Timeline of the phone

By s39195

  • The original phone

    The original phone
    Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his device and said to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” In doing so, Bell launched the telephone era with the first bi-directional electronic transmission of the spoken word.

  • Candlestick

    Candlestick
    The candlestick phone was separated into two pieces. The mouth piece formed the candlestick part, and the receiver was placed by your ear during the phone call.

  • Rotary

    Rotary
    To dial, you would rotate the dial to the number you wanted, and then release.

  • Answering machine

    Answering machine
    The answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to leave a message if no one was on the other end.

  • Push-button

    Push-button
    AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls.

  • Portable phones

    Portable phones
    Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote. You were no longer physically attached to your phone’s base station.

  • Motorola dynaTAC

    Motorola dynaTAC
    The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially available mobile phone.