Phones or smart phones

Anybody who saw the first mobile phones that were released in the seventies would be shocked to see how far they have come in such a short time. The modern smart phone is capable of things that were unimaginable just a few years ago. This evolution has made it necessary for people to constantly be upgrading to a new phone.

The first mobile phones were gigantic devices that took up a whole brief case. These phones served no other purpose than being able to make phone calls. They were very expensive and of limited value since they could only be used in a very small number of places. The phones would start to get smaller during the eighties so that by the end of the decade they were getting down to a size that was at least manageable. The coverage for the phones however remained very limited which kept them out of widespread use.

The real evolution of mobile phones took place in the nineties as the phones got much smaller and the networks for using them were dramatically expanded. This was when mobile phones started to go into widespread use. It was also during this period that additional features started to appear on phones like alarm clocks, stop watches and the like. Compared to the phones that we have today they remained fairly basic but they were a huge step forward at the time.

The next big step forward for cell phones occurred as a result of the spread of wireless internet. It started to dawn on the phone makers that there was no reason that you couldn't access the internet through your mobile phone. This lead to all kinds of additional features being added to the phones, the most obvious of these being the web browser. It was this more than anything that made the mobile phone the indispensible device that it is today, it also set mobile phones up for the next big evolution.

It didn't take the makers of mobile phones long realize that there was no reason that they couldn't add an operating system to phones. As soon as they started doing this the smart phone was born. With an operating system the phone became a true computer capable of pretty much anything that your laptop was capable of. This allowed them to add all kinds of new features to the phones. It also allowed for the development of apps which allow users to add new features to their phones as they desire.

The move to smart phones has certainly made them much more capable but it has also created a situation where people are being required to constantly buy new phones. New features are constantly being added to replace the old ones. In truth these features are often of limited value and most people really don't know how to use most of them anyway. Nevertheless whenever a new model of smart phone comes out there will be a lineup of people waiting to buy them.