DHAKA: Today's fancy phones, they all came from somewhere. Every mobile phone we use today, from basic handsets to the most advanced computer-in-your-pocket, wasn't created in a vacuum.
Instead, they were built using the parts of many groundbreaking phones that came before them. Even if they don't look like much now, those pioneer devices set the stage for all the mobile development to come.
What follows are 12 handsets that changed the planet forever, either by introducing a new feature we now take for granted, or by making phones accessible to more people.
By no means is this meant to be a completely comprehensive list, but each of the phones listed here was a "first" in a very important way.
So, next time you're checking Facebook on a phone, or even (gasp) making a call, remember the phones that made it possible.
The flip phone: Motorola Startac
When? 1996
The company that created the cell phone as we know it, Motorola, broke ground on many fronts. In 1983, the company introduced the first commercially available cell phone, the Dynatac 8000x. Yet it wasn't until the early 1990s when phones become cheap enough, and small enough (the Dynatac weighed 2.5 pounds/1.13 kilograms and cost $3,995), to make them anything more than a luxury item.
Enter the StarTac. The original "It phone," it revolutionized handset design by giving us the flip phone. Sure, the MicroTac preceded the StarTac by seven years, but it had just a flip-down mouthpiece rather than truly folding in half. The StarTac was smaller than any previous handset (just 3.1 ounces) with features like a 99-contact phone book and four hours of battery life.
The keyboard phone: Nokia 9000
When? 1996
The other early phone innovator, Nokia hit its stride as the 20th century ended. The 9000 was the first in the company's Communicator series and the earliest "smartphone" (if the word even existed back then).
Though it deserves a lot of credit for putting email and Web browsing in a phone, the 9000 also gave us the first full keyboard for typing. And that was before BlackBerry made its first handset. With keyboards a standard feature now, it makes you wonder how we ever texted without them. As I've discovered, T9 predictive text is not like riding a bicycle. You can forget.
The "everyone had one" phone: Nokia 5110
When? 1998
Nokia's 5110 (also called the 5190) used to be everywhere. It was my first phone, and Roger Cheng also wore one proudly. It remains a classic Nokia device: almost indestructible, deadly simple to use, and the battery lasted forever.
Yet, it's not on this list because of an innovative feature (as cool as Snake was). Rather, it's here because it exemplifies the concept of a cheap, mass-produced widely-available phone. If you didn't have the Nokia 3210, then you had a 5110 (or so it seemed at the time).
** 12 phones that changed the world: Part II
BDST: 1151 HRS, MAY 23, 2014
