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SCR-194 and 195
These devices were the first portable AM radios, used as walkie-talkie's in World War 2. These devices were created by the U.S. Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, NJ, and had about an 8 kilometer range. They weighed about 11 kilograms -
SCR-300
Next came the SCR-300 Radio Transceiver developed by the U.S. Military. This was a FM Radio that weighed anywhere between 14 and 18 kilograms with a 5 kilometer range. -
SCR-536
Motorola produced the first handheld walkie-talkie (handie-talkie) for the U.S. Military and Allied Forces. This handheld version completely replaced the previous two transceivers. It weighed at just 2 kilograms and had about a 1.5 kilometer land-range (5 kilometers over water). Moving away from military-grade portable radios, we get to the mobile radio telephones. -
Mobile Telephone System
Bell System introduced the first commercial telephone service. Weighing at 36 kilograms, the original equipment was extremely large. It also costed a lot of money, $37.85 a month (roughly $416.30 today). Not intended for everyday citizens, these devices were used by utilities, truck fleet operators, and reporters. -
Mobile System A
This device was the first partly automatic mobile system for automobiles. This extremely large unit weighed 40 kilograms. This device is equivalent to almost 300 iphones. -
Improbed Mobile Telephone System
This is a more advanced model of Bell's pre-cellular model. Auto owners saw lighter, more advanced mobile car phone with push buttons. This device weighed about 18 kilograms but still costed quite a lot. -
DynaTAC Prototype
With a prototype of the DynaTAC (DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) portable phone, former Motorola Vice President Martin Cooper made the first private, practical mobile phone call in a non-vehicle setting. -
Mobira Senator
This device was created by Nokia and weighed at 10 kilograms. This model was released during the world's first fully automatic international cellular service, the first generation of mobile communications. -
DynaTAC is Released
10 years later after the prototype, Motorola's DynaTAC cellular phone was made available to the public, weighing under 1 kilogram, but costing nearly $5,046 (almost $11,353.50 today). Definitely just for the rich people. -
Mobira Talkman
Back to larger mobile devices, the Mobira Talkman brought longer talk time at cheaper costs. The DynaTAC could only manage 60 minutes of talk time, but this miniature beast gave hours or voice-to-voice communication. -
Motorola MicroTAC
Next up was Motorola's MicroTAC, which introduced the first flip phone design. The hardware was place in a hinged section of the phone, reducing the phone's size when not in use. It was truly the world's first pocket phone. -
Motorola Internation 3200
The Motorola International 3200 became the first hand-sized digital mobile phone that used 2G digitally encrypted technology. -
IBM Simon
Perhaps the world's first smartphone, IBM Simon was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine and PDA, all rolled into one.
It included a calendar, address book, clock, calculator, notepad, email, gamers and a touchscreen with QWERTY keyboard. It originally sold for $1,134, which would be just over $1,639.95 nowadays. -
Motorola's Bag Phone
Car phones remained popular, despite their smaller pocket-sized versions, but Motorola's Bag Phone was the car phone to have due to its long talk time, great battery life and superior signal range. They first worked with 1G networks, but eventually crossed over into 2G territory -
StarTAC
Motorola unveiled the first clamshell mobile phone with StarTAC. It improved the folding feature by collapsing in half, which is why it's called 'clamshell' as it resembles a clam opening and closing shut. It ran on 1G networks, but eventually crossed over into the world of 2G. -
Nokia 9000 Communicator
If there was one phone that really brought on the smartphone era, it was the Nokia 9000 Communicator. Although it had limited web access, it was the first cell phone that could be called a mini computer. When this phone was opened up, it revealed an LCD screen and a QWERTY keyboard, the first on any mobile phone. -
Nokia 8810
This device definitely set the path for many of today phones as it was the first phone without an external antenna whip or stub-antenna. Its sliding keyboard cover made it a lot more pleasant to look at and use. -
Nokia 3210
Being one of the first phones to take photos, the Nokia 3210 was one of the most popular phones in history with over 160 million sold. -
Nokia 7110
This phones was the first to incorporate Wireless Application Control which gave mobile users wed access for simple devices, definitely a revolutionary step for mobile internet. -
J-Sh04
The company, Sharp, was the first camera phone market with their J-Sh04, released by J-Mobile in Japan. The J-SH04 was the first commercially available cell phone to have an integrated CCD sensor, with the Sha-Mail (Picture-Mail) infrastructure. -
Sanyo 5300
The Sanyo 5300 was the first camera phone sold in North America. -
Danger Hiptop
The Danger Hiptop was the first phone to equip fully functional web experience and integrate an instant messaging client. It messaging features and keyboard made it one of the best selling phones on the market. It had a LCD screen that rotated and flipped to reveal a QWERTY keypad. -
Motorola RAZR
The very next highly popular device was the Motorola RAZR, which when it was first put on the market, it was sold as a 'fashion' phone. This model sold 50 million units by mid-2006. This phone, although it did nothing any better than any other, it definitely revolutionized the way phones looks. -
Motorola ROKR E1
This phone, believe it or not, was the first ever phone to have Apple's ITunes Music Player. Although it could only hold 100 songs at a time, it was still a revolutionary step in the way mobile phones were made. -
First IPhone
This revolutionary touch-screen mobile phone was created by Steve Jobs in 2007. This actually wasn't the first smartphone but it was the first to adapt user interface right, adapting 3G technology and eventually 4G. -
HTC Dreamer
This was the very first smartphone to run Google's Android OS.
It featured a QWERTY keyboard, full HTML web browser, Gmail, YouTube and more, and paved the way for many other phones. -
HTC EVO 4G
This cellular phone was the very first to meet 4G standards.
It was sold powered by Android 2.1 and had one of the largest touchscreen displays, an 8MP camera, HD video capture, HDMI output, Mobile Hotspot capability and HTC Sense.
