History of the Cellular Phone
The cellular phone has come a long way since the days when you would see a businessman trying to look hip and cool while talking into something, the size and weight of a cinder block. It was as convenient as carrying a phone booth around with you and ridiculously expensive. The cellular phone network of the time was not that extensive and the service unreliable.
I certainly wouldn’t have predicted that by now there would be more mobile phones than people in some countries. They have made the transition from luxury item for techno geeks to something that you wouldn’t leave the house without. Despite protests, cell phone masts have sprung up everywhere and we have come to expect to be able to keep in touch almost wherever we are.
In the past, you might have been grateful to get a signal and be able to talk, but very much more is expected these days. You don’t just text; you take a picture or a video and send a multimedia message. You can carry your music with you and have your favorite track as your ringtone. Want to check your email? No problem.
It used to be said that a modern car has more computing power than the Apollo spacecraft that went to the moon. Now you can hold in your hand, power that they couldn’t have dreamy of. You can have a Windows operating system and office applications and even mobile broadband on your cell phone. A far cry from it’s origins.
The history of the cellular phone can be traced to the year 1908 when a US patent was issued in the name of Nathan B. Stubblefield for what he termed as a ‘cave radio’ telephone. In the year 1947, the first cells that would later be used in cellular phones were invented by an engineer working at Bell Labs.
Other instances of the use of radio-phones have been known with an invention by Reginald Fessenden having been used throughout the Second World War. However, the hand-held cellular phone only came to be used in the year 1973. Since then, given the low costs involved, the cellular phone has been rapidly deployed and mobile phone networks too have mushroomed. In fact, the cellular phone today is much more popular than the conventional landline phones that for long were the main devices used for voice communication.
Despite the fact that just about everybody has a cellular phone, or more than one, companies that manufacture them continue to flourish, bringing out a constant stream of new models. Today, Nokia of Finland is producing the most handsets, with an estimated market share of 40% for 2008. They will need to stay on their toes though, as the race to innovate grows ever hotter.