The Evolution of Cell Phones

DynaTAC Prototype

1973

With a prototype of DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage (DynaTAC) Motorola Vice President, Martin Cooper, made first mobile call to his rival Joel S. Engel from Bell Labs

Mobira Senator

1982

[Nokia developed the, Mobira Senator,
world's first fully automaticinternational cellular service. It weighed 22 lbs.]

DynaTAC available to public

1983

Motorola's DynaTAC was made public, weighed under 2 lbs and cosyt about $4,00

Mobira Talkman

1984

Although bigger it brought longer talk time (hours of talk vs. DynaTAC’s 60 minutes) at a more affordable price

Motorola's MicroTAC

1989

This was the first flip phone design and the first pocket phone.

Motorola International 3200

1992

[Was the first hand-sized digital mobile phone to use 2G.]

IBM SIMON

1993

This was the first smart phone. It was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine, and PDA

Motorola's Bag Phone 2900

1994

Motorola's Bag Phone 2900 was the car phone to have due to it’s longer battery life, long talk time, and great signal. It was originally made a 1G but later was available as a 2G

StarTAC

1996

StarTAC by Motorola was the first phone that was able to fold in half and was also known as the “clamshell”. This phone ran on 1G and later became 2G

Nokia 9000 Communicator

1997

Nokia 9000 Communicator, first cell phone that was also called a mini-computer. It also had a fell keyboard.

Nokia 8810

1998

Nokia 8810 first cell phone that did not have an external antenna, paving the way for today’s smart phones. It also had a sliding keyboard.

Nokia 3210

1999

Nokia 3210, the most popular cell phone in history and also one of the firsts to allow (preinstalled) picture messages.

J-SH04

2000

Sharp’s J-SH04 camera phone with a o.1 megapixel resolution and this again allowed picture messages; sold only in Japan

PDAs and Camera Phones

2002

This year brought many firsts from camera phones (first in USA), to built-in data devices, instant messaging client (AIM), & PDAs

Motorola RAZAR

2004

[Motorola RAZAR, first to be marketed as a “fashion phone”, selling 50 million by mid- 2006] (https://youtu.be/-JpSsRstlPw)

Motorola ROKR E1

2005

[Motorola ROKR E1 First cell phone to have Apple’s iTunes music player integrated and could have a max of 100 songs.] (https://youtu.be/LSa_oZZufB4)

Apple's iPhone

2007

Steve Job’s introduced the Apple iPhone a smartphone with a touchscreen. It also had a working user interface and was 3G.

iPhone 3G

Jul 11, 2008

The iPhone 3G was also launched and included GPS.

HTC Dream Slider

Sep 23, 2008

HTC Dream Slider smartphone was the first to run Google’s Android OS. This year also marked the beginning of Apple’s App Store and Android’s Market (later called Google Play Store).

Galaxy S

2010

Samsung launched first Galaxy S Smartphone, the beginning of the most popular Android.

iPhone 5

2012

[iPhone 5 was launched and included a front-facing camera along with a rear camera.]

Xperia Z

2013

Sony launched, Xperia Z, the first ever waterproof phone.