The History of Mobile Phones From 1973 To
2008: The Handsets That Made It ALL Happen
All the mobile phones that mattered from the first Nokia handset
right up to the iPhone 3G
A LOT can happen in 40 years.
But when it comes to technology, 40-years is like going back to the days of
Moses or the Roman Empire. Case in point: the mobile phone –– and, more
recently, the rise of mobile internet communications, social networks and super-fast
internet. But what were the phones that made it happen; who were the pioneering
brands that made today's handsets possible; and which phone, out of the
thousands launched since the 1980s, was the most important? Answer: quite a
few.
But first: a history
lesson.
The world’s first mobile phone call was made on April 3, 1973,
when Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival
telecommunications company and informed them he was speaking via a mobile
phone. The phone Cooper used, if you could call it that, weighed a
staggering 1.1kg and measured in at 228.6x127x44.4mm. With this prototype
device, you got 30 minutes of talk-time and it took around 10 hours to
charge.
In 1983, Motorola released its first commercial mobile phone,
known as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. The handset offered 30 minutes of
talk-time, six hours standby, and could store 30 phone numbers. It also cost
£2639 ($3995).
In the very early days of the mobile space handsets weren’t
designed with consumers in mind. You’d need a couple of thousand pounds to get
hold of one, and even then performance wasn’t great. Back then, mobile phones
were designed with the likes of Gordon Gecko in mind, businessmen-types
that drove big Jags and flew Concord. Not your average Joe.
Mobile Phone FACTS
Here is a selection of facts, courtesy
of Fact Slides, about mobile phones that show just how much the
world has changed since the early days of mobile communication:
§
In 1983, the first mobile phones
went on sale in the U.S. at almost $4,000 each.
§
Over 250 million Nokia 1100
devices were sold, making it the bestselling electrical gadget in history.
§
More People In The World Have
Mobile Phones Than Toilets.
§
So many Facebook photos and
videos are uploaded via mobile that it takes up 27% of upstream web traffic.
§
The technology behind smartphones
relies on up to 250,000 separate patents.
§ The average person unlocks his or her smartphone 110 times each
day.
Even at the start of the 1990s this was still the case despite
Nokia and NEC entering the fray. Nokia’s first 'handheld' mobile phone, the
Mobira Cityman 900, launched in 1989 and weighed just 800g – a huge improvement
over 1982’s 9.8kg Mobira Senator model.
1990 to 1995 represented an upward swerve in design and
portability, with mobile devices gradually starting to appear in the hands of
average consumers for the first time. By the late-1990s, mobile devices were
fast becoming the norm thanks to the following handsets…
1997 – Nokia 6110
Features:
§
Three games: Memory, Snake, Logic
§
Calculator, clock and calendar
§
Currency converter
§
Works as a pager
§
Profile settings
§
4 colours
1997 – Motorola StarTAC
Inspired by the communicator from Star Trek, this bad boy was
the world’s first clamshell handset. Another first for Motorola.
1998 – Nokia 5110
Excellent battery, slim by 1998’s standards, and it also
featured Snake. What more could a 90s consumer want?
Features:
§
Dimensions 48 x 132 x
31 mm
§
Battery
900 mAh NiMH
§
Display
47 x 84 B/W
1999 – BlackBerry 850
The BlackBerry 850 was the first handset released under the
BlackBerry brand. Ten years later, RIM would be crowned the fastest growing
company on the planet. And we all know what happened post-2010.
