a visual history of the mobile phone - business insider

Watch The Incredible 70-YearEvolution Of The Cell PhoneJUSTIN MEYERS, WONDERHOWTO

MAY 6, 2011, 10:47 AM

Remember what life waslike before your iPhone?Before there werepalm-sized smartphoneswith seemingly endlessfeatures, there were phoneslike Motorola's RAZR thatpeaked with its embeddedcamera. Before that, therewere simple flip phoneswith texting capabilities,bulky two-pound GordonGekkoseven briefcasephones.

The complete visualhistory of the mobilephone

Mobile phones have come a long way in the last seventy years, so be thankful yours fits inyour pocket. Maybe one day it will even be able to bend like a piece of thin plastic. Maybeyou won't even have to touch it, doing all of your multitasking from cellular implants. Butseventy years ago, you'd be lugging a 25-pound 'portable' phone on your back, with verylimited 5-mile range.

And now, a visual history marking the accomplishments of mobile phones, from militaryapplications to mobile apps. Alexander Graham Bell would surely be proud.

This post originally appeared at WonderHowTo.

This article originally appeared at WonderHowTo. Copyright 2011.

A Visual History of The Mobile Phone - Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/complete-visual-history-of-cell-phone...

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WonderHowTo

1938

Not quite what you wouldconsider a mobile phone, theSCR-194 and 195 were the firstportable AM radios, produced bythe U.S. Army Signal CorpsEngineering Laboratories in FortMonmouth, NJ.

Considered the first "walkietalkie," these devices weighedroughly 25 pounds and had a5-mile range. They were widelyused for infantry battalion andcompany intercommunicationduring World War II.

1940

Next came the SCR-300 radiotransceiver, developed for theU.S. Military by Motorola. Thistime a portable FM radio, itweighed anywhere from 32 to 38pounds with a 3-mile range.

It replaced the SCR-194 and 195with nearly 50,000 units used inWorld War II by Allied Forces


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1942

Motorola produced the first"handie talkie" for the U.S.,labeled SCR-536. 130,000 unitswere manufactured and usedduring the war. Back to AM, thishandheld version shed the fat offthe previous two transceivers,weighing only 5 pounds. But itsland range was only 1-mile (3miles over water).

Moving away frommilitary-grade portable radios,we get to the mobile radiotelephones (or 0G)...


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WonderHowTo

1946

Bell System introduced the firstcommercial mobile telephoneservice, called the MobileTelephone System (MTS). Theoriginal equipment was large,weighing 80 pounds (not quitewhat you'd call mobile) withlimited calling bands availablefrom AT&T.

The service wasn't cheap eithercosting $30 a month (roughly$330 today) with additional percall charges. Not really intendedfor regular Joe Blows, thesedevices were used by utilities,truck fleet operators, andreporters.

1956

Ericsson's Mobile System A(MTA) was the first partlyautomatic mobile system forautomobiles. First used bySweden, the unit weighed awhopping 88 pounds. Again,"mobile" is kind of a misnomer,considering it's equivalent toalmost 300 iPhones!


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WonderHowTo

1964

With the adaption of Bell'snewer pre-cellular ImprovedMobile Telephone Service(IMTS), auto owners saw lighter,more advanced mobile carphones with push buttons. Thisone by Motorola weighed 40pounds, half as much of theoriginal units from the '40s.

Over the years, they managed toget down into the 20-poundrange. But they never managedto get into the hands of JoeBlow, with a still-hefty price andrationed service throughout thenation.

1973

With a prototype of theDynaTAC (DYNamic AdaptiveTotal Area Coverage) portablephone, former Motorola VicePresident Martin Cooper madethe first private, practical mobilephone call in a non-vehiclesetting. Who'd he call? His rivalat Bell Labs, Joel S. Engel.


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WonderHowTo

1982

With the impressive size of theDynaTAC prototype, it'sdisappointing to see Nokia'sMobira Senator weighing in at 22pounds.

It launched during the world'sfirst fully automatic internationalcellular serviceNMTthefirst-generation (1G) of mobilecommunications.

1983

10 years later after theprototype, Motorola's DynaTACcellular phone was madeavailable to the public, weighingunder 2 pounds, but costingnearly $4,000 (almost $9,000today)which is why it wasstrictly for the Gordon Gekkos ofthe world. It worked on AMPS,North America's first 1G analogservice, launched first byAmeritech in Chicago.


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WonderHowTo

1984

Back to larger mobile devices,the Mobira Talkman broughtlonger talk time at cheaper costs.The DynaTAC could onlymanage 60 minutes of talk time,but this miniature beast gavehours or voice-to-voicecommunication.

1989

Next up was Motorola'sMicroTAC, which introduced thefirst flip phone design. Thehardware was place in a hingedsection of the phone, reducingthe phone's size when not in use.It was truly the world's firstpocket phone.


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1992

The Motorola International 3200became the first hand-sizeddigital mobile phone that used2G digitally encryptedtechnology (unveiled in 1991 asGSM).


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1993

Perhaps the world's firstsmartphone, IBM Simon was amobile phone, pager, faxmachine and PDA, all rolled intoone.

It included a calendar, addressbook, clock, calculator, notepad,email, gamers and a touchscreenwith QWERTY keyboard. Itoriginally sold for $899, whichwould be just over $1,300nowadays.

You may remember Simon fromSandra Bullock's The Net.


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WonderHowTo

1994

Car phones remained popular,despite their smaller pocket-sizedversions, but Motorola's BagPhone (2900) was the car phoneto have due to its long talk time,great battery life and superiorsignal range.

They first worked with 1Gnetworks, but eventually crossedover into 2G territory.

1996

Still shrinking the line of TACs,Motorola unveiled the firstclamshell mobile phone withStarTAC. It improved the foldingfeature by collapsing in half,which is why it's called"clamshell"because itresembles a clam opening andclosing shut. It ran on 1Gnetworks, but eventually crossedover into the world of 2G.

It's said to be inspired by thecommunicator from the originalStar Trek series.


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WonderHowTo

1997

The Simon was good, but theNokia 9000 Communicator waswhat really brought on thesmartphone era. It was the firstcell phone that could also becalled a mini-computer (though ithad limited web access).

When opened, the longwaysclamshell design revealed anLCD screen and full QWERTYkeyboardthe first on a mobilephone.

1998

The Nokia 8810 was the first cellphone without an externalantenna whip or stub-antenna,possibly paving the way foriPhones and DROIDs. It alsomade mobile phones moreaesthetically pleasing, with itssliding keypad cover.


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WonderHowTo

1999

One of the most popular mobilephones in history was the Nokia3210, with over 160 million sold.It was one of the first to allowpicture messages, but onlypreinstalled ones like "HappyBirthda,y" and was one of thefirst to be marketing towardyoung people.

1999

Nokia's 7110 was the first cellphone to incorporate WirelessApplication Protocol (WAP),which gave mobile users webaccess for simple devicesastripped-down, mostly textversion, but a revolutionary stepfor mobile internet.


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1999

GeoSentric was responsible forthe world's first mobile phoneand a GPS navigator integratedin one productthe BenefonEsc! It was splashproof,greyscale, and allowed users toload maps to trace position andmovement.


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1999

In Japan, Kyocera's Visual Phone(VP-201) was the first to have abuilt-in camera, but it wasdesigned primarily as apeer-to-peer video phone, asopposed to Sharp's the nextyear...


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WonderHowTo

2000

Sharp was first to the cameraphone market with their J-SH04(J-Phone), released by J-Mobilein Japan. It offered a mere 0.1megapixel resolution.

Some like to give credit toOlympus for being the firstcamera to transmit digital imagesover a cellular network with theirDeltis VC-1100. Others preferPhilippe Kahn's story of riggingup a camera to a cell phone withwires to send images of hisnewborn baby.

But the J-SH04 was the firstcommercially available cellphone to have an integrated CCD sensor, with the Sha-Mail (Picture-Mail) infrastructure. This wasthe start of what we know as MMS.

See more: From Backpack Transceiver to Smartphone: A Visual History of the Mobile Phone How-To News http://www.wonderhowto.com/news/wonderment/from-backpack-transceiver-smartphone-visual-history-mobile-phone-0127134/#ixzz1La40vQTO

2002

Not too far from the J-Phone, theSanyo 5300 from Sprint was thefirst camera phone sold in NorthAmerica.


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WonderHowTo

2002

RIM's BlackBerry 5810 wasn'tthe first BlackBerry device, butit was the first to incorporate amobile phone into their popularbrand of data-only devices.

Professionals who neededimmediate access to their emailsand schedules were the maintarget for RIM, but the built-inphone made it appealing toeveryone. The downside? Nospeaker or microphone.

2002

One of the first phones to equipa fully functional webexperience and integrate aninstant messaging client (AIM)was the Danger Hiptop in 2002,later re-branded the T-MobileSidekick.

Its messaging features andkeyboard made it one of the bestselling phones in the deafcommunity. Also new was anLCD screen that rotated andflipped to reveal a largeQWERTY keyboard.


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2002

Perhaps surpassing theBlackBerry achievements,Microsoft's Pocket PC PhoneEdition started spreading acrossPDAs like wildfire, including theHP Jornada 928 Wireless DigitalAssistant, combining the best ofthe PDA with integrated wirelessvoice and data capabilities.

It was a nice addition to theolder Windows Mobile Classicdevices, which essential ran amini-version of Windows XP.


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WonderHowTo

2002

Another PDA adding phonesupport was Palm's Treo 180 byHandspring, running the PalmOS.

2004

The next highly popular devicewas a camera phone called theMotorola RAZR, which was firstmarketed as a "fashion" phone in2004, selling 50 million units bymid-2006.

It helped give cell phones a newlook, which were getting stalewith the same ol' boring designs.Though nothing revolutionary, itslooks did more than impress.


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WonderHowTo

2005

The first Palm smartphone tooperate outside of the Palm OSwas the Treo 700w, powered byWindows Mobile. It was a greatalternative for users who neededaccess to Microsoft software onthe go.

2005

Believe it or not, the iPhonewasn't the first cell phone tohave Apple's iTunes music playerintegrated. It was the MotorolaROKR E1, but it only couldmanage 100 songs at a timenotquite the same as an iPhone...


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WonderHowTo

2007

In 2007, Steve Jobs introducedthe Apple iPhone, arevolutionary touchscreensmartphone. It wasn't the firstsmartphone, but it was the firstto get the user interface right,eventually adapting 3Gtechnology (which was alreadyavailable since 2001).

2008

The first smartphone to runGoogle's Android OS was theHTC Dream slider smartphone.It featured a QWERTYkeyboard, full HTML webbrowser, Gmail, YouTube andmore, and paved the way forphones like the Nexus One andMotorola DROID.


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Ellis Hamburger, Business Insider

2010

The HTC EVO 4G from Sprintwas the first cellular phone tomeet 4G standards, running onthe WiMAX network. It was soldpowered by Android 2.1 and hadone of the largest touchscreendisplays, an 8MP camera, HDvideo capture, HDMI output,Mobile Hotspot capability andHTC Sense.

2011...

Everything YouNeed To KnowAbout Samsung'sInfuse 4G

* Copyright 2015 Business Insider Inc. All rights reserved.


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a visual history of the mobile phone - business insider

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