The drastic evolution of cell phones

Did you know that the DynaTAC, the first-ever commercial mobile phone, was introduced in 1983? At the time it cost a whopping $3,995, or roughly $10,400 when adjusted to the inflation in 2021 dollars, so it was only reserved for the ultra-rich. How did we come to today where cell phones are accessible to nearly everyone?

It all began in the ’90s when further advancements in cellular network technology, namely the transition from analog to digital technology, started to make cell phones more accessible. Going from mobile radio telephone tech to the GSM standard was a significant step forward.

That’s also around the time that text messages appeared. This was a huge and popular innovation. Cell phones started to be designed with bigger displays to ensure text messages were readable and users could also download custom ringtones, and sometimes, even play simple games on their phones.

Then came the 2000s where the leap from 2G to 2.75G wireless networks led to massive improvements in speed. Now, users could send each other music, photos, and even video. This was no small improvement and it would soon lead to the introduction of the smartphones which we all love and use today such as the foldable, stretchable, and even flip phone. What happened next?

We won’t tell you here. Instead, we will let you watch the video to find out this and many more details on how cell phones evolved and developed over time: In other words, the full history of cell phones. It’s a tale that will keep you riveted and entertained and makes for a great dinner conversation.

#engineering

[italianalcapone]

We are the generations which saw the mobile phone evolution and internet evolution both. 😀

[JRPGGUY]

I'm old enough to remember the old nokia bricks and motorola razr. Man I old

[frequentlycynical]

That "2nd generation" was a whole new technology that went past becoming digital. It was called PCS, Personal Communications Services, PCS opened up new bands and competition. The old analog AMPS services had only two carriers in any region, the A and the B!

[mezoaro]

I was born in 2006 (I'm almost 18 now) and I remember playing Tetris on my dad's flip phone that didn't have a qwerty keyboard but just a number pad. My mother had a phone with a qwerty keyboard but no touch screen. At some point, my dad upgraded to a Samsung s6, and then he upgraded to the still usable s9 and gave his s6 to me, my first phone. Since then I have upgraded to a Samsung A10e, then a Samsung S10e, and now finally my S22. The evolution of mobile phones is fascinating.

[eyadsultan]

With instagram models and social media Im actually wishing we can go back to the world before the touch screen and camera phones .I cant be the only one.

[PaulSmith-ttcy]

The blackberry keyboard was perfect. The phone was indestructible.

[HardwiredZ]

I miss the variety of phones you could choose back before I-phone and the touch-screen phones took over. And they were all pretty small too which was nice. The last phones I had were the S4 Mini and now the Iphone 12 mini

[dCash]

Omg can you imagine the crazies when they hear 6G

[OmegaWolf]

My first ever cell phone was a little silver Samsung flip on Sprint in 2003. The thing didn't even have a camera, but it could text and use the Net. To me, it was space age. Since 2010, I've been a fan of Android and anticipate its continued evolution.

[TinaLouise]

The BlackBerry phone was a good phone imo I had one and it worked better then my current smartphone does!

[God-mxnx]

У меня НЕТ мобильного телефона! А у кого он есть, НЕ всегда берут его с собой!

[sfuhnnd]

OH MY GOSH! 1983 1987! Its jus tlike freddy fnaf baz bear

[lauraeva]

By 2006 we had a huge arrays of pocket PDAs.

I had an HP ipaq rx1950 which had colour screen and touch stylus and ran Windows mobile. I used it mainly for music listening with headphones as it connected to early web radio.

(Had an Ericsson phone with OK camera too ...)

It wasn't really a great innovation to combine this with a phone and capacitive touch screen to give the first iPhone ...

I first encountered the first iPhone in late 2007 when an American was showing it off in a local London pub...

By 2010 I had a HTC Desire which ran Android 2.0, primitive but deemed better than Apple at the time !

[tae-yunlee]

I miss the simple times around '04-'08

[JewLorad]

i remember iphone and i love apple and window pcs

[williamjones]

What if you want a phone just to make phone calls? What a retro concept.

[RileyElectricalWorks]

iPhone took a huge step backward by removing the head phone jack. I ask myself, "how can a company completely change the music industry and not provide a head phone jack." And no wide angle lens.

[prasadkadu]

That's what good research and development do .. over years and high demand ..

[benjaminbrown]

I remember the time when everyone had a brick phone I was born in 1979 so I lived through the cell phone age. Kids today growing up haven’t had the chance to see the dark ages of cell phones and overage charges on their bill like i have and many others probably on this comment feed. I remember when people would have a cell phone with them and a pager. Back in the true days of the cell phone people would even still have a land line. They would say. “Don’t call me on my cell unless it was an emergency. Call me on my land line.” I remember when everyone at one time had a Samsung gravity series phone. It is funny to think that not to long ago it seems like we all had also Nokia brick phones and then it went to flip phones. Then phones with qwerty keyboards on them. Wow. Also the smart phone many people think was the first iPhone which it was not. It was the I.B.M. Simon personal communicator. That came in 1992 to 1994 I believe. Smart phones back then heavily relied on a computer. You could not do anything without having to bee near a computer. Smart phones back in the day relied heavily on their computer companion. with the new iPhones and newer iPhone 15 series the phone is a computer. Even the first iPhone which was the iPhone 2g not iPhone 1 but iPhone 2g it needed a computer to work with it but those were the days that the iPhone would depend less and less on a computer. Even from the iPhone 5s to the 6 and 6 plus and its successor wow!!! Big changes. Now iPhone has and other smart phones have gotten so good now you don’t really have to upgrade every year and a lot of people don’t cause the phone is so complex. The cell phone really has gone out to pasture. We still call our phones cell phones but really they are computers with a phone app. Hell. You don’t even need a Mac if you don’t want it. The phone can turn into a computer. Just get a Bluetooth keyboard and you are good to go. Don’t have a printer? No problem. Use a Bluetooth printer. Our cell phones have taken the job out of computers and are if not better than computers that we use to have. Now days, you don’t even have to check with the bank on your computer. You can just access everything right their. You don’t have to finish a task when getting in the door form a long commute. Back in the old days of smart phones you would not even bee able to start or finish a work task cause the phone needed a computer. It was basically like a dumb phone but with some smarts. And people would say that the internet was the baby internet on the early smart phone. Now you have full access to internet. Our phones have gotten so advanced that they make a cell phone look sick. The things we can do on our phones these days are so foreign to the phones of the past. I can read my paper documents with my phone with voiceover take pictures even though I am blind. Yes. The phone helps with that. Check my bank deposit checks and more. I have access to my bank 24 7 with my iPhone. With the phones of the past that was not even thought of. I personally use my phone more like a computer than a phone. But the smart phone is loosing friendship with the computer. It has. If you doubled up on ringtones back then on an iPhone you would have to connect to a computer a Mac and search for the duplicates and then sink and send the one to iTunes. With the new iPhones you don’t have to do that at all. You can resink right from your phone now. If their are ringtones that you don’t want anymore you can resink just by tapping on one of the ringtones and clearing it. The phone is so powerful these days. You can even have conversations with your phone like a friend if you want now days. Back then in the day, people would think that you are nuts talking with a devise. People would think that that was weird and their is something wrong with you talking to a piece of glass. Now put Bluetooth headset on top of that and it really looks like you are talking to yourself but you are in fact talking to your phone. Back in the day people would think that you were nuts now days, it is normal to talk with your iPhone. It is perfectly normal. Your phone has become your assistant not just a smart phone. I think in some ways your phone can do more for you than your friends can and it won’t say no. Your phone acts in a very similar way as a human does. It works all day and in to the evening and then it needs to charge and sleep. Phones are actively taking on the role as your secretary and personal assistant. My iPhone does so much for me. From when I get up to when I go to bed. I can even as a blind user use my phone to read mail on paper. If I get letters or mail I can have my phone read it. I can even pay with Apple Pay food or what ever i want. You don’t even have to use your debit credit card anymore unless the place is still old fashioned. Your phone does all the work now. Paying in restraints restaurants sorry about that and other things. Bus tickets are purchased through the phone. Taking the bus every day practically for work and pleasure. I use my phone to pay. It is actually pretty creepy what your phone can do now days. I still have my first iPhone the 5s that I got. It doesn’t even do near as much as what today’s phone does. That is a piece of nostalgia though with the iPhone cause it had the first gen Touch ID. Now our phones are reading our faces not our fingers anymore. It is incredible. But the O.G. Cell phones never did that. All they did for us back then was take calls and texts. Even the iPhone 5s did wway more than that. I am glad that i kept an old iPhone. I still use it to this day although hardly any app works on it like back in 2013. That was a 2013 smart phone. Even speakers sounded way different. Back in 2013 they still sounded kind of metallic. The new phone these days sounds like a theater system. But back before iPhone wow!!! Their was so many variety of phones. T-mobile had flip phones like everyone else. As the years grew they did get the touch slide. The t-mobile my touch slide then the sidekick. Back in the flip phone days though they had free flip hones that the would give out. That was back in the day when carriers had still roll over minutes and weekend and night time minutes. You had to watch your minutes or you would get charged. You had unlimited nights and weekends after some hours. That now is a thing of the past though. Using the iPhone 5s though in 2023 it is very sluggish and it is painful doing simple tasks like unlocking it but that is why I kept it. It is a chore now for it to open it. It is a big deal to unlock it with your finger. It takes some seconds unlike the modern iPhone which looks at your face and quickly opens. Voiceover was way different too back in the day. Even Siri on the iPhone sounded different. The old iPhone still works but you have to keep it plugged in or else it will crash. And when you use it you get asked to update your apps but then when you do it won’t do it. It complains that the software is not compatible. So you just use what you can. It is really fun to see how slow it is and it really takes you back to its day. It gets kind of hot as it struggles to work. I still don’t know how that phone is still alive after 10 years. The iPhone 5s is going on 11 years or so and it still is working. You have to carry a charger with you if you take it out cause the battery sucks on that thing. Unlike the new iPhones these days you really don’t need anything to charge it. Cause the battery is a beast. The phone these days takes your work load with no flaw and problem. It’s nothing for your phone to bee put through hard work and at the end of the day it looks like you still never used have of your battery. The 5s is a 4 g phone but wow….. it is so so painfully slow. To use it. The iPhone 14 plus and iPhone 15 series are 5 g phones even the 12 and i think the 10 series but those are older iPhones… I love cell phones. I am a pianist but I just happen to love my tech..

[strkefction]

Nokia is an engineering Marvel in phone manufacturer ❤️