The original phone

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his device and said to his assistant, “Mr.
Watson, come here, I want to see you.” In doing so, Bell launched the telephone era with the first
bi-directional electronic transmission of the spoken word. At least that is how the story typically
goes. While Bell received the first patent for a telephone, the origin of the telephone is
complicated and inconclusive Antonio Meucci of Italy, and Innocenzo Manzetti each claiming to be
the phone’s true inventor.

Candlestick

Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s, the candlestick phone was separated into two pieces. The
mouth piece formed the candlestick part, and the receiver was placed by your ear during the
phone call. This style died out in the ’30s.

Rotary

The rotary phone became popular. To dial, you would rotate the dial to the number you wanted,
and then release. Based on my limited interaction with rotary dial phones, this must have been
incredibly tedious.
Push-button

In 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and
make phone calls. Each key would transmit a certain frequency, signaling to the telephone
operator which number you wanted to call.

Portable phones

Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote. You were no longer
physically attached to your phone’s base station. Beginning in the 1980s, portable phones were
like a small-scale cell phone. You could talk on your phone anywhere in your house.

Nokia 5110

One of many classic Nokia candybar-style phones, the Nokia 5110 was rugged and had a long
battery life. More importantly, you could play Snake on its 47 × 84 pixel screen.
Motorola StarTAC

The Motorola StarTAC was the first successful flip phone, and in many ways, the first successful
consumer cell phone. Introduced in 1996, Motorola eventually sold 60 million StarTACs.

Motorola RAZR

The Motorola RAZR represented the culmination of the flip phone. Unable or unwilling to
experiment with new designs, mobile phone companies continued their push for smaller and
smaller phones. With the RAZR, Motorola perfected the flip phone design.

BlackBerry
Canadian-based Research in Motion, now BlackBerry, was by far the leading smartphone
manufacturer in the 2000s. With their advanced email capabilities, BlackBerry Messenger, and
physical keyboards, BlackBerry smartphones were the ultimate business phone.

IPhone and Androide

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to the masses. With its
intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek design, the iPhone has been an incredible
success. The iPhone quickly showed just how clunky previous smartphones and flip phones were.