Take a sneak peek....

When I was in school, I really enjoy History lesson especially learning about the world history or civilization, inventors and their inventions and even ancient history. At first I wanted to become and archaeologist or historian but I could not see the bright prospect of career in those field in Malaysia. Most of my friends found History as a very boring subject while I found it very interesting. In my opinion, in the ancient history, the nature of competition is the maximization and utilization of abundance resources to build an unforgettable kingdom or civilization whereas in the modern history, human struggle for power, political and economical control due to the diminishing of resources in the world.

When talking about the history of telephone, I am sure that everybody knows the first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 19th century (year 1876). At that point of time, telephone was defined as: " An instrument which converts sound, specifically the human voice, to electrical impulses of various frequencies and then back to a tone that sounds like the original voice." Today, in the 21st Century, telephone still exist and has evolved and expanded from its original definition and functions.

Since it was first invented in the 19th century, telephone has evolved from wired phone into cell-phones. The development of cell-phones began in the early of 20th century and now in the 21st century, cell-phone has extended beyond what could have been imagined in the 19th century. Here, I would like to share the history of cell-phone in brief. Let us take a sneak peek of the history!

19th CENTURY

Sir Alexander Graham Bell – The Inventor of telephone

This is the original invention by Sir Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. 

In the early 20th Century, Candlestick (wired telephone)  telephone was widely used.

According to the www.businessdictionary.com, Cellular Phone (Cell-phone) is defined as Small wireless device that has at least the same functions of a standard wired telephone but is smaller and more mobile. A cell phone requires a subscription to a service provider and requires either a prepaid or monthly billing setup. Generally, they have more functions than traditional land lines and need to be charged after a period of time. Also called mobile phone or mobile device.

The development of cell-phone began somewhere in 1930's.

Year 1930's.

SCR 194 and SCR 195 - Used by the Army in the World War II era. Weight about 25 pounds.

Year 1940s

i. SCR-300 Radio transceiver developed for US Military by Motorola. Weight 32 to 38 pound.

ii.  SCR-536, the first handie talkie produced by Motorola, weight about 5 pound.

iii.  First commercial mobile telephone service (Mobile Telephone System) intended use for utilities, truck fleet operators and reporters. Weight about 80 pound.

Year 1950's

Developed by Erickson called Ericson Mobile System (MTA), mobile system designed for automobiles, first used in Sweden.

Year 1960's 

Improved Mobile Telephone Service (MTS), designed for automobiles/ Developed by Motorola, weight about 40 pound.

Year 1970's 

Prototype of DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) portable phone developed by Motorola.

Year 1980's

i. Nokia Mobira Senator, weight about 22 pound.

ii. Motorola's DynaTAC cellular phone, developed after 10 years of it's prototype in 1973. Weight 2 pounds and expensive.

iii. Motorola's MicroTAC - First flip phone design and world's first pocket phone.

Year 1990's

There have been tremendous development of cell-phone in the 90's. I think, the 90's marks the beginning of fierce competition in the communication technology business.

1992 - The Motorola International 3200, first 2G technology hand-sized GSM mobile phone.

1993 - IBM Simon was a mobile smart phone.

1994 : Motorola's Bag Phone (2900) was the car phone.

1996 : Motorola StarTAC, the first clamshell mobile phone.

1997 : Nokia 9000 Communicator, the earlier type of smart phone.

1998 : The Nokia 8810 was the first cell phone without an external antenna.

1999 : Popular Nokia cell phone, Nokia 3210, with over 160 million sold.

2. Nokia 7710 with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

Benefon ESC! by Geo Centric. World first to combine mobile phone and GPS.

Japan Kyocera Visual Phone (VP-210), with built in camera video phone.

21st CENTURY

Year 2000

i. 2000 - Sharp J-SH04 (J-Phone), the first camera phone in the market.

ii. Sanyo 5300 - 1st camera phone sold in North America

iii. RIM's BlackBerry 5810, the first data device which incorporate with mobile phone.

iv. First known as Danger Hiptop in 2002, later re-branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick.

v. PDA Phones

Camera Phones

i. Motorola RZR

ii. First Palm smartphone named Treo 700w,

iii. Motorola ROKR E1, the first phone to have integrated music player (not Apple iPhone!!)

iv. Everyone know this revolutionary touch-screen smart phone, Apple iPhone, developed by Steve Jobs in 2007.

v. Coming next in 2008 - Google's Android OS called HTC Drea.

vi. 2010 - HTC EVO 4G from Sprint was the first cellular phone to meet 4G standards, running on the WiMAX network.

vii. 2011 - Samsung Infuse 4G 

viii. Expected launch in 2012 - Apple iPhone 5

It is amazing how telephone, a communication device has evolved since the 19th century. What we see and have today, might have not been imagined in the 19th century. Can we imagine how the communication device (cell-phone) will be in 100 years from now? See some awesome pictures of futuristic idea of cell-phone.

Source :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelephone7.htm

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/albell/homepage.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/complete-visual-history-of-cell-phones-2011-5#1938-1