on CMT in 2008. The theme music is "The Twelve Days of Christmas."[73]
Polkadot Cadaver did a satiric version of the song on their album From Bethlehem to Oblivion.
Shannon Chan-Kent, as her character of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, sings her own version of the song on the album My Little Pony: It's a Pony Kind of Christmas.[74]
Irish actor Frank Kelly recorded "Christmas Countdown" in 1982 in which a man named Gobnait O’Lunacy receives 12 different Christmas gifts from a lady named Nuala. As each gift is received, the man gets increasingly upset with the person who sent them. This version charted in both Ireland (where it reached number 8 in 1982) and the UK (entering the UK chart in December 1983 and reaching number 26)[75][76]
A special Creature Comforts orchestral arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was made by British animator Nick Park and Aardman Animations. Featuring different animals discussing or trying to remember the lyrics of the song, it was released on Christmas Day 2005.[77]
New Orleans band Benny Grunch and the Bunch perform a "locals-humor take" on the song, titled "The Twelve Yats of Christmas."[78][79]
The carol is the main plot device in Ellery Queen's, The Finishing Stroke.
The video game Starcraft: Broodwar released a new map named "Twelve Days of Starcraft" with the song which was adopted a new lyric by Blizzard on 23 December 1999.[80][unreliable source?] In 2013, CarbotAnimations created a new web animation, "StarCrafts Christmas Special 2013 the Twelve Days of StarCrafts", with the song which was played in the map "Twelve Days of Starcraft".[81]
Jimmy Buffet released a Parrothead version.[82]
Canadian impressionist Steve Ivings released a version in 1979, done in his voice impersonations of celebrities such as Dean Martin, Peter Falk, Marlon Brando, Walter Cronkite, Richard Burton, Liberace and Paul Lynde.

text: Christmas Price Index[edit]

text: Since 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator. Assuming the gifts are repeated in full in each round of the song, then a total of 364 items are delivered by the twelfth day.[83] This custom began with and is maintained by PNC Bank.[84][85] Two pricing charts are created, referred to as the Christmas Price Index and The True Cost of Christmas. The former is an index of the current costs of one set of each of the gifts given by the True Love to the singer of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The latter is the cumulative cost of all the gifts with the repetitions listed in the song. The people mentioned in the song are hired, not purchased. The total costs of all goods and services for the 2015 Christmas Price Index is US$34,130.99,[86] or $155,407.18 for all 364 items.[87][88] The original 1984 cost was $12,623.10. The index has been criticised for not accurately reflecting the true cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol.[89]


document_title: Smartphone

question_text: when was the first smartphone released in the us

root

text: Smartphone

text: History[edit]

text: Early years[edit]

text: The first few purposes of smartphones were telecommunications, timekeeping, note taking, calculation, and basic computing functionality. This was first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concept of telephony into computers. In 1971, while he was working with Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama, Paraskevakos demonstrated a transmitter and receiver that provided additional ways to communicate with remote equipment, however it still did not yet have general purpose functionality. They were installed at Peoples' Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos.[4]

tag: p

text: Forerunner[edit]

text: Simon was a prototype developed by Frank Canova[6] in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show. It included PDA features and other visionary mobile applications such as maps, stock reports and news. A refined version was marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator. The Simon was the first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a "smartphone", although that term was not coined until a year later.[6][7][8] In addition to placing and receiving cellular calls, Simon could send and receive faxes and emails. Simon included an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock and notepad, utilizing its touch screen display.[9] The term "smart phone" appeared in print as early as 1995, describing AT&T's PhoneWriter Communicator.[10][non-primary source needed]

text: PDAs[edit]

text: In the mid-late 1990s, many smartphone users carried a separate dedicated PDA device, running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, BlackBerry OS or Windows CE/Pocket PC. These operating systems would later evolve into mobile operating systems. In March 1996, Hewlett-Packard released the OmniGo 700LX, a modified HP 200LX palmtop PC that supported a Nokia 2110 PDA with ROM-based software to support it. It had a 640×200 resolution CGA compatible four-shade gray-scale LCD screen and could be used to place and receive calls, and to create and receive text messages, emails and faxes. It was also 100% DOS 5.0 compatible, allowing it to run thousands of existing software titles, including early versions of Windows.

text: In August 1996, Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a digital cellular PDA based on the Nokia 2110 with an integrated system based on the PEN/GEOS 3.0 operating system from Geoworks. The two components were attached by a hinge in what became known as a clamshell design, with the display above and a physical QWERTY keyboard below. The PDA provided e-mail; calendar, address book, calculator and notebook applications; text-based Web browsing; and could send and receive faxes. When closed, the device could be used as a digital cellular telephone. In June 1999 Qualcomm released the "pdQ Smartphone", a CDMA digital PCS Smartphone with an integrated Palm PDA and Internet connectivity.[11]

text: Subsequent landmark devices included:

text:
The Ericsson R380 (2000) by Ericsson Mobile Communications.[12] The first device marketed as a "smartphone",[13] It was a PDA that supported telephony, limited Web browsing with a resistive touchscreen, utilizing a stylus.[14]
The Kyocera 6035 (early 2001) introduced by Palm, Inc. Combining a PDA with a mobile phone, it operated on the Verizon network, and supported limited Web browsing.[15][16]
Handspring's Treo 180 (2002), the first smartphone to combine the Palm OS and a GSM PDA with telephony, SMS messaging and Internet access fully integrated into the OS.[17]

tag: ul

text: Smartphones before present-day Android-, iOS- and BlackBerry-based phones typically used the Symbian operating system. Originally developed by Psion, it was the world's most widely used smartphone operating system until 2010.[18]

text: Mass adoption in Japan[edit]

text: In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country. These phones ran on i-mode, which provided data transmission speeds up to 9.6 kbit/s.[19] Unlike future generations of wireless services, NTT DoCoMo's i-mode used cHTML, a language which restricted some aspects of traditional HTML in favor of increasing data speed for the devices. Limited functionality, small screens and limited bandwidth allowed for phones to use the slower data speeds available.[20] The rise of i-mode helped NTT DoCoMo accumulate an estimated 40 million subscribers by the end of 2001. It was also ranked first in market capitalization in Japan and second globally. This power would later wane in the face of the rise of 3G and new phones with advanced wireless network capabilities.[21]

text: Early smartphones outside of Japan[edit]

text: Smartphones were still rare outside of Japan until the introduction of the Danger Hiptop in 2002, which saw moderate success among U.S. consumers as the T-Mobile Sidekick. Later, in the mid-2000s, business users in the U.S. started to adopt devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and then BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion. American users popularized the term "CrackBerry" in 2006 due to the BlackBerry's addictive nature.[22] Outside of the U.S. and Japan, Nokia was seeing success with its Symbian-based smartphones, the business-oriented Eseries[23] and entertainment-focused Nseries.

text: Form factor shift[edit]

text: Before 2007, it was common for devices to have a physical numeric keypad or physical QWERTY keyboard in either a candybar or sliding form factor.

text: In early 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone, one of the first smartphones to use a multi-touch interface. The iPhone was notable for its use of a large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction, instead of a stylus, keyboard, or keypad typical for smartphones at the time.[24]

text: In October 2008, the first phone to use Android called the HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1) was released.[25][26] It also had a large touchscreen, but still retained a slide-out physical keyboard. Later versions of Android added and then improved on-screen keyboard support, and physical keyboards on Android devices quickly became rare. Android is an open-source platform founded by Andy Rubin and now owned by Google.[27][28] Although Android's adoption was relatively slow at first, it started to gain widespread popularity in 2010, and in early 2012 dominated the smartphone market share worldwide, which continues to this day.[29]

text: The iPhone and Android phones with their capacitive touchscreens changed smartphone form factors and led to the decline of earlier, keyboard- and keypad-focused platforms. Microsoft, for instance, discontinued Windows Mobile and started a new touchscreen-oriented OS from scratch, called Windows Phone. Nokia abandoned Symbian and partnered with Microsoft to use Windows Phone on its smartphones. Windows Phone then became the third-most-popular OS. Palm replaced their Palm OS with webOS, which was bought by Hewlett-Packard and later sold to LG Electronics for use on LG smart TVs. BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion, made a new platform based on QNX, BlackBerry 10, with which it was possible to control a device without having to press any physical buttons; this platform was later discontinued.

text: By the mid 2010s, almost all smartphones were touchscreen-only.

text: Operating systems[edit]

text: Symbian was the most popular smartphone OS in Europe during the middle to late 2000s. Initially, Nokia's Symbian devices were focused on business, similar to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices at the time. From 2006 onwards, Nokia started producing entertainment-focused smartphones, popularized by the Nseries. In Asia, with the exception of Japan, the trend was similar to that of Europe.[citation needed] In 2003, Motorola launched the first smartphone to use Linux, the A760 handset.[30] While the initial release was limited to a single high-end handset only available in the Asia-Pacific region, the maker's intention was to eventually use Linux on most of its handsets, including the lower-end models. Further models to use Linux such as the Motorola Ming A1200i in 2005 and several successors to the Ming line would be unveiled through 2010. In late 2009, Motorola released the Motorola Cliq,[31] the first of Motorola's smartphones to run the Linux-based Android operating system.

text: Technological developments in the 2010s[edit]

text: In 2013, Fairphone launched its first "socially ethical" smartphone at the London Design Festival to address concerns regarding the sourcing of materials in the manufacturing.[32] In late 2013, QSAlpha commenced production of a smartphone designed entirely around security, encryption and identity protection.[33] Some companies began to release smartphones incorporating flexible displays to create curved form factors, such as the Samsung Galaxy Round and LG G Flex.[34][35][36]

text: In October 2013, Motorola Mobility announced Project Ara, a concept for a modular smartphone platform that would allow users to customize and upgrade their phones with add-on modules that attached magnetically to a frame.[37][38] Ara was retained by Google following its sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo,[39] but was shelved in 2016.[40] That year, LG and Motorola both unveiled smartphones featuring a limited form of modularity for accessories; the LG G5 allowed accessories to be installed via the removal of its battery compartment,[41] while the Moto Z utilizes accessories attached magnetically to the rear of the device.[42]

text: By 2014, 1440p displays began to appear on high-end smartphones.[43] In 2015, Sony released the Xperia Z5 Premium, featuring a 4K resolution display, although only images and videos could actually be rendered at that resolution (all other software is upscaled from 1080p).[44] Microsoft, expanding upon the concept of Motorola's short-lived "Webtop", unveiled functionality for its Windows 10 operating system for phones that allows supported devices to be docked for use with a PC-styled desktop environment.[45][46] Other major technologies began to trend in 2016, including a focus on virtual reality and augmented reality experiences catered towards smartphones, the newly introduced USB-C connector, and improving LTE technologies.[47] As of 2015, the global median for smartphone ownership was 43%.[48] Statista has forecast that 2.87 billion people will own smartphones in 2020.[49]

text: Future possible developments[edit]

text: Foldable OLED smartphones have been anticipated for years but have failed to materialize because of the relatively high failure rate when producing these screens.[citation needed] As well, creating a battery that can be folded is another hurdle.[50]

text: Hardware[edit]

text: Display[edit]

text: One of the main characteristics of smartphones is their screen. It may fill some of the device's front surface (about 70%), or like the iPhone X or Galaxy S8, most all of the available space is reserved on the front display. Many have an aspect ratio of 16:9; some are 4:3 or other ratios. They are measured in diagonal inches, starting from 2.45 inches.[51] Phones with screens larger than 5.2 inches are often called "phablets". Smartphones with screens over 4.5 inches commonly are shifted while using a single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface, or used in place with both hands. Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, AMOLED and E Ink displays. In the 2010s, Braille screens, which can be used by visually impaired people are being developed. It is expected that Braille screens will use some type of microfluidics technology.[52] In addition, some displays are integrated with pressure sensitive digitizers such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung. These digitizers allow users to have greater precision when utilizing touch-screens for drawing or for jotting down notes.[53]

text: Accessories[edit]

text: A wide range of accessories are sold for smartphones, including cases, screen protectors, power charging cables, add-on batteries, headphones, combined headphone-microphones which allow a person to use the phone without holding it to the ear, and Bluetooth-enabled powered speakers that enable users to listen to media from their smartphones wirelessly. Cases range from relatively inexpensive rubber or soft plastic cases which provide moderate protection from bumps and good protection from scratches to more expensive, heavy-duty cases that combine a rubber padding with a hard outer shell. Some cases have a "book"-like form, with a cover that the user opens to use the device; when the cover is closed, it protects the screen. Some "book"-like cases have additional pockets for credit cards, thus enabling people to use them as wallets. Accessories include products sold by the manufacturer of the smartphone and compatible products made by other manufacturers.

text: Software[edit]

text: Mobile operating systems[edit]

text: Android[edit]

text: Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, and backed by an industry consortium known as the Open Handset Alliance. It is an open source platform with optional proprietary components, including a suite of flagship software for Google services, and the application and content storefront Google Play.[54] Android was officially introduced via the release of its inaugural device, the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) on 20 October 2008.[55] As an open source product, Android has also been the subject of third-party development. Development groups have used the Android source code to develop and distribute their own modified versions of the operating system, such as CyanogenMod, to add features to the OS and provide newer versions of Android to devices that no longer receive official updates from their vendor.[56][57][58] Forked versions of Android have also been adopted by other vendors, such as Amazon.com, who used its "Fire OS" on a range of tablets and the Fire Phone.[59][60] As it is a non-proprietary platform that has shipped on devices covering a wide range of market segments, Android has seen significant adoption. Gartner Research estimated that 325 million Android smartphones were sold during the fourth quarter of 2015, leading all other platforms. Samsung Electronics, who produces Android devices, was also the top smartphone vendor across all platforms in the same period of time.[61] Android is the top-selling smartphone OS in 2016.[62][63]

text: iOS[edit]

text: iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a proprietary mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. primarily for its iPhone product line. The iPhone was first unveiled in January 2007. The device introduced numerous design concepts that have been adopted by modern smartphone platforms, such as the use of multi-touch gestures for navigation, eschewing physical controls such as physical keyboard in favor of those rendered by the operating system itself on its touchscreen (including the keyboard), and the use of skeuomorphism—making features and controls within the user interface resemble real-world objects and concepts in order to improve their usability.[64][65] In 2008, Apple introduced the App Store, a centralized storefront for purchasing new software for iPhone devices.[66][67] iOS can also integrate with Apple's desktop music program iTunes to sync media to a personal computer.[68][69] The dependency on a PC was removed with the introduction of iCloud on later versions of iOS, which provides synchronization of user data via internet servers between multiple devices.[70] The iPhone line's early dominance was credited with reshaping the smartphone industry, and helping make Apple one of the world's most valuable publicly traded companies by 2011. However, the iPhone and iOS have generally been in second place in worldwide market share.[61][71][72]

text: Windows 10 Mobile[edit]

text: Windows 10 Mobile (formerly known as Windows Phone) is from Microsoft. It is closed source and proprietary. It has the third largest installed base on smartphones behind Android and iOS.

text: Unveiled on February 15, 2010, Windows Phone includes a user interface inspired by Microsoft's Metro Design Language. It is integrated with Microsoft services such as OneDrive and Office, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Xbox Live games and Bing, but also integrates with many other non-Microsoft services such as Facebook and Google accounts. Windows Phone devices are made primarily by Microsoft Mobile/Nokia, and also by HTC and Samsung.

text: In January 2015, Microsoft announced that its Windows Phone brand will be phased out and replaced with Windows 10 Mobile, bringing tighter integration and unification with its PC counterpart Windows 10, and provide a platform for smartphones and tablets with screen sizes under 8 inches.

text: Windows Mobile smartphone series has had poor adoption, that also led to a decrease in third-party applications, and some vendors ended their support for Windows Mobile altogether.[73][74] As of 2016, Windows 10 Mobile global market share dropped below 0.6%.[75]

text: Tizen[edit]

text: Tizen is a Linux-based operating system for devices, including smartphones, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices, smart TVs, laptops and smart cameras. Tizen is a project within the Linux Foundation and is governed by a Technical Steering Group (TSG) composed of Samsung and Intel among others. In April 2014, Samsung released the Samsung Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, running Tizen.[76] The Samsung Z1 is the first smartphone produced by Samsung that runs Tizen; it was released in the Indian market on January 14, 2015.[77]

text: Sailfish OS[edit]

text: The Sailfish OS is based on the Linux kernel and Mer.[78] Additionally Sailfish OS includes a partially or completely proprietary multi-tasking user interface programmed by Jolla. This user interface differentiate Jolla smartphones from others.[79] Sailfish OS is intended to be a system made by many of the MeeGo team, which left Nokia to form Jolla, utilizing funding from Nokia's "Bridge" program which helps establish and support start-up companies formed by ex-Nokia employees.[80][81][82]

text: BlackBerry 10[edit]

text: In early 2010s, BlackBerry Limited started making new devices on a new platform named "BlackBerry 10", which is based on their BlackBerry Tablet OS, to replace the BlackBerry OS.[83] In 2015, BlackBerry said there would be no new devices with BB10 but they will still support the OS for existing devices.[84]

text: Discontinued operating systems[edit]

text: BlackBerry OS[edit]

text: In 1999, RIM released its first BlackBerry devices, providing secure real-time push-email communications on wireless devices. Services such as BlackBerry Messenger provide the integration of all communications into a single inbox. In September 2012, RIM announced that the 200 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped. As of September 2014, there were around 46 million active BlackBerry service subscribers.[85] In early 2010s, RIM has undergone a platform transition, changing its company name to BlackBerry Limited and making new devices on a new platform named "BlackBerry 10".[83]

text: Windows Mobile[edit]

text: Windows Mobile was based on the Windows CE kernel and first appeared as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system. Throughout its lifespan, the operating system was available in both touchscreen and non-touchscreen formats. It was supplied with a suite of applications developed with the Microsoft Windows API and was designed to have features and appearance somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows. Third parties could develop software for Windows Mobile with no restrictions imposed by Microsoft. Software applications were eventually purchasable from Windows Marketplace for Mobile during the service's brief lifespan. Windows Mobile was eventually phased out in favor of Windows Phone OS.

text: Symbian[edit]

text: Symbian was originally developed by Psion as EPOC32. It was the world's most widely used smartphone operating system until Q4 2010, though the platform never gained popularity in the U.S., as it did in Europe and Asia. The first Symbian phone, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone, was released in 2000,[86][87] and was the first device marketed as a "smartphone".[88] It combined a PDA with a mobile phone.[89] Variants of Symbian OS began to emerge, most notably Symbian UIQ, MOAP and S60, each supported by different manufacturers. With the creation of Symbian Foundation in 2008, Symbian OS was unified under one variant under the stewardship of Nokia. In February 2011, Nokia announced that it would replace Symbian with Windows Phone as the operating system on all of its future smartphones, with the platform being abandoned over the following few years.[90]

text: Firefox OS[edit]

text: Firefox OS was demonstrated by Mozilla in February 2012. It was designed to have a complete community-based alternative system for mobile devices, using open standards and HTML5 applications. The first commercially available Firefox OS phones were ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire. As of 2014, more companies had partnered with Mozilla including Panasonic (which was making a smart TV with Firefox OS) and Sony.[91] In December 2015, Mozilla announced that it would phase out development of Firefox OS for smartphones, and would reposition the project to focus on other forms of Internet-connected devices.[92]

text: Bada[edit]

text: The Bada operating system for smartphones was announced by Samsung in November 2009.[93][94] The first Bada-based phone was the Samsung Wave S8500, released in June 2010.[95][96] Samsung shipped 4.5 million phones running Bada in Q2 of 2011.[97] In 2013, Bada merged with a similar platform called Tizen.

text: webOS[edit]

text: webOS is a proprietary mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel, initially developed by Palm, which launched with the Palm Pre. After being acquired by HP, two phones (the Veer and the Pre 3) and a tablet (the TouchPad) running webOS were introduced in 2011. On August 18, 2011, HP announced that webOS hardware was to be discontinued[98] but would continue to support and update webOS software and develop the webOS ecosystem.[99] HP released webOS as open source under the name Open webOS, and plans to update it with additional features.[100] On February 25, 2013 HP announced the sale of WebOS to LG Electronics, who used the operating system for its current "smart" or Internet-connected TVs, but not smartphones. In January 2014, Qualcomm has announced that it has acquired technology patents from HP, which includes all the WebOS patents.[101]

text: Palm OS[edit]

text: In late 2001, Handspring launched the Springboard GSM phone module with limited success. In May 2002, Handspring released the Palm OS Treo 270 smartphone, which did not support Springboard, with both a touchscreen and a full keyboard. The Treo had wireless web browsing, email, calendar, a contact organizer and mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.[102] Handspring was purchased by Palm, Inc which released the Treo 600 and continued releasing Treo devices with a few Treo devices using Windows Mobile.

text: MeeGo/Maemo/Moblin[edit]

text: MeeGo is an operating system created from the source code of Moblin (produced by Intel) and Maemo (produced by Nokia). Before that, Nokia used Maemo on some of its smartphones and internet tablets (such as Nokia N810 and N900). MeeGo was originally envisioned to power a variety of devices from netbooks, tablets to smartphones and smart TVs. However, the only smartphones which used MeeGo was the Nokia N9 and Nokia N950 (MeeGo v1.2 Harmattan). Following Nokia's decision to move to Windows Phone OS in 2011 and to cease MeeGo development, the Linux Foundation canceled MeeGo in September 2011 in favor of the development of Tizen.

text: Ubuntu Touch[edit]

text: Ubuntu Touch (also known as Ubuntu Phone) is a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system developed by Canonical UK Ltd and Ubuntu Community.[103] It is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

text: Mobile app[edit]

text: Application stores[edit]

text: The introduction of Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications (software and computer programs) focused on a single platform. There are a huge variety of apps, including video games, music products and business tools. Up until that point, smartphone application distribution depended on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar, Handango, Handmark, and PocketGear. Following the success of the App Store, other smartphone manufacturers launched application stores, such as Google's Android Market (now Google Play Store) and RIM's BlackBerry App World in April 2009. In February 2014, 93% of mobile developers were targeting smartphones first for mobile app development.[104]

text: Sales[edit]

text: Since 1996, smartphone shipments have had positive growth. In November 2011, 27% of all photographs created were taken with camera-equipped smartphones.[105] In September 2012, a study concluded that 4 out of 5 smartphone owners use the device to shop online.[106] Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for feature phones in early 2013.[3] Worldwide shipments of smartphones topped 1 billion units in 2013, up 38% from 2012's 725 million, while comprising a 55% share of the mobile phone market in 2013, up from 42% in 2012.[107] In Q1 2016 for the first time the shipments dropped by 3 percent year on year. The situation was caused by the maturing China market.[108]

text: By manufacturer[edit]

text:
Worldwide Smartphones Vendors Market Share

Source
Date
Samsung
Apple Inc.
Huawei
Oppo
Vivo
Others
Reference

Gartner
Q1 2017
20.7%
13.7%
9.0%
8.1%
6.8%
41.7%
[109]

IDC
Q1 2017
23.3%
14.7%
10.0%
7.5%
5.5%
39.0%
[110]

tag: table

text: In 2011, Samsung had the highest shipment market share worldwide, followed by Apple. In 2013, Samsung had 31.3% market share, a slight increase from 30.3% in 2012, while Apple was at 15.3%, a decrease from 18.7% in 2012. Huawei, LG and Lenovo were at about 5% each, significantly better than 2012 figures, while others had about 40%, the same as the previous years figure. Only Apple lost market share, although their shipment volume still increased by 12.9 percent; the rest had significant increases in shipment volumes of 36 to 92 percent.[111] In Q1 2014, Samsung had a 31% share and Apple had 16%.[112] In Q4 2014, Apple had a 20.4% share and Samsung had 19.9%.[113] In Q2 2016, Samsung had a 22.3% share and Apple had 12.9%.[109] In Q1 2017, IDC reported that Samsung was first placed, with 80 million units, followed by Apple with 50.8 million, Huawei with 34.6 million, Oppo with 25.5 million and Vivo with 22.7 million.[114]

text: By operating system[edit]

text:
Worldwide operating system market share for smartphones

Source
Date
Android
iOS
Others
Reference

Gartner
Q1 2017
86.1%
13.7%
0.2%
[115]

text: The market has been dominated by the Android operating system since 2010. Android's market share (measured by units shipment) rose from 33.2% in Q4 2011 to 81.7% of the market in Q4 2016. Apple's market share oscillated between 18% and 12.5% during the same period. Windows Phone market share also oscillated between 1.5% and 0.3% during the same time frame. As of the end of Q4 2016, Android was the most popular operating system sold with new smartphones with an 81.7% market share, followed by iOS with 17.9%, Windows 10 Mobile with 0.3% and other OSes at 0.1%.[115]

text: Historical sales figures, in millions[edit]

text:
Year
Android (Google)
iOS (Apple)
Windows Mobile/Phone (Microsoft)
BlackBerry (formerly RIM)
Symbian (Nokia)
Palm/WebOS (Palm/HP)
Bada (Samsung)
Other
Total

2007[116]

3.3
14.7
11.77
77.68
1.76

109.21

2008[116]

11.42
16.5
23.15
72.93
2.51

126.51

2009[117]
6.8
24.89
15.03
34.35
80.88
1.19

163.14

2010[118]
67.22
46.6
12.38
47.45
111.58

285.23

2011[119]
219.52
89.26
8.77
51.54
93.41

9.6
14.24
486.34

2012[120]
451.62
130.13
16.94
34.21

15.9
47.20
696.00

2013[120]
758.72
150.79
30.84
18.61

18.82
977.78

2014[121]
1,004.68
191.43
35.13
7.91

5.75
1,244.90

text: Use[edit]

text: Social[edit]

text: A 2012 University of Southern California study found that unprotected adolescent sexual activity was more common among owners of smartphones.[122] A study conducted by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's (RPI) Lighting Research Center (LRC) concluded that smartphones, or any backlit devices, can seriously affect sleep cycles.[123] Some persons might become psychologically attached to cellphones resulting in anxiety when separated from the devices.[124] A "smombie" (a combination of "smartphone" and "zombie") is a walking person using a smartphone and not paying attention as they walk, possibly risking an accident in the process, an increasing social phenomenon.[125] The issue of slow-moving smartphone users led to the temporary creation of a "mobile lane" for walking in Chongqing, China.[126] The issue of distracted smartphone users led the city of Augsburg, Germany to embed pedestrian traffic lights in the pavement.[127]

text: While driving[edit]

text: Mobile phone use while driving - including talking on the phone, texting, playing media, web browsing, gaming, using mapping apps or operating other phone features - is common but controversial, since it is widely considered dangerous due to what's known as distracted driving. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accidents. In September 2010, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 995 people were killed by drivers distracted by phones. In March 2011 a US insurance company, State Farm Insurance, announced the results of a study which showed 19% of drivers surveyed accessed the Internet on a smartphone while driving.[128] Many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. In Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore, both handheld and hands-free calling on a mobile phone (which uses a speakerphone) is banned. In other countries including the UK and France and in many US states, only the use of calling on handheld phones is banned, while hands-free use is permitted.

text: A 2011 study reported that over 90% of college students surveyed text (initiate, reply or read) while driving.[129] The scientific literature on the danger of driving while sending a text message from a mobile phone, or texting while driving, is limited. A simulation study at the University of Utah found a sixfold increase in distraction-related accidents when texting.[130] Due to the complexity of smartphones, this has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials when attempting to distinguish one usage from another in drivers using their devices. This is more apparent in countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those which ban handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally for a call when, in fact, they were using the device legally, for example, when using the phone's incorporated controls for car stereo, GPS or satnav.

text: A 2010 study reviewed the incidence of phone use while cycling and its effects on behavior and safety.[131] In 2013 a national survey in the US reported the number of drivers who reported using their phones to access the Internet while driving had risen to nearly one of four.[132] A study conducted by the University of Vienna examined approaches for reducing inappropriate and problematic use of mobile phones, such as using phones while driving.[133]

text: Accidents involving a driver being distracted by being in a call on a phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to speeding. In the United Kingdom, from 27 February 2007, motorists who are caught using a hand-held phone while driving will have three penalty points added to their license in addition to the fine of £60.[134] This increase was introduced to try to stem the increase in drivers ignoring the law.[135] Japan prohibits all use of phones while driving, including use of hands-free devices. New Zealand has banned handheld phone use since 1 November 2009. Many states in the United States have banned text messaging on phones while driving. Illinois became the 17th American state to enforce this law.[136] As of July 2010, 30 states had banned texting while driving, with Kentucky becoming the most recent addition on July 15.[137]

text: Public Health Law Research maintains a list of distracted driving laws in the United States. This database of laws provides a comprehensive view of the provisions of laws that restrict the use of mobile devices while driving for all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1992, when first law was passed through December 1, 2010. The dataset contains information on 22 dichotomous, continuous or categorical variables including, for example, activities regulated (e.g., texting versus talking, hands-free versus handheld calls, web browsing, gaming), targeted populations, and exemptions.[138]

text: Legal[edit]

text: A "patent war" between Samsung and Apple started when the latter claimed that the original Galaxy S Android phone copied the interface—and possibly the hardware—of Apple's iOS for the iPhone 3GS. There was also smartphone patents licensing and litigation involving Sony Mobile, Google, Apple Inc., Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, HTC, Huawei and ZTE, among others. The conflict is part of the wider "patent wars" between multinational technology and software corporations. To secure and increase market share, companies granted a patent can sue to prevent competitors from using the methods the patent covers. Since 2010 the number of lawsuits, counter-suits, and trade complaints based on patents and designs in the market for smartphones, and devices based on smartphone OSes such as Android and iOS, has increased significantly. Initial suits, countersuits, rulings, license agreements, and other major events began in 2009 as the smartphone market grew more rapidly.

text: Medical[edit]

text: With the rise in number of mobile medical apps in the market place, government regulatory agencies raised concerns on the safety of the use of such applications. These concerns were transformed into regulation initiatives worldwide with the aim of safeguarding users from untrusted medical advice.[139]

text: Security[edit]

text: Smartphone malware is easily distributed through an insecure app store.[140][141] Often malware is hidden in pirated versions of legitimate apps, which are then distributed through third-party app stores.[142][143] Malware risk also comes from what's known as an "update attack", where a legitimate application is later changed to include a malware component, which users then install when they are notified that the app has been updated.[144] As well, one out of three robberies in 2012 in the United States involved the theft of a mobile phone. An online petition has urged smartphone makers to install kill switches in their devices.[145] In 2014, Apple's "Find my iPhone" and Google's "Android Device Manager" can disable phones that have been lost/stolen. With BlackBerry Protect in OS version 10.3.2, devices can be rendered unrecoverable to even BlackBerry's own Operating System recovery tools if incorrectly authenticated or dissociated from their account.[146]

text: Sleep[edit]

text: Using smartphones late at night can disturb sleep, due to the brightly lit screen affecting melatonin levels and sleep cycles. In an effort to alleviate these issues, several apps that change the color temperature of a screen to a warmer hue based on the time of day to reduce the amount of blue light generated have been developed for Android, while iOS 9.3 integrated similar, system-level functionality known as "Night Shift". Amazon released a feature known as "blue shade" in their Fire OS "Bellini" 5.0 and later. It has also been theorized that for some users, addicted use of their phones, especially before they go to bed, can result in "ego depletion". Many people also use their phones as alarm clocks, which can also lead to loss of sleep.[147][148][149][150][151]

text: Comparison with other devices[edit]

text: Smartphones have presented issues similar to those affecting other devices As well, there are some issues which are unique to smartphones.

text: Battery[edit]

text: Compared to earlier smartphones, smartphone battery life has generally been poor, due to the significant power requirements of their computer systems and color screens. Poor smartphone battery life has negatively affected customer satisfaction.[152][153][154] There is also a trend towards using batteries that the user cannot replace.[155] Smartphone users have addressed the challenge of limited battery life by purchasing additional chargers for use outside the home, at work, and in cars and by buying portable external "battery packs". External battery packs include generic models which are connected to the smartphone with a cable and custom-made models that "piggyback" onto a smartphone's case. Most recently, Samsung had to recall millions of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones due to an explosive battery issue.[156]

text: Terminology[edit]

text: "Phablet", a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet, describes smartphones with larger screens.[157][158]

text: "Superphone" is also used by some companies to market phones with unusually large screens and other expensive features.[159][160]

text: "Ultra Premium" is a term used to identify a smartphone which has top of the line materials.[161]