Mobile News and Mobile Info

Mobile phones have evolved immensely since 1983, both in design and function.

From the Motorola DynaTAC, that power symbol that Michael Douglas wielded so forcefully in the movie “Wall Street”, to the iPhone 3G, which can take a picture, play a video, or run one of the thousands applications available from the Apple Store.

There are thousands of models of Mobile phones that have hit the streets between 1983 and now.

We’ve picked a few of the more popular and unusual ones to take you through the history of this device that most of us consider a part of our everyday lives.

We have tried, wherever possible, to include the most popular phones and the phones that were “firsts” for a particular feature, but may have missed out on your favorite phones due to the sheer number of models that are out there.

We invite you to post your faves in the comments section if they are not listed here.

Mobile phones are just now beginning to be as vital to North Americans as they have been to Asians. You can always see what is coming to store shelves in the next six months to a year by looking at the models that are currently available in Japan.

North America also had a spotty 3G network that has only really been revamped recently in order to deal with increasing demands for faster loading speeds from mobile customers, whereas Asia and most of Europe have had proper 3G networks in place for some time.

This has led to a revolution in 3G phones from 2007 until now, with more due to come out in 2009.

The list does not include any phones that were not portable handhelds. Car phones and some handhelds that were the size of a small briefcase were in use in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but since this is more about design than function we chose not to include them here.

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O2 Germany is preparing to pull down Xda Orbit 2 and introduce a new device instead. The so called O2 Xda Guide will be the carrier exclusive device, running the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.1).

Other specs include:

• Qualcomm 528 MHz MSM 7225 CPU
• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA support
• 2.8″ QVGA touchscreen (why not VGA?)
• Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi
• GPS receiver
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM
• microSD expansion slot

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O2 Ireland has boosted its mobile broadband service, giving customers HSUPA up to 1.4 Mbps. The HSDPA (downstream) rolls in at 7.2 Mbps – that’s faster than my fixed line broadband! Customers will be able to get this online or at stores, and the The devices which are HSUPA capable include the USB Modem E270, USB Stick E170 and Express Card E870.

This one goes out to all you cyclists out there.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could harness all that energy you’re putting in to pedaling yourself from point A to point B? While this new pedal-power harnessing technology won’t help you do more than yap on your handset just a bit longer, putting your bicycle’s pedals to better more use than ordinary transportation is a worthy feat indeed.

O2 is showcasing their new cellphone battery charger which takes your pedal-power and turn it in to electrical power. O2 plans to highlight the pedal-powered charger at the O2 Wireless Festival in London’s Hyde Park. Unfortunately, the demo is being shown on stationary bikes – which bodes well for applications for cardio machines in gyms around the world – but if successful, we could see the tech hit the street, literally.

James Blackman spoke exclusively to new O2 UK business sales director Ben Dowd about the network’s three-year strategy, and how the visions of its partners in the independent channel are just as important as their own.

Vodafone, it appeared, was making all the big cutting decisions, but O2’s strategy to take consumer sales from the high street only and to micro-manage business sales via the distribution channel looked broadly similar.

It is only now, following changes to its UK management team and maturation of its sales strategy, that O2’s moves look to have been deliberate from the start and, though made in the same climate of consolidation and convergence, wholly independent of rival Vodafone. It is only now clear how much the old analysis of O2’s sales drive does it a disservice.