The evolution of cell phone design

Remember when flip-phones were cool? Me neither, but apparently it was around 2004

Tarryn van der BylNovember 22, 2012

In 1906, American inventor Charles E. Alden told New York World magazine that he’d invented something called a “vest pocket telephone”, but apparently the idea didn’t really catch on until about 67 years later, when Motorola’s Dr Martin Cooper showed the world his company’s new mobile phone in 1973.

The phone weighed almost a kilo, featured a talk time of just 30 minutes and a recharge time of 10 hours, and sold for $3,995.

… Actually, that didn’t really catch on either.

Anyway, the people over a Japanese mobile phone company NTT docomo have put together this graphic guide to cell phone design from 1987 up to now so we can see how far we’ve come. And, in some points, gone back again – it’s kind of funny how, in the mid-2000s, phones got smaller and smaller, then suddenly got bigger again when manufacturers realised that, hey, maybe screen size matters.

Next, I bet huge, telescoping aerials are totally going to make a comeback. Or not.