Sunday, 13 January 2013

A simplified history of the Mobile Phone

By John Freeman


Nowadays most people would be lost without their trusty mobile phone. It's the one thing that everyone takes when they leave their house. If you look at how recently these things came about, it is quite amazing how integrated this piece of equipment is to our modern day lives. Here in this article we will talk about their brief history, from the first phone to modern smartphones.

The Invention of the telephone

So who invented it and when was it invented? For the most part it is widely accepted that a Scot named Alexander Graham Bell got his patent on the first working telephone in the late 1800s, at around the same time the inventor Elisha Gray also put a patent in using similar technology. The quest for this technology came about in a replacement for the outdated Telegraph machine and as most prototypes it was made for practicality not appearances. The first phone call was simply Bell calling his assistant Watson, who was only fifteen feet away.

The first marketed Phone

The first phones for home use were very expensive so were only really used in wealthy households, of which their designs were over-elaborate and well suited to the Victorian period. Many of the first designs were a two piece handset consisting of a speaker and a microphone.

Phones on street corners

Public phone boxes were once a common sight in the UK and operated by the Post Office. They were revolutionary in their day, and are still iconic to date. But they had their everyday uses at the time many could not afford a phone in their own home. These soon became privatised and other companies had a slice of the market. The Police had their own phone boxes which were for police use only.

In Car Telephones

The first time phones took on a form of mobility they were used in cars. They had to be really as the amount of fittings essential for them to work had to be incorporated into the boot of a car. This technology will be looked back on and maybe laughed about by future generations, but it was a necessary step to get to where we are today

Mobile Phones

Early mobile technology was although state of the art, very awkward and weighty, although a step forward from their cousins contained in the cars boot. But still these beasts had to be carried around in a box the size of a briefcase which weighed a few kilos. They were also very expensive as the technology was in its early stages.

The second generation Mobiles

This new wave of mobile phones was smaller and relatively inexpensive compared to their first generation cousins. They soon became very popular and threatened to wipe out the use of landline technology in homes. These early mobile phones were very bulky and some of the first models are called 'bricks' because of their size and bulkiness.

Smart Phones

This new wave of phones has revolutionised the world really, and there is ferocious competition to be at the top of the market. Although touchscreen technology had been around for a while, this has now been integrated to the mobile phone market, along with cameras and internet capabilities as such they are much more than just phones.




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