When the idea of the cellular telephone was first introduced it was met with skepticism – most people didn’t believe that it was necessary. People were content with their land-line phones and when the first model hit the market the demand was minimal.
However, the landscape of information transfer has changed greatly in the two decades since the first commercial cell phone was released, and these changes have affected people’s attitudes toward the technology.
Brian Ho, a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University junior computer engineering student and runner-up in a recent Motorola competition for future cell phone design, said he thought the speed of communications in today’s society plays a big part in people’s attitudes toward cell phones.
“Cell phone technology at this point is no longer only about voice communications.” Ho said. “Consumers demand wireless high-speed internet, TV, video chat and the company that can roll out these services the most effectively, and at the lowest price, wins.”
Today many people cannot imagine being without the easy, around-the-clock access to information that their cell phones provide, and because of that, the cell phone market is a multi-dimensional technological success story.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
The first commercial cell phone to receive FCC approval was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. Released in 1983, the phone weighed close to two pounds and stood a now unimaginable 10 inches high.
At its debut the DynaTAC 8000x cost a whopping $3,995 and offered only about a half hour of talk time per charge. Ten years in the making, the 8000x and wireless technology in general cost Motorola $100 million to develop; the phone set off what has now become a booming industry.
Although the DynaTAC is surely a dinosaur compared to today’s cutting-edge phones, its girth helped pave the way for what is enjoyed today. Motorola’s money-maker in 2006 – the Razr V3 – which costs $150, or $3845 less than the DynaTAC, and is one-third the height and approximately one-tenth the weight.
According to fourth-quarter 2005 accounts, Motorola shipped 44.7 million handsets during the period, led by the fast-moving Razr and backed by the 26 other products the company has released in the last year, leading to an 86 percent jump in income.
Other wireless providers, Cingular and AT’T Inc. – both owned by BellSouth Corp. – Nokia and Verizon Wireless also reported strong sales for 2005 in general and for the fourth quarter in particular.
Stan Sigman, Cingular president and CEO, said in a statement that he was pleased with how the company finished the year, adding that it was a strong period for retaining customers and for continued growth.
“I am also pleased that we continue to bring out a steady stream of innovative offers and capabilities – from even easier access to the wireless Internet, to the ability to view exciting new video content, to productivity boosting devices and applications.” Sigman wrote, “These are making a real difference in the lives of our customers.”
BRIDGING THE GAP
A lot of ground has been covered in between the advent of the simple cell phone with the Motorola DynaTAC and the multifaceted devices in use today. The path from the monstrously bulky 8000x to the incredibly sleek Razr is paved with innovation and marked by technological breakthroughs in the fields of computer-processor size, battery size and ability to hold charge, keypad mechanisms and more.
The proliferation of the cell phone has coincided, not incidentally, with that of the internet. As computer technology becomes more affordable, more households are getting online where they quickly adapt to email, web-browsing and internet purchasing. The increased efficiency of CPUs, reduced cost – in both manufacturing cost and energy drain in devices – of hardware and added interest in speed of communication has led people to cell phones.
Increased interest in cell phones has then translated into increased interest in the potential profits to be made from the industry that has evidenced itself in wireless providers’ constant battles to stay ahead of the competition and provide consumers with a hot new product.
This competition has, at least in part, led to the growing market of “convergence” products. Convergence devices, as the name suggests, integrate multiple devices into one product – the first such device in the cell phone market was Samsung’s J-SH04 camera phone, released in Japan in 2000.
Since then camera phones have become commonplace, only recently being replaced by phones with both cameras and the ability to download and play music – first as ring tones and then simply as MP3 files.
Capitalizing on the popularity of digital music didn’t take wireless providers long, quickly adapting phones to at first play clips of songs as ring tones, for a fee of course, and then to serve as mini-MP3 players.
Motorola has recently released a phone, the Rokr, that combines the best of all three products: digital camera, phone and music player. Taking advantage of Apple’s iTunes music player and a sizable memory cache, the phone can store up to 100 songs. In addition to the MP3 capabilities, the phone features a 2.0 megapixel camera and all the standard features of a cell phone, including address book, speed dial and speakerphone.
Jorma Ollila, Nokia’s CEO and chairman, expressed optimism about the growing market for such combination products in a statement.
“We expect the market for convergence devices to double to 100 million units in 2006.” Ollila said. “Convergence is opening up a world of opportunities for our customers and partners, and Nokia is committed to developing the tools, solutions and products to make the promise of the digital industry a success.”
Judith Austin, associate professor of Advertising at the Boston University College of Communication, said she didn’t think that convergence devices are for everyone.
“With regards to the bells and whistles,” Austin said, “I think they will appeal to individual consumers depending on their age and life style.”
TO THE FUTURE
Brian Ho, in the recent Motorola MOTOFWRD competition created a “heads-up” display run through specially designed glasses and a wristwatch that would combine “a personal computer, PDA, GPS navigation platform, cell phone, MP3 player and credit card all in one place,” said he saw no limits to how far consumer electronics might go.
“Where technology goes in the future is really more dependent on the content industry than anyone else.” Ho said. “Organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA are encouraging excessive restrictions on what can and can’t be done with their products.
“If you already own a song on CD, and you want to listen to it on your cell phone, you might have to pay another $2.99 to have it downloaded to your phone.”
MOTOFWRD awarded a $10,000 scholarship, an apprenticeship with Motorola’s Chief Technology Office and a Bluetooth-enabled car to the grand-prize winner, John Finan, a biomedical engineering graduate student and PHD candidate at Duke University. He created a “Mood Phone,” a device that would flash a range of colors seen in the peripheral vision of the user according to tone of voice to demonstrate the emotions experienced by the caller. Motorola called the competition an attempt at “challenging emerging innovators to depict … how tomorrow’s society will answer to the consumer demand to live life wherever, whenever and however.”
Ho said he hoped that in the future technology would become helpful again, “almost like a personal assistant always on call, where you can function with, or without the device.”