The site's observer studied the history of Motorola, which began as a leader in the field of electronics and telecommunications, introduced many innovations, but due to management miscalculations, lost its position and was divided into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility.
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Motorola has practically ceased to exist independently: one part of it is now part of Lenovo, and the other, specializing in telecommunications, is actively selling off its divisions. Nevertheless, Motorola's influence on the development of the industry is difficult to overestimate. The company introduced a lot of innovations, from car radios to mobile communications. Motorola's initial success owes much to the company's founder and longtime CEO, Paul Galvin.
The Early Years of Paul Galvin. Creation of Galvin Manufacturing
The future founder of the company was born in 1895 in Harvard. Gender since childhood different ways tried to make money, including selling sandwiches and ice cream. There is information that Galvin did this at the station and without the appropriate license, so he had to hide from the authorized authorities. True, in the end the station chief reconciled with the enterprising boy, and Paul continued to do his business.
In 1914, Galvin served in the army as an artilleryman. There is information that he participated in the First World War as part of the US forces. After returning, Galvin graduated from the Faculty of Technology in Illinois, and during his studies he was a member of the student fraternity Phi Kappa Theta. According to one version, training preceded military service.
In 1920, Paul found work at a battery factory in Chicago. Most researchers believe that Paul was not interested in working for hire - he was more attracted to the idea of creating his own business. A year later, he and a school friend created a company producing batteries and accumulators. The company existed for only two years, after which it was closed by the government due to non-payment of taxes on a large amount.
After the first failure, Galvin did not give up and three years later, with the same friend, he began to build the same business. The company closed this time too: it simply could not withstand the competition in the developing electricity market. The business lasted no longer than two years.
But this did not stop Galvin: he went to an auction where the property of his company was being sold, and for $750 he bought equipment for the production of network power supplies. In addition, Paul still had his friend's development - a current rectifier that allows the radio to operate from the electrical network.
Paul Galvin (left) and Joseph Galvin
Large-scale reorganization began again. In 2007, the master of hostile takeovers, Carl Icahn, became a shareholder. He and Zander fought a corporate war, which he could not win and resigned in 2008. At the same time, Icahn promoted the idea of dividing the company and selling the unprofitable mobile division.
The company continued to collapse, simultaneously confirming the existence of a crisis of ideas. It released several more phones that aroused some interest among the audience, but this did not help: in 2008, the company's losses amounted to a record $4.16 billion. A year later, this figure decreased to $51 million, largely thanks to other divisions of the company.
After lengthy disputes, the company was divided in 2011. Motorola Mobility was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, and three years later it was bought by Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The second part - Motorola Solutions - is engaged in telecommunications and from time to time sells its divisions to other companies. In 2015, its profit amounted to $610 million, which is two times less than in 2014.
Thus ended the story of Motorola. The company, which gave the world more than one invention, lost the competition due to a lack of understanding of the market and the changing needs of the audience. Even the success of the RAZR v3 model was a temporary phenomenon, from which management tried to make the most of it. As a result, Motorola was forced out of the market by competitors, including its recent ally, Apple. The remaining company, Motorola Solutions, is trying to regain its former greatness, but without much success.
WriteToday it is difficult to imagine a modern person without a mobile phone, although only 25 years ago only the wealthiest citizens could afford to buy this device in Russia. According to TMT Consulting, at the end of 2015 there were 251.8 million cellular subscribers, and this is 105.3 million more than the entire population of the country - one and a half mobile phones per person. Telephones have long ceased to be a luxury item. It is all the more interesting to look into the recent past, when mobile phones in Russia were considered exotic, and only a select few could talk to family and friends from different parts of the country.
A little history
The development of the first cell phone began in 1947 by the American company Bell Labs. The idea of such a device instantly captured the minds of leading engineers in the USA and Russia. Another American company interested in mobile phones is Motorola. In Russia, in 1957, engineer Leonid Ivanovich Kupriyanovich demonstrated the LK-1 portable telephone. It weighed 3 kg, worked no more than 30 hours, but provided a range of up to 30 km. In 1958, he presented a device weighing 500 g, and already in 1961 a telephone weighing only 70 g allegedly appeared. Only a photograph of this device of dubious quality has survived to this day, the development of which was either stopped or transferred to the special services (supporters of the theories dedicated to the conspiracy).
Instead of this revolutionary device, the Russians saw the Altai device, which could only be transported in a car, which was what the Ambulance employees used. Kupriyanovich's developments formed the basis for several Bulgarian devices produced in 1966 RAT-05, ATRT-05 and the RATC-10 base station, which were used at industrial facilities. In 1973, Motorola put an end to the battle for supremacy: Martin Cooper called Bell Labs from a phone that fit comfortably in his hand and did not require additional accessories. measuring 22.5x12.5x3.75 cm, weighed 1.15 kg, consisted of 2000 parts, and the battery charge was only enough for 20 minutes of conversation. It took another 10 years to finalize the mobile phone, and only on March 6, 1983, the phone, weighing 800 grams, went on sale for $3,500.
In Russia the topic of commercial mobile communications did not rise until 1986. USSR Communications Minister Gennady Kudryavtsev said that the KGB and security forces considered accessible cellular communications a threat to national security. An epochal event was the call from Mikhail Gorbachev from Helsinki to Moscow in 1987 on the first telephone for NMT networks. There were 5 years left before the release of the first GSM phone - it became one and it changed cellular communications forever.
Russian realities
The first call from Russia to the USA took place on September 9, 1991 within the walls of the Delta Telecom company using a Nokia Mobira MD 59 NB2 device using the NMT-450 communication standard. It was carried out by the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. The phone weighed about 3 kg, cost $4,000 (and $1,995 under the operator's contract), and a minute of conversation cost $1. Despite the high cost and size of the device, Delta managed to make 10,000 subscribers mobile in the first 4 years of operation.
To Moscow cellular reached only in 1992 by Ericsson and Moscow Cellular Communications. Within a year, cellular communications became available to 5,000 Muscovites. In the same 1992 Russian market a new player VimpelCom has appeared with the Beeline trademark. On July 12, 1992, the first call from the Motorola DynaTAC, popularly known as the “brick,” rang out at the company’s office.
At this time, the GSM network was launched in Germany, which quickly became a global standard. In Russia, the first operator to adopt GSM was MTS, which began commercial operation of the network in 1994. In the same year, the first call came from the office of the North-West GSM operator (now MegaFon), but it began commercial activities only in 1995.
According to Ericsson's Jan Vareby, the introduction of GSM networks allowed Russia to begin the development of cellular communications faster than many other countries, ahead of the founders of the standard.
The price of mobility
Not everyone could become the owner of a mobile phone. average price The cost of the device was $2,500, and the subscriber had to pay almost $2,500 more as a down payment and connection fee. For “only” $5000 you could become mobile and modern. But this was far from the end of the waste. Expensive subscription fee and the price of a minute of conversation forced subscribers to pay at least $200 monthly at the end of 1998. Now communication services with unlimited access to the Internet and messaging cost no more than $10. However, by the end of the 90s, about 20 million SIM cards were sold in the country, but the real boom happened in the early 2000s. There were about 30 million subscribers in the country already in 2003, and by 2010 their number had grown to 216 million. The reduction in the cost of cellular communications was facilitated by the release of increasingly affordable mobile phones, many of which became cult favorites: and many others.
New generation communications
In 2003, Delta Telecom launched a 3G/CDMA200 network under the Sky Link brand, but a commercial network based on the EV-DO standard was ready only by 2005. In 2007, MegaFon built the first network based on 3G/UMTS, and already in 2008, all Big Three operators began developing 3G in the regions. The emergence of mobile phones of the type with large touch screens and support for high-speed connections required an increase in the speed and power of networks for transmitting not only voice, but also photos or video images, and multimedia messages. In 2008, Scartel, under the Yota brand, launched the first commercial WiMAX network in Russia, and became the first device in the world to support working in this network simultaneously with GSM. The rapid development of 4G LTE networks in Russia began at the end of 2011, and MegaFon became the first operator to provide new generation communications for subscribers.
From this moment the modern mobile history Russia. Over the past 5 years, subscribers have begun to increasingly use mobile internet, preferring communication via the Internet to regular calls. All modern smartphones have quick access to the network, and the most affordable phones with 4G support can be found at prices starting from 3,500 rubles in operator showrooms. A mobile phone has become as familiar and commonplace as an electric kettle. Cheaper production and the emergence of new players in the market are making mobile communications more accessible even to the most remote and poor corners of the world. 25 years ago it was impossible to imagine the scale of the spread of cellular communications in Russia, but what awaits us in another 25 years?
Mobile communications, which operate around the world today, are traditionally considered a relatively new invention. However, the first concepts for organizing infrastructure mobile communications appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. It is difficult to answer the question in which country the first mobile phones appeared and when. But if you try to do this, what are the facts about the development telephone communication with the use of radio equipment is worth studying first? Based on what criteria should certain devices be classified as mobile phones?
History of mobile phones: basic facts
Answer the question - who invented the first mobile phone in the world, we can, first of all, become familiar with the history of the creation of the corresponding communication devices.
Concepts and prototypes of communication devices, functionally similar to mobile phones, began to be discussed in various communities (scientific, engineering) at the beginning of the 20th century. But actually cellular telephone At the end of the 70s, Bell Laboratories, which belonged to one of the largest American corporations, AT&T, proposed to develop a subscriber means of communication. Finland was among the first countries to successfully implement commercial mobile communication systems. Mobile communication systems were actively developing in the USSR.
But which state is ahead of the rest in terms of introducing mobile phones?
It will be useful to dwell in more detail on Soviet inventions - familiarizing yourself with the facts about them will help us understand when the first mobile phone appeared in the world and in which country.
During the Great Patriotic War, the idea of creating a special device, a monophone, was proposed by the Soviet scientist Georgy Ilyich Babat. This device was supposed to be a portable telephone operating in automatic mode. It was assumed that it would operate in the 1-2 GHz range. The fundamental feature of the apparatus proposed by G.I. Babat, was to ensure voice transmission through an extensive network of special waveguides.
In 1946, G. Shapiro and I. Zakharchenko proposed organizing a radiotelephone communication system, within which devices for receiving and transmitting voice were to be placed in cars. In accordance with this concept, the basis of the mobile communications infrastructure was to be existing city stations, supplemented by special radio equipment. Special call signs were supposed to be used as subscriber identifiers.
In April 1957, Soviet engineer Leonid Ivanovich Kupriyanovich created a prototype of a communication device - the LK-1 radiotelephone. This device had a range of about 30 km and had a significant weight - about 3 kg. It could provide communications through interaction with a special automatic telephone exchange, which could connect to city telephone lines. Subsequently, the phone was improved. Is not it. Kupriyanovich significantly reduced the weight and dimensions of the device. IN updated version the size of the apparatus was approximately equal to the size of 2 cigarette boxes stacked on top of each other. The weight of the radiotelephone was about 500 grams including the battery. It was hoped that the Soviet mobile phone would find wide application in the national economy, in everyday life and would become an item for personal use by citizens.
Radiotelephone L.I. Kupriyanovich allowed not only to make calls, but also to receive them - subject to the assignment of a personal number, as well as the use of infrastructure that allows transmitting signals from the automatic telephone exchange to automatic telephone radio stations, and from them to subscriber devices.
Research in the field of mobile communications was also carried out in other socialist countries. For example, in 1959, the Bulgarian scientist Hristo Bachvarov developed mobile device, similar in basic principle to L.I.’s telephone. Kupriyanovich, and patented it.
Is it possible to say that the world's first mobile phone was thus invented in the USSR or in other socialist countries?
Criteria for classifying devices as mobile phones
First of all, it is worth deciding what is actually considered a mobile phone. According to a common definition, a device should be considered as such:
Compact (a person can carry it with them);
Works using radio communication channels;
Allows one subscriber to call another using a unique number;
Integrated in some way with wired telephone networks;
Publicly available (the ability to connect does not require permission from certain competent authorities and is limited by the financial and infrastructural resources of subscribers).
From this point of view, a full-fledged mobile phone has not yet been invented. But, of course, the above criteria for determining a mobile phone cannot be considered universal. And if we remove from them, in particular, accessibility and compactness, then the Soviet Altai system may well correspond to the rest. Let's take a closer look at its features.
Soviet experience in the development of mobile communications: the Altai system
When studying the question of what was the very first mobile phone in the world, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the basic facts about the corresponding communication system. The devices connected to it had, in principle, all the features of a mobile phone, except for being accessible to the public. This system, Thus:
Allowed some subscribers to call others by numbers;
It was in a certain way integrated with city networks.
But it was not publicly available: lists of subscribers were approved at the departmental level. The Altai system was launched in the 60s in Moscow, and in the 70s it was deployed in more than 100 cities of the USSR. Actively used during the 1980 Olympics.
There were plans in the USSR to create a mobile communication system to which everyone could connect. But due to the economic and political difficulties of the mid-to-late 80s, work on the development of this concept was curtailed.
Western cellular standards were introduced in post-Soviet Russia. By that time, they had already been providing communications between devices for quite some time, which could be called full-fledged mobile phones. Let's study how the corresponding standards developed in the West. This, again, will help us answer the question of where and when the world's first mobile phone appeared.
History of mobile communications in the United States
As we noted at the beginning of the article, prototypes of mobile phones in the West began to appear at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 30s and 40s, real developments began to be implemented. In 1933, communications could be made between NYPD vehicles using half-duplex radio transmitters. In 1946, a mobile network was deployed in which private subscribers could communicate with each other using radio equipment through the mediation of an operator. In 1948, an infrastructure was launched that allowed one subscriber to call another automatically.
Can we say that it was in the USA that the world's first mobile phone was invented? If we consider the above criteria for classifying a radiotelephone as a device of the appropriate type - yes, we can say so, but in relation to later American developments. The fact is that the principles of its functioning of American cellular networks of the 40s were very far from those that characterize modern
Systems like those deployed in Missouri and Indiana in the 1940s had significant frequency and channel limitations. This did not allow connecting a sufficiently large number of subscribers to mobile networks at the same time. A solution to this problem was proposed by Bell specialist D. Ring, who proposed dividing the radio signal distribution area into cells or cells, which would be formed by special base stations operating on different frequencies. This principle, in general, is implemented by modern mobile operators. The implementation of D. Ring's concept in practice was carried out in 1969.
History of mobile communications in Europe and Japan
In Western Europe, the first telephone communication systems using radio equipment were tested in 1951. In the 60s, work in this direction was actively carried out in Japan. It is noteworthy that it was Japanese developers who established that the optimal frequency for deploying mobile communications infrastructure is 400 and 900 MHz. Today, these frequencies are among the main ones used by cellular operators.
Finland has become one of the leading countries in terms of introducing developments in the field of organizing the functioning of full-fledged cellular networks. In 1971, the Finns began to deploy a commercial cellular network, the coverage area of which by 1978 had reached the size of the entire country. Does this mean that the very first mobile phone in the world, functioning according to modern principles, appeared in Finland? There are certain arguments in favor of this thesis: in particular, it has been established that Finnish telecommunications corporations have deployed the corresponding infrastructure nationwide. But in accordance with the traditional point of view, such a device nevertheless appeared in the United States. Main role in this, again, if we consider the popular version, Motorola played a role.
Motorola Cellular Concepts
In the early 70s, very fierce competition developed in the United States between service and equipment providers in a promising market segment - in the field of cellular communications. The main competitors here were AT&T and Motorola. At the same time, the first company focused on the deployment of automotive communication systems - by the way, like telecommunications corporations in Finland, the second - on the introduction of compact devices that any subscriber could carry with them.
The second concept won, and on its basis, Motorola Corporation began the deployment of, in fact, a full-fledged in the modern sense cellular network using compact devices. The world's first mobile phone within the Motorola infrastructure, again in accordance with the traditional approach, was used as a subscriber device in 1973. Ten years later, a full-fledged commercial network was launched in the United States, to which ordinary Americans could connect.
Let's consider what the world's first mobile phone was, invented, according to the popular point of view, by engineers of the American company Motorola.
First cell phone: characteristics
We are talking about the Motorola DynaTAC device. He weighed about 1.15 kg. Its size was 22.5 x 12.5 x 3.75 cm. It had numeric keys for dialing a number, as well as two special buttons for sending a call, as well as ending a call. The device had a battery, thanks to which it could function in call standby mode for about 8 hours, and in talk mode for about 1 hour. It took more than 10 hours to charge the battery of the first cell phone.
What does the world's first mobile phone look like? Photo of the device is below.
Subsequently, Motorola released a number of modernized versions of the device. If we talk about Motorola's commercial network, the first mobile phone in the world was made for the corresponding infrastructure in 1983.
We are talking about the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X device. This device weighed about 800 grams, its dimensions were comparable to the first version of the device. It is noteworthy that his memory could store 30 subscriber numbers.
Who invented the first mobile phone?
So, let's try to answer our main question- who invented the world's first mobile phone. The history of the development of telephone communications using radio equipment suggests that the very first device that fully met the criteria for being classified as a mobile phone, which is still relevant today, was invented by Motorola in the USA and shown to the world in 1973.
However, it would be incorrect to say that this corporation has fundamentally introduced new development. Mobile phones - in the sense that they were radio equipment and provided communication between subscribers using a unique number - were by that time used in the USSR, Europe, and Japan. If we talk about when the world's first mobile phone was commercialized, the company that developed it launched the corresponding business in 1983, later than, in particular, similar projects were introduced in Finland.
Thus, Motorola Corporation can rightfully be considered the first to offer a mobile phone in the modern sense - in particular, one that operates on the principle of distributing base stations among cells, and also has compact format. Thus, if we talk about where exactly the world’s first mobile phone was invented, in which country - as a portable, compact device that is part of the cellular communications infrastructure, then it would be legitimate to determine that this state was the United States.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the Soviet Altai system functioned quite successfully even without the introduction of American-style technologies. Thus, engineers from the USSR fundamentally proved the possibility of deploying mobile communications infrastructure on a national scale, without using the principles of distributing base stations among cells.
It is possible that without the economic and political problems of the 80s, the USSR would have introduced its own mobile networks, operating on the basis of concepts alternative to the American ones, and they would work no worse. However, it is a fact that today Russia uses cellular communication standards developed in the Western world, which proposed and commercialized the first mobile phones.
It is worth noting that the Altai system actually worked until 2011. Thus, Soviet engineering developments remained relevant for a long time, and this may indicate that, perhaps, with the necessary refinement, they could compete with foreign concepts for building a cellular communications infrastructure.
Summary
So, who invented the world's first mobile phone? It is difficult to answer this question briefly. If by mobile phone we mean a compact subscriber radio equipment integrated with city networks, operating on a cellular principle and available to everyone, then this infrastructure was probably first introduced by the American company Motorola.
If we talk about the first commercial cellular networks - then these were probably implemented on a national scale in Finland, but with the use of devices aimed at placement in cars. Non-commercial closed mobile networks were also successfully deployed, in fact, on a national scale, in the USSR.
Yesterday, December 2, the presentation of the second generation YotaPhone took place. And although it is very nice to dream about Russian smartphones capturing the world market, today we decided to recall all the iconic models in the history of this device.
Part one. Portable communication device
1984 Motorola DynaTAC
Perhaps the year of birth of mobile phones could be 1973, when its creator, Dr. Martin Cooper, first made calls using it. But it was in 1984 that it went on sale, after which their real story began. From a proud owner's perspective modern smartphone, DynaTAC is nothing outstanding: a memory for 30 numbers, one melody, an LED display and the nickname “brick”. And all this was sold for $3995. It weighed 800 grams, but this was not the biggest problem. Unfortunately, the battery only lasted 35 minutes.
1985-86
For several years nothing interesting happened. Although phone manufacturers understood all the advantages and demand for the device, technology did not yet allow them to rebuild production so quickly. And the world was not as dynamic as it is now. The best illustration of this can be the debut model of Siemens - Mobiltelefon C1. It was with this suitcase that the Germans were going to surprise the market.
1987 Nokia Mobira Cityman 900
The then little-known Finnish company Nokia responded the fastest. Somewhere from the mid-sixties she developed various devices communications for the military and was able to quickly respond to Motorola’s idea and launch her own project, Mobira Cityman 900. It was truly revolutionary in nothing. It was even worse than the DynaTAC; it only held eight numbers in memory, and you had to pay about 4.5 thousand dollars for it. Despite all this, it sold very well. They even gave it to Gorbachev so that he could scare his party comrades a little with a call from Helsinki.
1989 Motorola MicroTAC 9800x
A little more than a year passed and Motorola was able to create the first mobile phone that did not require pumped up biceps and a small cart. Motorola MicroTAC was created in such a way that it fits into a shirt pocket and does not even weigh it down much (only 350 grams). It could no longer be used as a dumbbell, but could simply be carried with you. For this reason, actors, politicians, businessmen and bandits immediately fell in love with him; he is noticed in several films and television series. Functionally, a step forward was also taken: a telephone book appeared, directly from which you could dial a subscriber. In total, 37 of its modifications were born, the last in 1998.
1990-91
The next two years passed without significant events. No, the companies did not sit idly by, counting their income. They took up equally important matters: launching the first networks, agreeing on communication standards and coordinating all this with the authorities. But all this is interesting only to specialists. Meanwhile, the world was still getting used to new opportunities. However, we must be honest: for now, mobile phones remained very expensive toys that were bought for the sake of status. However, everything soon changed.
1992 Nokia 1011
For a long time Motorola MicroTAC had no real competition. Nokia was the first to challenge again. The point is not only that the new Nokia 1011 was small, it was the first device under the GSM 900 standard. Functionally and technically, it almost completely corresponds to a Motorola mobile phone, except that the display was already MonoLCD, and you could talk on it for about one and a half hours hours. Its main advantage is its relatively low prices. Only 1500 dollars!
1993 Siemens S1
This year can be considered a turning point. The leaders paused and those trying to catch up began to fuss. So the Bell South company showed, in fact, the first communicator. In addition to the usual phone functions, it had an organizer, could receive faxes and worked with e-mail. There was only one minus - it was very heavy (1 kilogram!). At the same time, IBM introduced the world's first smartphone with touch screen-Simon. Oddly enough, all these innovative devices never found their niche and were quickly lost. Other new items were more memorable. First of all, sales of Siemens S1 started. This was the first “pipe” of the company, and it immediately stood out for its time battery life. In standby mode, it worked for a day, and you could talk for 2.5 hours. It seems like you could have left the charger at home.
1994 Benefon Beta
Benefon Beta, which was just shown to the public, could have spent four days waiting, but it was remembered by others. It was there that watches first appeared. Everyone liked the idea, except watchmakers, but the model itself was almost not widely distributed; now it’s even difficult to find an image.
1995 Nokia 2110
In 1994, the industry got back on its feet and looked around, and then rushed forward, hardly stopping and not paying attention to global economic crises, wars and other nonsense. And this was largely thanks to the Nokia 2110. The model became a hit and was sold successfully for five years.
In addition to the pleasant and solid design, vibration alert, the phone was also much cheaper than its competitors, which is why not only the bourgeoisie, but also the middle class fell in love with it.
1996 Motorola StarTAC
Motorola has struck again. It launched the first flip phone, the Motorola StarTAC, on the market. If the all-in-one Nokia 2011 was popular mainly in Europe, then this model has conquered North America. It was sold there until 2000. Moreover, remembering the glorious past, they tried to revive it twice in 2004 and 2007, but without such success. Americans' love was explained by availability, small in size and design.
1997 Siemens S10
Siemens' new product of 1997, the S10 model, did not become as popular as the previous two. However, she had one very important advantage. It was here that buyers first saw a color display. He had only five lines, but still the Germans won this technological race for the first and last time. They also put a good battery here. Siemens also has another achievement. They were the first to come up with a phone for extreme sports enthusiasts and made it based on the S10. The modification was called Active and, with the help of rubberized inserts in the case, provided it with protection from moisture, dust and shock.
1998 Nokia 9000/9110
Actually, a series of smartphones, the company itself preferred to call them communicators, appeared from Nokia back in 1996. Hopes for 9000 were very high, but sales simply did not materialize. This was explained by two reasons: they were too heavy (almost 400 grams) and expensive ($1000).
First, the company lowered prices, and there was some interest in it. Then the developers seriously worked on the internals, making it 140 grams lighter - this is how the 9110 appeared, which sold much better. Things got even better after the upgrade the following year, when WAP appeared among the functions. However, all this was only the first step towards the advent of smartphones. These models did not have the most important thing - you couldn’t install your own software here.
With this model we can draw a line under the first part of the history of mobile phones. Before that, all these wonderful devices just made calls, plus something else. But now the Internet has entered them at full speed. AND simple tubes turned into something completely unimaginable.
Part two. The era of new technologies.
1999 Nokia 7110
Nokia took the first step into this era. She had already come up with new formats and introduced promising technologies. But the emergence of WAP was simply fateful. Of course, the technology itself did not allow full access to the Internet, but this immediately attracted the attention of buyers. In addition, the phone received the Series 40 software platform, which significantly expanded its capabilities. The range of features was quite impressive for that time. As a result, everything simply resulted in a crazy population.
2000 Siemens SL45
This year a lot of models were launched, but as often happens at a turning point, most developers have not yet found the right path of development. But the specialists from Siemens have distinguished themselves: the new SL45 model has an MP3 player and even a memory expansion slot using an MMC card. This is simply the company's swan song. Subsequently, they fell into strange experiments and flew out of the market. And Siemens SL45 had fans even ten years later. Also, the first Samsungs appeared on the market, which, however, were not remembered for anything special.
2001 Ericsson T68
Again there was a slight stagnation, but this time there were surprisingly many interesting new products. Shot Samsung with an unusual woman's phone SGH-A400, several appeared interesting models from Nokia. But the year was especially successful for Ericsson. At first, the company marked itself with the small T39, in which Bluetooth appeared for the first time. Then the smallest at that time T66 went well. In the end, the most popular phone of the year was the golden T68, which included almost all the technologies and functions that were relevant at that time.
2002 Nokia 7650
The first camera on a phone appeared in the Sanyo SCP-5300, but its image quality was very low, and the brand itself was very poorly represented. In general, almost everyone missed it. People really started thinking about the advantages of a built-in camera only with the advent of the Nokia 7650. The camera here is only 0.3 megapixels, but you can still distinguish what was shot. Appeared in this phone software platform Series 60, which turned it into a full-fledged smartphone. Other goodies: polyphony, slider, built-in HTML browser.
2003 BlackBerry 7210
The Canadian company BlackBerry once started with pagers. Since then, she has clearly gravitated towards offices, and smartphones were initially intended exclusively for everyday work. That is, without the ability to listen to music, watch a video or take a picture of something. Almost everything was cut off. For some reason, only a few games were left. The main emphasis was on hardware performance. Internal memory was 16 MB. This, I must admit, worked. The phones sold very well in North America, and echoes of glory reached even Russia.
2004 Motorola RAZR V3
Motorola tried for a long time to regain its leadership and finally created an iconic phone. The company immediately felt that they had caught luck by the tail. Initially, she even announced that the device was fashionable and would cost more. But then, nevertheless, she lowered the prices and sold fifty million at once. Its hardware was common for its time; only WAP 2.0 and a decent display are worth noting. Buyers were captivated by the original and interesting design. The Nokia 7610 with a 1-megapixel camera and powerful Sony Ericsson P910.
2005 Sony Ericsson K750
It is quite difficult to determine the winner this year. Only on points. Last year's Motorola RAZR V3 received a new modification. HTC has started selling a very successful Universal model. Nokia paved the way for smartphones with the powerful 6680. The prize of the year goes to the Sony Ericsson K750 solely thanks to its 2 megapixel camera and good hardware performance. The most interesting thing is that the battle of these “big three” will give way in a couple of years to their capitulation to new players. It was in 2005 that companies clearly demonstrated why this happened. For some reason, they all tried to give their best in one direction. This worked until Apple decided to offer a universal product.
2006 Nokia N73
Nokia company prepared again great smartphone. A nice candy bar with very rich functionality. Especially if it concerned multimedia capabilities: the N73 played music, videos, and could record videos. For those who wished, there was even the opportunity to watch television channels. But they almost didn’t let him roam around. The very next year everyone was talking about the iPhone. Compared to this, the Nokia N73 hardware (220Mhz ARM9 processor, 64 MB of RAM and 2 GB of microSD storage) looked downright pathetic.
2007 iPhone
Apple's dominance began this year. Of course, in the grand scheme of history, the iPhone didn't reign for very long. About five years, but all this time there was no real alternative he wasn't. This led to the fact that the old leaders quickly lost their positions, and some left the market altogether. Why? The secret is simple: the iPhone was almost universal and provided maximum capabilities at the time of its appearance. Above are the characteristics of the highly productive Nokia N73. But the iPhone is a Samsung 32-bitRISCARM processor at 620 MHz, 128 MB random access memory, GPU and built-in memory of at least 4 GB. And then, the four-gigabyte version was discontinued after two months, leaving only 8 GB. And, of course, a 3.5-inch touch display.
2008 iPhone 3G
The following year the situation remained almost unchanged. Apple released new model, further strengthening its leadership. The changes were not drastic. New iPhone 3G has been improved a bit. We added 3G support, updated the OS to IOS 2.0 and added GPS, which was clearly missing. This was enough to keep out the competitors, who had already recovered from the knockout and began to react to what was happening. For example, Nokia released the nice E90 and N95, LG actively promoted the Prada KE850 with a touch screen, and about its other model LG Voyager they generally said that it has almost all the functions of the iPhone..
2009 iPhone 3GS
Next iPhone update maintained its lead over competitors. Although the iPhone 3GS was called an intermediate step necessary before the fourth generation appeared, the upgrade was all significant. In fact, they changed the entire hardware: the processor was installed a little faster (ARM Cortex-A8 833 MHz), the graphics processor was also new (PowerVR SGX535 at 150 MHz), the RAM was doubled, to 256 MB. The now obligatory camera was also installed a little better, and IOS was updated to 3.0. Competitors were already openly floundering, occupying some separate market segments.
2010 iPhone 4
Finally, the iPhone has a competitor. The Koreans from Samsung have created a worthy rival - Galaxy S. To emphasize this, they even held a presentation on the same day (June 24) with Apple, which presented the fourth version of its smartphone. Their characteristics turned out to be generally very similar; in some areas, for example, the Phone was slightly inferior in the monitor. But Samsung failed to knock him off the throne. Largely due to the high reputation of Apple itself.
2011 iPhone 4S
This time the victory of the iPhone is conditional. Samsung created a phone that was better in terms of characteristics. And they did it much earlier. Presentation of Galaxy They released S II on February 13th, while Apple delayed it until October 14th. But even this head start didn’t help: the processor turned out to be weaker, the screen was smaller, and the RAM was twice as scarce. Even the battery is more capacious. Apple won in only one indicator - the number of phones sold.
2012 Samsung Galaxy S III
Samsung received first place in terms of total achievements. And thanks to 60 million phones sold of this model. The Galaxy S III has excellent and powerful hardware: a quad-core processor, one and a half gigabytes of RAM, 16-64 GB of flash memory and other goodies. The iPhone lost deservedly and for an objective reason. In 2011, the founder and main generator of ideas, Steve Jobs, died. Without him, the new products didn’t work out very well. Only in 2014 did the developers manage to get their act together and release something worthwhile.
2013 Samsung Galaxy S4
The recipe for the first iPhone - everywhere, everything and a lot - was used by Samsung in the main innovation of the past year Galaxy S4. It's very powerful processor- quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 at 1.9 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and Qualcomm Adreno 320 as GPU. And as icing on the cake - a 13 MP camera. However, this time the phone is not fighting alone: the LG G2 has excellent characteristics, Sony Xperia Z and Nokia Lumia 920.
2014 - ? -
This year the main competition is again between Apple and Samsung, but you can choose not only between the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S5. Good feedback for LG G3, HTC One(M8) and Nokia Lumia 930. In addition, YotaPhone-2 actively intervened in the struggle for leadership. And while there is still a month left until the end of the year, each of the contenders has a chance to come out on top.
The theory of evolution was traced by Maxim Usachev
Illustrated by Dmitry Shevchuk
"Watson, Bell says! If you can hear me, then go to the window and wave your hat." This phrase, spoken 141 years ago, on March 10, 1876, was the first to be uttered over the telephone. The speaker - Alexander Graham Bell - became known throughout the world as the inventor of the device.
According to statistics, Russian residents alone now make 144 million calls a day. And the average person makes almost one and a half thousand phone calls in one year.
Phone of discord
In fact, the history of the invention of the telephone is not so simple. In the early 1850s, New Yorker Antonio Meucci discovers that electricity supposedly has a positive effect on people's health. He designs a generator and opens a private practice. One day, Meucci connected the wires to the patient’s lips, and he moved to a remote room where the generator was located. When the doctor turned on the device, he heard the patient’s scream as clearly as if he was standing next to him.
Meucci gave up medicine and began experimenting with the device. By the early 1870s, he had already created drawings of a device that he called a telectrophon. In 1871, the Italian was going to register his invention, but he did not succeed.
According to one version, poor Meucci did not have enough $250 to pay the fee at the Patent Office. According to another, the papers sent by mail were lost somewhere. The third version says that the documents were stolen by order of the Western Union company, for which, by the way, that same Alexander Bell worked. Another competitor to the "well-known" inventor of the telephone was a man named Elisha Gray. He filed the application with the Patent Office two hours later than Bell - the legal battle between the two innovators subsequently dragged on until 1893. The American Themis ultimately rendered a verdict in favor of Bell.
The very first telephone did not have a bell - it was later invented by Bell's assistant, the same Thomas John Watson. The microphone was modified by Thomas Edison. He came up with the idea of starting a conversation with the word “hello”, that is, hello (“hello” in English). However, Italians and Japanese answer calls differently: residents of the Apennines say “pronto” (“ready, I accept”), and citizens of the Land of the Rising Sun say “moshi-moshi” (“talk-talk”).
The history of this invention was not without Russians. In 1895, Mikhail Freidenberg proposed to the world the concept of automatic telephone exchanges (ATS), which connected subscribers to each other without the help of a female operator. The offer turned out to be unclaimed, the profession survived - and became a thing of the past much later, in the middle of the 20th century.
"Hello, young lady!"
Telephonization was rapidly spreading throughout the world. The first city where devices began to appear in the apartments of wealthy people was Boston, where Bell lived and worked. In 1879, the invention “crossed” the Atlantic: a telephone exchange appeared in Paris, and in 1881 it became possible to talk to a friend without meeting him in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Berlin, Riga and Warsaw. By the beginning of the 20th century, international and long-distance lines began to entangle the planet, and by 1910 there were already more than 10 thousand stations all over the world that served more than 10 million subscribers!
A telephone in those days consisted of several devices weighing more than 8 kilograms! The Bell apparatus itself looked like an iron box with a lever and one or two tubes. In the first case, there was only a speaker in the handset, and you had to bend over to talk; in the second, the microphone was installed in an additional horn. This device was accompanied by a signal board that would ring as soon as the telephone operator called a subscriber. To use the device, you had to pick up the phone, twist the lever, which gave a current and “informed” the typist at the station that it was time to start a conversation. This is what a typical dialogue looked like:
To call a subscriber, the “young lady” plugged the plug into the corresponding socket on the panel in front of her. A good telephone operator managed to connect subscribers in less than 8 seconds.
In 1882, three-digit numbering was used in Moscow, with only 26 first subscribers. Over the next 10 years, the network grew to 1,892 numbers. The numbering became four-digit. Owning a telephone in those years was very expensive. Payment for a month of use is 250 rubles. For comparison: the monthly salary of a teacher is 25 rubles, a paramedic is 55. For the cost of installing a telephone, you could buy a full set of clothes or, for example, two excellent horses.
With the beginning of the 20th century, the Swedes began to deal with telephones in Moscow - the Ericsson company. They presented a new model of the device: the handset took on the usual form with two holes, and instead of a lever, a regular button appeared, or rather two - for connecting and for hanging up. The Scandinavians were able to reduce tariffs - a month of owning the device began to cost 63 rubles.
In 1903, a telephone was installed in the Kremlin. Emperor Nicholas II, who came to Moscow for this occasion, was presented with an ivory telephone inlaid with gold.
Telephony throughout the country
On January 1, 1917, there were 232 thousand subscriber numbers in Russia, and the numbering became five-digit. During the revolution, Lenin ordered his supporters to first seize the post office, telegraph and telephone exchange. After the Bolshevik victory - already in 1919 - communications were nationalized. Private telephones were also confiscated - they were transferred to police stations, military commandant's offices, institutions and enterprises of the city. Communication has become a rarity, available only to the party nomenklatura and the heroes of the Red Army, as well as doctors.
The pre-revolutionary volume of subscribers was restored only by 1923, and through the efforts of the same Swedes from Ericsson, as well as the Germans from Siemens. At the same time, the construction of automatic telephone exchanges began, which did not require the work of telephone operators. The first station in the USSR appeared in 1926 in Rostov-on-Don.
One of the reasons for replacing human labor with a “soulless machine” was secrecy - in an atmosphere of constant spy mania, allowing “young ladies” to listen telephone conversations It would be unforgivably irresponsible. However, the final profession of a “telephone girl” is for intercom became a thing of the past in the forties.
The advent of automatic telephone exchanges led to a change in the appearance of the devices themselves - they now had a dial dial. One of the first such devices was installed, of course, in the Kremlin - it received the nickname “spinner”. This word is still used today to refer to a government telephone.
On the disk, in addition to numbers, there were also letters of the Russian alphabet - A, B, V, G, D, E, ZH, I, K and L. The letter "Z" was absent, since it visually resembled a three. The numbers themselves were in format A-21-35.
In the USA, alphabetic numbering is still used today. Even on the first American telephones, there were rows of letters next to each number. If you have a push-button landline phone, pay attention - they are written there even now. Even on on-screen keyboard Mobile phones still have letters - and they are not intended for typing SMS. This was done to make it easier to remember numbers, for example, instead of the long and complex number +1-888-237-82-89, the combination 1-888-BEST BUY is used.
In Russia, this tradition did not take root due to the similarity of the pronunciation of Russian letters. Until the mid-1960s, telephone numbers in the USSR contained both numbers and letters, and then the latter were abandoned.
Officially, the first conversation on a mobile phone took place in 1973 in New York. But there is a version that the world’s first wireless devices appeared not in the USA, but in the Soviet Union. Back in 1961, TASS reported that radio engineer Leonid Kupriyanovich developed a model of a telephone that could transmit voice via radio to base station, located no further than 25 kilometers. The device weighed 500 grams and could operate in standby mode for 20–30 hours. It looked like a box with a number plate, a pair of toggle switches and a plug-in tube. The owner of such a device had to either hold the case in one hand and the tube in the other, or hang the box on his belt.
The author of the invention writes in the magazine “Young Technician”: “Wherever you are, you can always be found by phone, you just have to dial the known number of your radiophone from any landline phone (even from a pay phone). call, and you start a conversation. If necessary, you can dial any city number directly from a tram, trolleybus, or bus phone number, call ambulance, fire or emergency vehicle, contact home..."
Alas, after 1965 no one wrote about this invention anymore, and Leonid Kupriyanovich himself began to develop medical equipment.
Another thing is the Altai apparatus. This system of full-fledged mobile communications was deployed in Russia in the early seventies. But the phones themselves bore little resemblance to the cell phones we are used to: a large box - about 5-7 kilograms - with a handset. Carrying this in one’s hands was problematic, but the devices were equipped in the cars of the special services and party nomenklatura. The era of “Altai” ended in the 21st century, in 2011.
Mobile for the price of a Mustang
On a clear day on April 3, 1973, an elderly man named Martin Cooper walked out of the Motorola office in Lower Manhattan (New York). In his hand he was holding a strange light beige object. Moving away from the building, he pressed some buttons on it.
Almost immediately, a bell rang at the headquarters of the competing company Bell Laboratories - the machine in the office of the head of the research department, Joel Engel, was ringing. Picking up the phone, he heard Cooper's voice: “Do you know where I'm calling you from? I'm calling you from Manhattan, from the world's first cell phone.” In his memoirs, the researcher could not give Engel’s answer, but said: he clearly heard him grinding his teeth.
It took 10 years to fine-tune the device - the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X appeared on the public market only in 1983. The device weighed about a kilogram and was 25 centimeters high. In talk mode it worked for 35 minutes, and charged for 10 hours. The price was astronomical - more than $3,500, but despite this, a queue of buyers lined up for the phone. For comparison: for $6,500 in the USA you could buy a brand new Ford Mustang.
Full-fledged cellular communications in the form in which we know it came to Russia in 1991. Data transmission was carried out via the Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) standard, and the most popular phones there were Finnish Nokias. According to their own technical specifications they lost to the Motorolas - they weighed about 3 kilograms. The price was also steep - with connection, the device cost $4,000, and a minute of conversation cost $1.
By this time, the Motorola MicroTAC 9800X had already been released overseas - a phone with a flip cover that fit in the palm of your hand.
GSM AGE
By 1993, there were four mobile communication standards in operation in Russia: NMT (Delta Telecom operator), D-AMPS (BeeLine, which was then written in Latin letters), the already mentioned Altai and GSM (MTS and a little later Severo -Western GSM"). The last one has won - so far Voice connection transmitted exactly in this format.
At this time in the UK, 22-year-old Sema Group employee Neil Papworth was testing the possibilities GSM standard. Engineers were already able to implement the ability to determine the calling line number and a service that allowed this function to be blocked. But in his spare time, Papworth was engaged in other work - he was trying to achieve the ability to transmit not only voice, but also text over mobile lines. And in December 1992, he succeeded: the world's first SMS (Short Message Service) was sent. The text is simple and straightforward: “Merry Christmas!” The inventor was sure that his brainchild would be used exclusively for sending service messages, but it turned out differently: in 2015, 20 thousand text messages were sent around the world every second.
Telephone sets at this moment began to decrease in size. Displays, on the contrary, grew. If the first Motorola had only one line on the screen, then the Nokia 2110 released in 1994 already had three. This device has become somewhat iconic - it has an integrated alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch and SMS function. When making a call, that phone emitted the now famous Nokia Tune melody, which was installed in standard package for all devices of the Finnish company.
This phone turned out to be very popular in Russia - and even earned the reputation of “a mobile phone for the new Russian.”
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From Java to AppStore
Almost all the functions we are familiar with appeared in phones at the turn of the century. In 1999, devices learned to access the Internet using the WAP protocol. At the same time, web developers began to create mobile versions- no pictures. In the same year, a phone appeared that used two SIM cards. True, switching between them had to be done manually. In 2000, cell phones played MP3 tunes, took photographs, and even picked up GPS satellite signals. In 2002, Siemens released the SL45 with Java technology. This phone could download third party applications. Mostly games, but also melodies.
The design of telephones tended towards miniature - some models were created as ladies' ones. As a result, such “babies” as the Samsung SGH-A400 or Panasonic GD55 appeared - the size of a matchbox. Moreover, both of these models easily accessed the Internet, even if they only had a monochrome screen.
The world's first smartphone is considered to be the Nokia 9210, announced in 2002. It had a rare operating system(OS) Series S80. Subsequently, it, as well as other OS from Nokia S40 and S60, became part of the common Symbian OS, which was installed on their products not only by the Finns, but also by Motorola, SonyEricsson, Siemens, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Samsung, Sony, Sharp and Sanyo. The presence of an operating system made it possible to create a more convenient interface and work in multitasking mode.
In January 2007, Steve Jobs revealed iPhone world. Apple's smartphone was not the first device with a touchscreen function (that is, it could be controlled by touching the screen with your fingers), and certainly not the first touch phone. But this model, due to its wild popularity, made smartphones the way we know them now: big screen and a minimum of buttons. The device with the apple on the rear panel now has an alternative operating system - iOS. A year later, a third player will appear, which now occupies almost 80% of the market - Android OS.
The latest revolutionary change was the scheme wireless charging battery It appeared back in 2009, but gained popularity only in 2015. Another innovation is the AppStore and GooglePlay application stores, which emerged in 2010. You can also add NFC technology here, which allows you to pay by touching your phone to the terminal.
All other characteristics of phones have evolved. Let's take built-in cameras as an example - the first of them had a resolution of 0.3 megapixels, and now you can find devices with 41 megapixels on the market. The latest trend is the double flash. The Internet has also accelerated - if on the first phones with WAP downloading occurred at a speed of 10 kilobits per second, now, with LTE technology, it is already measured in gigabits.
The design, in turn, has been simplified: after the riot of form factors of the 2000s, now the vast majority of models are the usual rectangle with a thin body. After miniaturization, phones began to grow again - up to a seven-inch screen diagonal!
Experts interviewed by TASS argue that in the coming years smartphones are unlikely to change their appearance, but have every chance of squeezing laptops and cameras out of the market.
Leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin believes: phones will turn into full-fledged laptop computers to which you can connect external monitor, keyboard and mouse. They will have a large amount of RAM (there are already eight-core processors with more than 4 GB of RAM). With the advent of the 5G standard (data transfer at speeds of up to 7 Gb/sec), people will begin to abandon Wi-Fi.
Murtazin believes that people’s “dependence” on phones will also increase. Will become a thing of the past bank cards and magnetic badges: they will be installed directly into the phone (such technologies already exist). Perhaps the YotaPhone experiment with two screens will be repeated: “Everything else, for example flexible displays, is exotic, and they are unlikely to be on the market en masse.”
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