1. Apple iPhone 3G (2008)An obvious choice perhaps, but why would we choose the Apple iPhone 3G over the original 2007 iPhone? The answer is that the original iPhone was pretty dire - it didn't have 3G or GPS and you couldn't download third-party applications, which are all essentials in a modern smartphone, and it was often very slow as well. The 3G also started to sell in really significant numbers, quickly eclipsing the first-generation device and it really started to eat into the market share of its competitors.Of course, the 2009 iPhone 3GS is even better, but the 3G was the first time the iPhone didn't have to come up with a string of excuses as to why vital features were missing. In terms of influence.. well, it should be obvious. Although touchscreen smartphones existed long before the iPhone came out, Apple's offering popularised a certain look-and-feel of both the hardware and software which led to many copycats.. and many legal disputes with rivals. In terms of mobile phone history there is a very clean "before iPhone" and "after iPhone" period when you look at the products on the market. |
The Motorola
RAZR V3 may be nearly a decade old, but it
was one of the first handsets to sell purely on design
rather than features. Following on what seemed to be
the incredibly tiny Motorola
StarTAC, the RAZR V3 was incredibly thin and carefully
engineered from aluminium. And when it was launched
it was very, very expensive. |
The Nokia
N95 and it's successor, the N95
8GB competed directly against early iPhones, but
came with 3.5G data, GPS and a first-rate camera plus
access to a large library of third-party applications..
all the things that the original iPhone lacked. |
Launched in 2002, the Nokia
6310i became the quintessential business phone.
It was easy to use, had a long battery life, Bluetooth,
a really loud ringtone and was robust enough to handle
to odd knock and bump. |
One of the last handsets to come out under the "Ericsson"
brand, the Ericsson
R380 was a touchscreen Symbian smartphone that came
out eight years before Apple really popularised the
concept.. |
Back at the turn of the century, standalone PDAs
were still popular with the two main platforms being
Palm's PalmOS and Microsoft Windows CE. Windows CE was
very popular, but unlike smartphones these devices couldn't
make phone calls or access the internet on the move. |
By the time the Samsung
Galaxy S II came to market, Android smartphones
had already been around for several years, but the S
II represented a significant upgrade to screen size
and processing power and put some clear blue water between
Samsung and Apple.. at least in technical terms. |
It's hard to say exactly what device is the definitive
BlackBerry, but we'd suggest that the BlackBerry
7230 is probably one of the best candidates.
The 7230 was tightly focussed on messaging with an efficient
compact keyboard, an unusual but very low power transflective
display, excellent integration with corporate mail systems,
some decent PIM tools with a fairly decent library of
downloadable applications.. and even some games. |
The elegant but very basic Motorola
FONE F3 may not be a top-of-the-range smartphone,
but it has a significant claim to fame as being the
first consumer device to feature an electronic ink display. |
The T-Mobile
G1 (also sold as the HTC
Dream) was the first rather clunky attempt at an
Android smartphone. Where the contemporary Apple
iPhone 3G was an elegant device, the G1 was
rather utilitarian and featured a slide-out QWERTY keyboard
and a little trackball, two features that are essentially
extinct today. |
Thursday, 10 October 2013
The ten most influential 3G and GSM phones.. ever?
2013 is Mobile Gazette's tenth anniversary, so it seemed like
a good opportunity to take a look back at what we think are the
ten most influential devices of the past decade (plus a bit more).
Some are obvious, but we hope that a few of our choices will surprise
you!
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