The Mobile phone

the evolution of the mobile
Designer Bells Lab at AT&T
Dates Origanally invented in 1947 as Mobile Phone base stations, but further development took place in the 1960's

Description

The mobile phone, although origanally was a large and heavy device, it has now been developed to become smaller than the average wallet, and can easily fit in to most pockets.

The varity of phones that are now available is a sign of the huge demand on this tecnology. Most of them have the memory greater than the average 1980's computer and have the ability to run more complex features the them, for example games, still and motion cameras, and music in the form of radio and mp3's

The majority of the modern mobile phones are constructed from plastics, such as perspex and acrilic. Rubber is used on sports phones, this creates a more robust and even a waterproof layer to protect the phone and it's complex componiants.

The usability of this product is reflexed in the statistics of sales. On average there is 4 phones per household, compared to the 1 per house in the mid 90's, another factor is the increasing numbers of manufacturers and service providers in the world.

The cost of the modern mobile has reduced since the introduction of machinary that is used to mass produce the most safisticated of the mobile phones

A Personal View

The modern Mobile phone is often seen as an object that you just can't leave home without. >From my point of view it is an essential part of my life, it contains important contact numbers, for both my professional and personnal life, my schedule is updated in it's calender when it is syncranized with my laptop, and the alarm on it wakes me up in the morning. These reasons are reflected in the design of this object, it has become smaller but more durable, the asthetic quailities of this much used object vary on the make and model, the Moterola L200 was said to be the Audi TT of phones (Mainly because the phone and car was designed within the same company, and where released on the same day)

There are disadvantages to this technology in the form of service provided, there are a number of black spot area's where signal is limited, these do tend to sit in valley's and rural areas.

Context

Mobile phones have been designed and developed time and time again to fit into our increasingly fast paced life styles. This development has also been seen in cars, computers and even house phones and home internet, they are all more more accessable, faster and cheaper to buy than 5 years ago, let alone a decade or two.

History shows the progression of the Mobile phones design, both astheticly and practically, but it also shows there is a lot more to come, with new producers such as Apple, and service providers such as Euro Tel spending east thourgh Europe, and into deaerts, which will eventually eliminated the need for saterlite phones.

Links

Nokia - the leading producer of mobile phones world wide

T-Mobile - the T-Mobile network has a service grid over the majority of Europe and North America

Author: Emma Stafford Date: 12 March 2007