Feature Articles

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

By Seow Tein Hee - 11 May 2009

Timeline: 2007

2007


  • A new step up in mobile entertainment was spearheaded by another Nokia N-series device in 2007. One of the more defining and shining moments in Nokia's history would be the introduction of its flagship model in 2007, the Nokia N95 (and subsequently, the Nokia N95 8GB ). The Symbian S60 smartphone had gained a widespread acceptance and rose up the popularity charts in the first half of 2007, with a score of consumers taking to the features of the N95 such as music, video, 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, and a feature that would also become a staple in higher-tiered phones, GPS navigation. In bringing GPS functionality into mobile devices, the stakes have been raised for manufacturers who seek to capture the hearts of their customers with feature-packed devices.

The Nokia N95, though steeply priced, was the definitive Nokia device that delivered almost everything a consumer needed in one single device. At the end of the year, more features were added such as A-GPS and 8GB internal storage on the updated Nokia N95 8GB in a black chassis.

  • Fast and furious, that's how the mobile phone evolution was as the years went on. It didn't take too long before the next speed upgrade happened with high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), which became widely adopted amongst the telecom providers worldwide. With the infrastructure ready for use, devices that supported the new HSDPA network, or more commonly referred to as 3.5G, started popping up in town. PDA phones were one of the first few to feature high speed data downloads on the HSDPA networks, such as the O2 XDA Atom Life . With both HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity on your Windows Mobile 5 device, the stage was set for true wireless connectivity to support a new generation of mobile web surfing.

The O2 XDA Atom Life came at a time when wireless connectivity was a top demand for consumers who were looking for a device that is capable of everything conceivable on a PC.

The Windows Mobile user group had by then grew far and wide, and it bode well for Microsoft and its partners to unleash a bevy of Windows Mobile products to the market. But more importantly, 2007 also saw the introduction of a few new kids on the block. And the one product that was able to represent the changes was the HTC Touch . The HTC brand was widely known for its OEM support for the previous Dopod group that gave us the Dopod D810 in that same year, with many others before it. With the integration of the Dopod organization under HTC's wings, it ushered in new, strong competition for the pioneers such as HP and O2 who had created a strong presence in the Asia Pacific market - until now. More importantly, the Windows Mobile platform saw a new update to its sixth version, Windows Mobile 6, on the HTC Touch at the same time.

The HTC Touch, as its name implies, brings a new sensation to the user with its TouchFlo interface. But this was not the only touch screen device that made the headlines in 2007.

  • Undoubtedly, the device that stole the thunder for the year was a nifty little gadget hailing from the Cupertino-based company. It was a class on its own, unlike any other mobile device at that time. It was revolutionary, and won Time magazine's Invention of the Year award. It didn't have 3G network functionality that has already been widely accepted in the region, but it still got strong sales numbers during its launch on 29th June 2007. Need more clues? The picture says it all:

The phone that stole the thunder for the year. The Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, officially, it was out of our reach. But it won't be in the year 2008.

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