Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell

1876

First telephone ever created.

Thomas Edison

1885

Thomas Edison improved Bell's telephone by making a carbon microphone making it more practical. His basic design was used until the 1980's.

Rotary Phone

1904

The first commonly available rotary phone with holes in the finger wheel was introduced in 1904.

Model 302 - Bell System

1937

The first phone to not have a connected dial block. It was made out of molded thermoplastic

Caller ID

1976

Kazuo Hashimoto was credited with the invention of caller ID in 1976. Caller ID did not hit the markets until 1980.

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

1984

Motorola made the first handheld cell phone in 1973 but it was not launched until 1984.

IBM Simon

1992

First touchscreen and smartphone. Simon was also able to send and receive faxes, e-mails and cellular pages.

The Hagenuk GlobalHandy

1997

First cell phone with no visible antenna.

Nokia 9000i Communicator

1997

First phone to support user sending of SMS text messgaes and to have access to the internet.

Kyocera VP-210

1999

First phone that let people take pictures.

Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar

1999

First cell phone to have MP3 music capabilities.

Pantech GI 100

2004

First phone to use a fingerprint scanner.

IPhone X

2017

First phone to use the facial regonition feature with a smartphone.