The evolution of the mobile phone

It’s hard to image a life without mobile phones and yet, they have only been available for a relatively short period of time.

A brief history of mobile phones

In 1973, the first mobile device emerged from the Motorola labs, weighing nearly 4kg, taking 10 hours to charge and allowing only 30 minutes of talk time. This was just the beginning of what was to become one of the biggest technology advances in the world.

From the eighties to the nineties, phones progressively got smaller. Looking back at the images of phones in the 1980s conjures images of large, bulky phones with long impractical aerials. The 1990s signified a move to a sleeker, more pocket friendly option.

Cell phones in the 1990s to 2000s

Who can forget the faithful Nokia 3310? The seemly indestructible phone known to many! Flip phones and phones with keypads began to become more popular in the late nineties and early 2000s. 

In 2007, a phone came along that would change technology as we know it. The iPhone was launched on June 29th 2007. The iPhone was just the beginning of the mass move to smartphone devices.

With seemly unlimited capabilities and new apps being developed daily, the phone of the moment is undoubtedly the smartphone. In the first quarter of 2017, over 336 million smartphones were sold and sales continued to rise as more affordable options are launched in the developing world.

Mobile phones today

The look and feel of smartphones has arguably come full circle by in some ways mimicking earlier models, with a move to larger (but noticeably thinner) devices. Screens in many cases are becoming bigger and bigger, with ‘phablets’ (phone/tablet hybrids) becoming ever popular.

As devices become more powerful, process information faster and have better cameras, the battery life must keep up with these improvements too. Today, we're seeing some phones capably browse the internet for 16 hours non-stop.. that's a lot of likes!