Size: A Brief History of Cell Phone Development

The first U.S. patent for a wireless telephone was issued in 1908 by Nathan B. Stubblefield. This was nothing near the kind of phones we would use today though. Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented much later on in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T. The zero generation of mobile phones was introduced in 1945 but were still not cellular. It was required to take the mobile phones from one base station to another and reuse radio frequency channels. The problem with these phones, besides the transferring from base to base, was that when one was being used, it monopolized the who channel of that area. Finally, in 1973, Martin Cooper, who was a Motorala researcher, developed the first practical mobile phone for handheld use. He then made the first call on a handheld phone to his rival who worked for Bell Labs at the time. In 1983, Motorola DynaTac was the first approved cell phone in the United States.

The first commercial citywide cellular network was developed in Japan and is now known as the 1G generation and The first modern network technology on digital 2G cellular technology was launched in Finland 8 years later in 1991. Today, phones are using a more advanced 3G network that was developed in 2001.

Nowadays, cell phones have evolved to do much more things than just make phone calls. Text messages, or SMS messages, have become a very popular form of communication. The first SMS message was sent in 1993 and since then they have evolved to a completely new form of communication. Business is conducted through text messages every day and today SMS messaging is an 81 billion dollar industry.

Cell phones now come with cameras built in as a standard feature. Camera Phones, just like many complex systems, are results of converging and enabling technologies. The first picturephone prototype was known as intellect and was developed in 1993 and companies have built upon the idea of intellect ever since. In 1997, pictures taken from a phone were instantly shared for the first time. Camera phones today can share pictures through text messaging or directly through email and some cameras on phones have better pictures than ordinary digital cameras.

The first phone with Internet access was the Nokia 7110 and it was developed in 1999. It was designed to provide easy access to Internet content and would pave the way for phones in the near future. Now, all phone networks have at least some kind of Internet and most provide each of their models with Internet access. Phones are starting to use the Internet on the 3G network which makes Internet on phones rival the connection on desktop computers. Also, phones can easily access Wi-Fi networks to make their internet connection even faster in some cases. Along with easy access to the Internet, phones can also use Bluetooth connection to send files to eachother. Although both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth run on the same radio frequency, Wi-Fi is a lot more powerful. The advantage Bluetooth provides though is that it can be used wherever two phones have Bluetooth connection near one another so files can be sent from one phone to another.

Phones from the past used to be a lot bigger and fatter but as time went on they became smaller and sleaker. Some phones now are no bigger than credit cards and they continue to get smaller. Arguably the most technologically advanced phone today is the Apple iPhone. It has a built in accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and an infrared sensor. It also has a full touch screen along with a camera, full text messaging that appears like instant messages, mp3 music player, internet, email, third party applications, GPS and much more. Apple also provides updates for it that allows the iPhone to keep up with the latest technologies. The new update scheduled for the Summer of 2009 will allow the iPhone to send picture messages and voice text messages and provide it with newly developed technologies.