Cell Phone Technology

The cell phone originated in 1920 in the form of radio calls. The radio call faced further developments in 1940, which saw the introduction of various features that saw the transformation of the phone into the current design. Initially, the radio call or the first phones were used in security departments.

In 1973 Martin Cooper, of Motorola Company, first invented a phone that had features which differentiated it from radio calls. Cooper, with the assist from other inventors used the ideas of a car phone to change radio calls into portable cell phones. In 1984, the phones got into the public as large and expensive gadgets. The Federal Communication Commission established laws that restricted the number of calls within the same service area (Oracle thinkquest 1).

The main inventor of cell phones is Martin Cooper who is the pioneer of Motorola cell phones. Martin lived in Chicago and got his degree in electrical engineering from the Institute of Technology in Illinois. Martin worked closely with Richard Dronsuth, James Mikulski, Roy Richardson, Albert Mikulski, John Sangster and Charles Lynk (Oracle thinkquest 1). Evolution Evolution of cell phones started in 1920, when the radio call faced its initial stages of transformation towards the formation of cell phones. However, radical transformations began in 1983, when the radio call became a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1989, the first portable phone came into existence in the form of a Motorola MicroTAC 9800X.

This got rid of the old ystem that had phones fixed in cars and other machineries. In 1992, extra features were incorporated into the Motorola MicroTAC 9800X and transformed it into Motorola International 3200. This model was smaller than the previous phones and became the first hand-sized phone. Nokia emerged as a competitor company in 1994 and came up with Nokia 1011. The phone was the first GSM phone produced by mass.

Thereafter, BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator came in 1993 as the first phone combo. The next phone model was Motorola StarTAC, which became the first phone to introduce the screen feature (Oracle thinkquest 1). Thereafter, evolution of phones became rampart with the introduction of various physical and operation features. The most notable features that centred evolution include size, speed of operation, internet. Other features include the introduction of an FM Radio, camera, sound and video recorder, and tracking system.

Currently, we have the S001 Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot, which has an elegant screen and an 8.1 megapixel camera. The phone has hundreds of applications that never existed in the early phones of 1980’s (Oracle thinkquest 14).Uses Apart from calling and short message services, cell phones have digital cameras that take clear pictures and store them in a photo gallery. Detectives use audio and video recording feature to record conversations in both audio and visual form. The multimedia messaging allows users of the current phone to send anything recorded in the form off video, audio message or picture that are send to another phone.

Phones can now access to the internet, thus allowing their user to browse and send electronic mails. Games and other puzzles can be downloaded and stored in phones for entertainment and learning purposes. Other entertainment uses are radio, television and music player systems fixed in the phones. Sophisticated phones are currently capable of viewing documents in Ms-Office form. Phones are also acting like credit cards by enabling one to carry out transactions with financial institutions (D'Aiello 43). Social Implications Social implications of cell phones range from health to moral issues.

The electromagnetic waves produced by cell phones cause brain tumours and Alzheimer's diseases. Phones encourage pornography, since they make such sites easily accessible to its users. Research also shows that phones increase rates of accidents to drivers who communicate on phones while driving. However, cell phones have positive impacts to the social misfits who find it easy to socialize and communicate on phones than on one-on-one interaction (Sulekha 23).

The Future of Cell Phones The future of cell phones is quite predictable, when its history is put into consideration. The speed of the internet will be increased, handsets will be sleeker than the current phones and cameras with high quality features will be introduced. Use of digital cameras will be a history (Rothman 12).