It seems that these days we really take the SmartPhone for granted.\u00a0 Rather than appreciating the incredible technologies we have in our hands, we are always waiting for the newer, better thing to be released.\u00a0 With that in mind, might it be interesting to take a trip back in time to see where mobile technology started and how it got to where we are today\u2026<\/p>\n
The first commercial mobile phone was released in 1983 by Motorola.\u00a0 The DynaTAC 8000X was nothing like the mobile and smart phones we are used to seeing on the market today.\u00a0 It was big, had only about 6 hours of battery life, and could only store 30 phone numbers.\u00a0 It was used essentially only for making phone calls and cost around $4000!<\/p>\n
Over the last three decades we have seen an incredible growth in the mobile phone industry.\u00a0 Radiolinja (a Finnish company, now Elisa) enabled the first commercial mobile call in 1991, and the first data enabled call in 1993 (2G network)\u00a0on a Nokia handset.<\/p>\n
An interesting first appearance\u00a0of a cellular device with more than just calling capabilities\u00a0was the IBM Simon, released in 1994.\u00a0 This device was phone, email, and fax capable, and came with a number of set features such as an alarm and calendar, among others.\u00a0 This device could also be connected to regular phone jack<\/em> to make calls.\u00a0 Unfortunately for IBM, this device stayed on the market for less than a year.<\/p>\n A few years later\u00a0Nokia released the first handset with a full QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia 9000i Communicator.\u00a0 This device allowed for the integration of text messaging into the world of mobile telephony.<\/p>\n