History of the Cellphone

7/26/2019 History of the Cellphone

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Telephones have changed dramatically since Alexander Graham Bell spoke

the first words into a telephone on March 10, 1876. Overall, theyve

improved since then, but the road wasnt always smooth. Heres a look back

at the most important advances in telephone technology and some of the

worst.

The original phone

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his device and said

to his assistant, Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you. In doing so,

Bell launched the telephone era with the first bi-directional electronic

transmission of the spoken word. At least that is how the story typically goes.

While Bell received the first patent for a telephone, theorigin of the
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telephoneis complicated and inconclusive, with Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci

of Italy, and Innocenzo Manzetti each claiming to be the phones true

inventor.

Candlestick

Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s, the candlestick phone was separated

into two pieces. The mouth piece formed the candlestick part, and the

receiver was placed by your ear during the phone call. This style died out in
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the 30s when phone manufacturers started combining the mouth piece and

receiver into a single unit. Thankfully.

Rotary

The rotary phone became popular. To dial, you would rotate the dial to the

number you wanted, and then release. Based on my limited interaction with

rotary dial phones, this must have been incredibly tedious. As push-button

phones gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s, the rotary dial phone

thankfully began its slow death.
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Push-button

In 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a

keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls. Each key would transmit a

certain frequency, signaling to the telephone operator which number you

wanted to call. While much better than the rotary dial, these dial tones were

subject to spoofing by what were called blue boxes. Using a blue box, you

could make free long-distance phone calls.
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Answering machine

The answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to

leave a message if no one was on the other end. Not popular until the1960s, these phone accessories originally used cassette tapes to record

messages. In the past 15 years, digital answering machines replaced the

miniature cassette tapes, and in the past 10 years, we all just use our cell

phones voicemail.
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Portable phones

Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote.

You were no longer physically attached to your phones base station.

Beginning in the 1980s, portable phones were like a small-scale cell phone.

You could talk on your phone anywhere in your house. Now that you can talkon your phone anywhere in the world, portable phones seem quaint. But at

the time, a well-placed portable phone could save you a trip across the

house.
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Motorola DynaTAC

Released in 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially

available mobile phone. In 1973, Martin Cooper made the first cell phone callever with a predecessor of this beast. At 1.75 pounds, this phone had 30

minutes of talk time and cost a not-so-modest $3,995.
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Nokia 5110

One of many classic Nokia candybar-style phones, the Nokia 5110 was

rugged and had a long battery life. More importantly, you could

playSnakeon its 47 84 pixel screen. The 5110 was also customizable,with replaceable face plates.
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Caller ID

There was a time when you had to remember peoples telephone numbers.

And then came Caller ID. You could now decide whether that phone call was

worth answering or whether you could just send them to voicemail. Now

standard, Caller ID changed the way we used telephones.
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Motorola StarTAC

The Motorola StarTAC was the first successful flip phone, and in many

ways, the first successful consumer cell phone. Introduced in 1996, Motorola

eventually sold 60 million StarTACs. Weighing in at just 3.1 ounces, andcombined with its innovative clamshell design, the StarTAC was a milestone

in the trend toward smaller and smaller cell phones.
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Sanyo SCP5300

Released in 2003, the Sanyo SCP5300 was one of the first phones to

include a camera. It was already clear that digital cameras would replace

film cameras, but it wasnt clear that a camera could fit in a phone. By

todays standards, the SCP5300s camera is pathetic. The SCP5300

could take 640 480 pixel photos and store 10 to 15 of them. It had a built-

in flash with a range of only three feet. Still, this phone broke ground, and

today it is clear how central cameras are to our phones.
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Palm Treo

With the Treo, Palm expanded its popular PDA line to become one of the

first smartphones. The Treo looked very similar to Blackberrys phones, with

a tiny keyboard at the bottom. The Treo ran Palm OS, and like many leading

phones at the time, began to lose its appeal after the introduction of

touchscreen smartphones. In 2009, the Treo was replaced with the Palm

Pre, Palms failed response to the iPhone.
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Motorola RAZR

The Motorola RAZR represented the culmination of the flip phone. Unable or

unwilling to experiment with new designs, mobile phone companies

continued their push for smaller and smaller phones. With the RAZR,

Motorola perfected the flip phone design. At just 0.54 inches thin, the RAZR

was as much a fashion device as a cell phone. Announced in 2004, Motorola

would eventually sell 130 million RAZRs. However, the RAZRs popularity

rapidly declined in the face of a new generation of touchscreen

smartphones.
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BlackBerry

Canadian-based Research in Motion, now BlackBerry, was by far the

leading smartphone manufacturer in the 2000s. With their advanced email

capabilities, BlackBerry Messenger, and physical keyboards, BlackBerry

smartphones were the ultimate business phone. When the iPhone was

announced in 2007, many BlackBerry fans scoffed at its lack of a physical

keyboard. Now that touchscreen smartphones have proved themselves

worthy, BlackBerry has fallen rapidly, with many failed attempts at

touchscreen smartphones, and is currently struggling to survive.
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iPhone and Android

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to

the masses. With its intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek

design, the iPhone has been an incredible success. The iPhone quickly

showed just how clunky previous smartphones and flip phones were. While

initially lacking some basic features such as copy-and-paste, the iPhone has

consistently improved with annual updates to both its hardware and software

and runs a mobile-optimized version of OS X, the companys desktop

computing operating system.
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Then a year later, the Android juggernaut would begin its climb to the top.Founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Android sought to create a modern

operating system that would compete with Windows Mobile, Symbian, and

BlackBerry. Google bought Android in 2005, and in November 2007,

unveiled the Android operating system. The first Android phone, theHTC

Dream,was launched almost a year later in October 2008. Android has

adapted to its competition, developing an app-based operating system for

touchscreens. Android has certainly improved since its clunky early days

and is now the leading alternative to Apples iOS.
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History of the Cellphone

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