Mobile phone evolution

Mobile Phones

By maddison.rutherford

  • First Words Spoken Through Telephone

    Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words into a telephone

  • Candlestick

    Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s, the candlestick phone was separated into two pieces.

  • Rotary

    Rotary
    Invented by John and Charles Erickson, and their partner A.E. Keith, in 1896.

  • Answering Machine

    The answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to leave a message if no one was on the other end.

  • Push-Button

    In 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls

  • Portable Phones

    Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote. You were no longer physically attached to your phone’s base station.

  • 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 call ever 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.

  • 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.

  • Sanyo SCP–5300

    Released in 2003, the Sanyo SCP–5300 was one of the first phones to include a camera. It was already clear that digital cameras would replace film cameras, but it wasn’t clear that a camera could fit in a phone.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • IPhone and Android

    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.