Here, we take a stroll down memory lane to chart the evolution of the mobile phone, from its humble beginnings with the Motorola DynaTAC in 1983 to the Apple iPhone 3GS in 2009!
Touchscreen: IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
The IBM Simon Personal Communicator was one of the first attempts at a commercially viable smartphone.
A joint venture between IBM and Bellsouth, the Simon was only sold in the US and was best known for having no physical keys. It used a touchscreen and optional stylus to perform the majority of its functions, which included dialling phone numbers, sending faxes and writing memos.
It was priced at $899 (£564) when it launched.
First flip phone: Motorola StarTAC (1996)
Motorola were once well known for game changing designs in the mobile world and the StarTAC was one of the first examples.
The world's first flip phone, the StarTAC was one of the first fashion phones, combining a lightweight and compact frame with its basic phone features.
Despite launching over a decade ago, the StarTAC is smaller and lighter than many current mobile phones and smartphones.
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NEXT PAGE: Nokia's 9000 and 5110
- We look at just how the mobile phone has evolved
- Nokia's Mobira Cityman 900 and the first GSM phone
- The first smartphone and Motorola opens the world of flip
- Nokia's 9000 and 5110
- Snap happy
- The Palm Treo 600 and the Nokia N-Gage
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboards and a razor-thin phone
- Motorola's ROKR E1 and the MOTOFONE F3
- Touchscreen's and 3x optical zoom on phones
- Google Android and Palm's resurection
Comments
Stephen T said: As a matter of public record the Nokias 101 was not the worlds first commercially available GSM mobile phone WWWGSMHistorycom has the official list of all GSM mobiles type-approved in 1992 The Motorola International 3200 was approved on the 3rd Sept 1992 whereas the Nokia 1011 was not approved until the 14th October 1992 A more reasonable claim for the Nokia 1011 is that it was Nokias first GSM hand portable and began the competitive race that Nokia ended up winning
Michael W said: Ive still got both my DynaTAC based phonethe Motorola 8500x and my Nokia 9000The Motorola had superb clarity whilst the Nokia was a real work tool with texts fax and email but a battery life of only 12 hoursI wont throw them awaythey are real life ornaments -