Mobility is what sets mobile phone technology apart from its predecessors. Our phones are becoming hand-held, do-all devices, and communicating effectively in this post post-modern world requires us each to carry one wherever we go. When our communication became mobile, we opened up the entire planet to talk, share ideas, and collaborate across oceans and continents.
So, to answer the above questions, mobile has revolutionised human communication. It was the biggest thing to happen to communication, and has enabled countless new technologies and business models to rise up. Where did mobile originate, what has set mobile devices apart throughout history, and what does the communicative world of tomorrow look like?
Pre-mobile communication
Alexander Graham Bell invented the landline telephone, which operated on a wired system connecting all the other landline phones in the area. The problem with these cabled devices was that you couldn’t move further than a few feet away from the telephone. To call someone, you’d have to find a phone and hope that they were near one too. The earliest wireless ‘mobiles’ were used in World War 2, but required straps to carry it like a backpack. Fast forward to the 1970s and a company called Motorola changed the game completely.
Text and mobile voice
The first cellular mobile phones were made possible in 1979 where, in Tokyo, the first 1G network was activated. In 1983 Motorola’s first mobile phone went to market – selling for a hefty $3,995. (According to today’s exchange rate, this comes in at around R75 220).
2G mobile networks arrived 9 years later, and the first-ever text message was sent between two people in Finland circa 1993. Remember the Nokia 3310? This was arguably the world’s most popular cellphone in the late 90s and early 2000s. However, 2G was soon proving not enough to handle the rapidly-expanding mobile tech industry.
