It started with the 2-Way

Ever since the early days of the two-way phone, we have been fascinated with the ability to communicate with each other from remote locations. “Mobileers” as they were affectionately referred to made the two-way the first popular mobile device ever. It originally was installed in automobiles then we felt the need to be well..mobile. Around the early 1950′s we had our first signs of phones that were actually mobile. This sparked a new trend with the “bag phone”, a phone that you can detach and attach to your car through the cigarette car lighter, Motorola’s first mobile effort spawned the “walkie-talkie” and it became very popular as a mobile way of communication. All these new inventions made one realization clear: the mainstream loves to stay in touch.

The first mobile phone

The first commercial mobile phone arrived in 1981. It came in the form of the “Motorola Dynex 8000X”. Sure it was almost as big as a VCR, but hey you could call from anywhere and that had many excited. This phone spawned an array of copycats in the 1st Generation of mobile phones. It wasn’t until the 1990′s that the second generation of smaller, & more powerful mobile phones arrived. The new breed was here.

“2G”

With the new generation of phones came a new generation of radiowaves that could carry their cellular signals. These Second Generation radios aka “2G” were: GSM, CDMA, & TDMA (to name a few). These new phone systems had the capability to process faster transmissions and phone to network signaling. The newer systems also meant that newer phones were smaller and faster than the previous gen due to battery and energy efficient advances in the mobile phone industry. These new smaller phones became standard and the “brick” phone soon become a forgone memory.

Present Day

Nowadays, we are pretty much spoiled with choices. NTT DoComo was the first to market with “3G” networks in Japan on October 1, 2001. The U.S. was soon to follow. The “3G” networks are blazingly fast compared to previous networks. Our mobile phone experience has dramatically changed as well. In fact, some insiders are now calling the modern day mobile phone a “convergence device” . This term was previously coined by the guy behind the game-changing Apple Iphone: Steve Jobs. The reason it’s being labeled as such is the fact that we can now surf the web, watch TV, voice-navigate our road trips, create a resume, film videos, take pics and (did I mention) make phone calls with our new touch-screen mobile phones. Yes, we’ve come a long way since the two-way. Ahh the wonders of technology.