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First Words Spoken Into A Telephone
First WordsGraham Bell spoke the first words into a telephone on March 10, 1876 and said to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” -
Rotary Phone
Rotary PhoneTo dial, you would rotate the dial to the number you wanted, and then release. -
Candlestick Phone
CandlestickThe candlestick telephone is a style of telephone that was common from the late 1890s to the 1940s. A candlestick telephone is also often referred to as a desk stand, an upright, or a stick phone. -
Answering Machine
Answering MachineThe answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to leave a message if no one was on the other end. -
Push Button
Push ButtonIn 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls. Each key would transmit a certain frequency, signaling to the telephone operator which number you wanted to call -
Caller ID
Caller IDYou could now decide whether that phone call was worth answering or whether you could just send them to voicemail. Now standard, Caller ID changed the way we used telephones. -
Portable Phones
Portable PhonesBeginning in the 1980s, portable phones were like a small-scale cell phone. You could talk on your phone anywhere in your house. -
Motorola DynaTAC
MotorolaReleased in 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially available mobile phone. -
Sanyo SCP–5300
Flip PhoneReleased in 2003, the Sanyo SCP–5300 was one of the first phones to include a camera. -
Motorola RAZR
MotorolaThe Motorola RAZR represented the culmination of the flip phone. Unable or unwilling to experiment with new designs, mobile phone companies continued their push for smaller and smaller phones. -
Blackberry
BlackberryCanadian-based Research in Motion, now BlackBerry, was by far the leading smartphone manufacturer in the 2000s. With their advanced email capabilities, BlackBerry Messenger, and physical keyboards, BlackBerry smartphones were the ultimate business phone. -
iPhone and Android
iPhoneWhen the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to the masses. With its intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek design, the iPhone has been an incredible success. The iPhone quickly showed just how clunky previous smartphones and flip phones were. While initially lacking some basic features such as copy-and-paste, the iPhone has consistently improved with annual updates to both its hardware and software and runs a mobile-optimized version of OS X, the company’s