Mobile phones can be seen to have their origins in the walkie-talkies developed to improve military communications within the US Army. AM portable radios like the SCR-194 were developed by the US Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories and despite only having an approximate range of 5 miles and weighing 25 pounds, they greatly helped the Allied war effort during WWII.

A major progressive step in mobile phone design was made by Motorola, when in 1942 they created an entirely handheld walkie-talkie for the US Army to use during WWII. Despite having a relatively short range of 1 mile, the 5 pound weight made it far more practical for use in the field.

When the war ended, mobile phones entered a new phase: being fitted into cars. However, their cost put them out of the reach of the average citizen and their weight made them rather impractical. Bell System’s 1946 Mobile Telephone System (MTS) tipped the scales at 80 pounds, meaning the car was necessary to make it in any sense mobile. Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, car-based mobile phones slimmed down to 20 pounds, but remained ungainly.

Mobile phones freed themselves from cars in 1973, when Motorola Vice President Martin Cooper used the new DynaTac handset to make a call to his Bell Labs competitor Joel S Engel to tell him he needed to raise his game.

However, it wasn’t until Nokia’s Mobira Senator in 1982 that mobile phones edged towards their modern form, as it utilised the new 1G NTT automated cellular network covering Tokyo. NTT set the template for the global proliferation of cellular networks, which have evolved through 4 generations of improved technology to the present day.

Mobile phones finally became pocket-sized in 1989, when the Motorola MicroTAC was released featuring an innovative and influential flip-up design. Motorola were once again at the vanguard when they released the first mobile phone to use the much improved digital 2G GSM network which became operational in 1991, the Motorola International 3200.

In 1993, IBM released what was arguably the first smartphone, the Simon, which featured services like an address book, calendar and email and functions like a basic touchscreen and keyboard. However, smartphones developed further with the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1997, which had an improved keyboard and LCD screen enclosed in an innovative clamshell design.

Among the most successful models ever released, the Nokia 3210’s popularity stemmed in part from its ability to send picture messages. Also released in 1999 was the Nokia 7110, which represented a huge leap forward for mobile phones through its improved web access utilising Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

1999 also saw the release of the first mobile phone with an integrated camera, Kyocera’s VP-201 Visual Phone, and the first mobile phone to integrate GPS to enable maps to be uploaded and followed, GeoSentric’s Benefon Esc. Both features became staples of future mobile phones.

In 2002 the Blackberry 5810 combined RIM’s data functions with a mobile phone, just in time to compete with a large range of PDAs incorporating Pocket PC Phone Edition by Microsoft. However, the new age of smartphones was ushered in when Apple released the iPhone in 2007, featuring a groundbreaking touchscreen and adding 3G the following year, and the HTC Dream Slider was released in 2008, running Google’s Android OS and featuring a vastly improved web browser.

A large range of smartphones featuring improved image and video cameras were released in 2010, making mobile phones a powerful creative tool. When the HTC EVO 4G was unveiled in 2010, using the latest 4G cellular networks to enable HD video capabilities, smartphones entered a new era of multimedia capabilities and mobile phone gaming stepped up a level.

Mobile phone development hasn’t slowed down and there will be an impressive array of new phone functions revealed over the next few years. Much of the future of mobile phones will be shaped by ingenious app developers, while new functions like mobile payment, in which the mobile phone is used to pay for items instead of cash or a credit card, are being embraced by most mobile phone companies.

It’s been quite a journey for mobile phones, driven forward by creative imaginations and technological innovation, and only the foolhardy would claim to be able to accurately predict the revolutionary mobile phone features that will be introduced in the not too distant future.

“A Brave New World: The Emergence of the Cell Phone” was brought to you by Ladbrokes Bingo.