Feature Articles

A Call from the Past - 10 Years of Mobile Phone Development

By Seow Tein Hee - 11 May 2009

Timeline: 2001

2001


  • By 2001, the winds of change were flowing in the market at that time when major manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola saw a new competition on the block in the form of the joint venture between the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony and Ericsson into the Sony Ericsson entity that would start a segmentation trend to target specific groups of consumers according to their varying needs. This would soon seep into the core values of various other manufacturers in the years to come, where the consumer demand became more stringent and varied.
  • In the same year, www.hardwarezone.com made its foray into the mobile phone genre and started off nice and easy with the Siemens SL45 MP3/WAP Mobile Phone. To quote TechToyer, our inaugural mobile phone reviewer, "Siemens sent us the SL45 mobile telephone recently, and a fellow worker asked, "Are we reviewing mobile phones now?" Well, we're not. The feature that attracted us to the mobile phone (besides its galvanized appearance and attractive shape) is that it plays digital audio." In retrospect, it was the start of something that would develop into what we see on current devices. A cellular phone doubling as an organizer, a media player and many more, the Siemens SL45 will be what mobile phones become.

Back then in 2001, though the Siemens SL45 was meant to be reviewed based on its then impressive capability as a phone with varied features, it was the trigger that brought www.hardwarezone.com into the mobile phone review business.

As we mentioned, it was the beginning of something big, and we also got our hands on the Samsung SGH-M100 MP3 phone back in 2001. Looking back, it seems convergence was already on the table, and has grown tremendously in the short span of 7 years.

  • Considering a few key points in the cellular frequency development, one must not forget that travelers might encounter varying GSM frequencies as they hop from one continent to another. Thus, at a time when dual-band or tri-band phones were far and few, Motorola introduced a series of phones that fits the bill, and one of which featured was the Motorola V. series 66.

Clamshell phones, though not exactly new in the market, was one of the definitive designs that put the word "mobile" in mobile phones with its petite design. In its heydays, the Motorola V. Series 66 managed to capture the attention of consumers who seek a convenient and easy to use device, which was all found on this Motorola product.

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