Do you often get bouts of nostalgia? Cellular communications have been actively used in the world for only about 20 years, and even less in Belarus. In two decades, the industry has grown from an “elite service” accessible to a few to the state of one of the most widespread services in the world. It was a difficult and eventful way of changing standards and, of course, phones.
With today's material, we open a series of articles about telephones, which at one time became cult and many of which are still remembered. First, let's remember the mobile phones of the last century. Some of them sold in record batches, which manufacturers still can only dream of, others were years ahead of their era, and the design of the third even today makes the hearts of true aesthetes stop.
We decided not to make a rating, because each of the listed phones left a mark in the history of cellular communications and ranking them is a thankless task. When determining the "cult" of the models, we took into account the worldwide recognition of certain devices, but taking into account the Belarusian specifics. So, let's brush away a stingy male tear and plunge into the world of the past, so distant by the standards of the cellular industry, in the era of the beginning of the Golden Age of mobile phones.
Motorola StarTAC
Release date: 1996
It would be a sin not to mention at least one Motorola phone when talking about mobile phones of the last century. The ancestor of the cell phone segment has released a lot of interesting models, but StarTAC definitely deserves a place in our "pantheon". At least for the fact that he popularized the clamshell format, which outlived the devices with flips and survived to this day. True, both the screen and the keyboard of the device were located on the bottom half.
The StarTAC model has sold more than 60 million copies around the world, the phone was even included in the top ten gadgets released over the past 50 years. At the start, the device was very expensive - you had to pay about $ 1000 for it, but even this did not stop StarTAC from dispersing like hot cakes. Despite the antiquity, the device was very compact and weighed less than 90 g. It is not surprising that it remained relevant for a long time, until the early 2000s.
Nokia 9000 Communicator
Release date: 1996
Today's dominance of smartphones is due to this formidable brick. The Communicator series in the 20th century could not boast of high sales, but this was not required of it. Nokia 9xxx phones were designed to show the capabilities and advantages of the operating system - first GEOS, and then Symbian.
The Nokia 9000 model has become the first bird of business devices of the Finnish corporation. In the device, the developers tried to combine the functionality of the phone and the computer. Not to say that it was completely successful, but the effort was not in vain. The device had a processor operating at a frequency of 24 MHz, and 8 MB of memory, of which as much as 2 MB remained for storing user data. Two screens, an unusual laptop form factor for mobile devices, a weight of 400 g ... The device had something to surprise its rare customers. And the phone could shock others with the price and its brick dimensions.
People liked to look at Nokia 9000 Communicator (as well as its followers), they could dream about it, but they were in no hurry to buy it. Too unusual, too conceptual, too large and expensive - the ancestor of modern smartphones is still remembered for predetermining history.
BenefonDragon
Release date: 1998
This dinosaur came to us straight from the NMT era, from the forgotten times of BelSel dominance, when businessmen in crimson jackets and their girlfriends in leopard coats could afford a phone. The Benefon Dragon has become a phenomenon in our country not because of its incredible specifications or attractive design, but rather in spite of it. It's all about having no choice. Those who needed connectivity had to choose from one and a half phone models, and the Dragon was effectively the only option for a long time.
A bulky barrel about 2.5 cm thick and weighing under 200 g - they liked to attach it to a belt and flaunt it in decent places. The content of Benefon Dragon cost a tidy sum, and the functionality of the device, in addition to the main purpose, was limited to hours, a calculator and an alarm clock. The owners did not forget to blame the quality of BelSel's communication, but on occasion they liked to extol the quality of Benefon Dragon's reception - such a dualism.
With the advent and development of the GSM standard in Belarus, they began to forget about Benefon Dragon, but it received its few years of fame.
EricssonT28s
Release date: 1999
To be honest, I have never liked Ericsson phones. The Swedes continued to produce devices with an indecently small screen, while competitors had already mastered the production of compact models with rather large displays for those times. Ericsson phones have often been criticized for their poor antenna, questionable design, occasional firmware glitches, and lack of functionality compared to competitors.
The T28s is by no means perfect, but it still had something to grab buyers. Imagine that the thickness of the phone, which saw the light of day 13 years ago, was only 15 mm, and it weighed 80 g. Against the background of the “strong men” and “fat men” of the end of the last century, whose thickness noticeably exceeded 20 mm, this was a breakthrough. Stylish trendy youth! In fact, Ericsson T28s was positioned as a business device, but about a year after the release, its price fell by almost three times: almost everyone had a chance to feel like a "businessman".
Oh, how the owners of T28s loved to effectively clap their pet's active flip! True, and they suffered with him decently. Because of the flimsy fastening, the flip was loose, and it cost nothing to break it off. And yet for the ability to put the phone in any pocket and not feel it, Ericsson T28s forgave a lot, even a miniature screen. Such a toy - yes, a display from Sony CMD-Z5, which was half hidden behind a flip, and there would be no price for it.
Siemens S25
Release date: 1999
IT HAS A COLOR SCREEN! About any Retina, 16 million colors and in general about the resolution of the display (the main thing is the number of lines!) Then no one thought. Terrible from today's position, the color palette of green, red and blue beckoned to itself, promising never-before-seen "beautifulness". The very fact that a cell phone with a color screen appeared on sale excited the minds of potential buyers.
The S25 was not the first mobile phone with a colorful display. A couple of years before it, the Siemens S10 came out, but then its time simply did not come. In general, the S25 was also not so popular at first. It was stared at, touched, admired, but eventually shunned because of the high price. Everything changed in a year and a half, when the price dropped to an acceptable level and Siemens S25 became one of the most common phones with a color screen at the turn of the century.
Nokia 7110
Release date: 1999
The futuristic, even cosmic design of this phone with a “shooting” slider is either completely and irrevocably liked, or disgusted by its disproportionate design with a display that wants to “run away” outside the case. For computer geeks, Nokia 7110 was valuable primarily for its WAP support. Strictly speaking, it was the first phone that could interact with the Internet using the new technology.
1999... Surfing the net through the phone... Everyone who remembers those times understands how strange it sounds. And yet it is true - Nokia 7110 was the first mass phone that allowed its owners to somehow surf the World Wide Web. In general, the device was a real mobile combine with support for all the technologies available at that time, up to the infrared port.
For many, Nokia 7110 is also remembered for its wheel - NaviRoller. The conceptual analogue of this control is Sony's JogDial, only in Japanese phones the wheel was located on the side, and in Finnish phones it was in front, under the screen. And after all, it was a convenient thing, without any sensors.
Siemens SL45
Release date: 2000
Many people still consider the SL45 the best phone of all time. This model is a vivid example of how the phone was ahead of all competitors for years. The undisputed technological leader for models released at the end of the last century. In fact, the SL45 replaced several devices at once: in addition to the phone, it was a player, a voice recorder, an organizer and a “flash drive” for transferring information. The device was equipped with an infrared port, supported memory cards and Java (to activate it, however, it was necessary to delve into the software "innards" or wait for the release of the SL45i), which opened up vast spaces for programmers.
All the technological advances in the field of "telephone construction" that had accumulated by the end of the 20th century were embodied in the Siemens SL45. By purchasing this device, the user also acquired an incredibly stylish thing with an aluminum finish on the front panel. Look at it - even today the design of the SL45 looks quite modern, and this despite the external antenna, which looks more elegant than ever. The thickness of the device was only 17 mm, the weight did not exceed 90 g.
"You would have a color screen, a higher data transfer rate - and the world would have received the perfect phone for all time",- something like this I reasoned, changing the SL45 to something more modern, but not sunk into the soul like the legend from Siemens.
Sonycmd-J5
Release date: 2000
At the very end of the 20th century, a bright Japanese star called Sony CMD-J5 rose in the mobile sky. . There is no exact data on how many minds and wallets the polyphonic speaker of this phone conquered, but most likely a lot. The low price contributed to the growth of the model's popularity, which made the device more attractive in the eyes of buyers compared to the expensive fashion Sony CMD-Z5.
Ten years ago, no one would have dared to call the J5 an ugly phone. With a compact and lightweight body, the protruding antenna was only slightly discordant. Otherwise, we have before us - the pinnacle of the classical style of the end of the last century.
But they fell in love with Sony CMD-J5 not only for its design, low price and polyphony. The phone had a large chic display with the ability to display four shades of gray and a beautiful "ball" menu with an imitation of a three-dimensional effect. But how not to remember such a convenient thing as the JogDial wheel? Today, such a control looks like an anachronism, and 12 years ago, Sony, thanks to it, got itself a lot of loyal fans.
Siemens M35i
Release date: 2000
The popular progenitor of the famous SUV series in the world of phones and the "father" of the legendary ME45, which came out a year later. The device captivated with the perfect combination of sports security and daily practicality. The M35i could be mocked more than the famous Nokia 3310. Water procedures and unbalanced users were not at all indifferent to it - the phone case was reliably protected by rubber inserts, the holes were covered with waterproof plugs, the battery compartment was additionally protected by a gasket, and the cover could only be opened by unscrewing a special screw .
Siemens M35i security elements are widely used to this day in dustproof phones and smartphones. It is gratifying that the model did not become bulky and clumsy, and in terms of dimensions and weight did not differ from standard mobile phones for that time. In addition, the phone did not put an exorbitant price tag. Lovers of light extreme did not need more.
Nokia 3310
Release date: 2000
For many, as well as for the author of this article, the legendary Finnish device has become the first phone. Today, it's even scary to remember how much the Nokia 3310 has gone through, rightfully deserving the title of the most indestructible and long-lived mobile phone among the people. Each owner of this device can certainly tell stories about how his phone was thrown to the ground, washed in the pouring rain, bathed in the bathroom or toilet, how nails were hammered with a device, fought off robbers and opened hundreds of bottles of beer.
The model had interchangeable panels (removing the native case is not an easy task), it was even possible to pack the device into a transparent case. I, however, preferred to leave the classic blue. And what individual enthusiasts did with the Nokia 3310 is a topic for a separate extensive article. With the help of a special cable, they learned how to connect the phone to a computer through contacts located directly on the board, after which it was possible to reflash the device, change the color of the display backlight and turn on Net Monitor.
Nokia 3310 is a real mobile legend, which, without a twinge of conscience, could be put in first place in any rating of old phones. It is interesting that the model's predecessor, the Nokia 3210, was sold in an even larger batch - about 160 million copies, but still the status of a legend was fixed precisely for 3310.
This is how we remember the era of the beginning of the Golden Age of mobile phones. Long by industry standards, the reign of Nokia and Siemens, whose dominance, as it seemed then, nothing can shake. Many will surely remember Alcatel and Trium, Panasonic and even Bosch - for each subscriber, his first phone becomes special, and over time, the feeling of the significance of that very first “dialer” grows.
Next time, let's look at the beginning of the 21st century, the time of the "mobile revolution" and the rapid development of GSM in our country.
An antique telephone dating from the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century can become an original piece of furniture or even lay the foundation for a future private collection. A short historical digression from ABITANT experts will help you better understand the intricacies of such a delicate issue.
Behind Bell and Edison
The name of Alexander Graham Bell, who on February 14, 1876, patented the first electric telephone in the Western Union Washington Bureau, is known, of course, to a good half of mankind. And the American company Bell Telephone, founded in 1877, in just two years grew into the international alliance The International Bell Telephone Company, which launched production and active commercial activities on both sides of the ocean. Meanwhile, phones from Western Union are becoming more and more popular in America, and Europeans are setting up their own, no less progressive and revolutionary production of devices, which quickly introduced the invention of Thomas Edison's carbon powder microphone into everyday reality. The real innovators of the industry in the Old World are the German company Siemens and Halske, which opened a plant in St. Petersburg in 1877, and the Danish manufacturer Ericsson L.M., which own the most extraordinary models of the era.
Paris telephone boom
In order to imagine the emerging "telephone boom" just a few statistical facts are enough. So, in January 1890, the first directory of metropolitan subscribers was published in Paris, which already included 6995 persons (823 of them private individuals), listed in alphabetical order with the specification of the address and profession. Telephone operators of 12 nodes of the city found the desired interlocutor precisely according to these latest data. So, for example, one could ask "Pierre Tettinger, a metal merchant living at 22 Rue Dunkirk and connected to the Boulevard Villette communications hub." Intercity connections were possible with Brussels, Le Havre, Rouen, Lille, Reims, Lyon and Marseille, but at certain intervals. And the increased demand for telephones led to the mass reproduction of Parisian manufacturing companies: at the turn of the century their number was already several dozen (Aboilard, Grammont, Jacqueson, Charron Bellanger, Gautier & Hugues, Picart-Lebas, Berthon-Ader, Thomson-Houston, SGT (Société Générale des Téléphones), SIT (Société Industrielle des téléphones), J. Dubeuf, LMT (Le Materiel Téléphonique Constructeur), Radiguet, Burgunder and many others.). Among the manufacturers of other countries, we should also mention the Swiss RTT and A. Zellweger, the American company S.H. Couch Company and Danish Emil Mollers–Horsens.
Types of antique telephones
But back to the very subject of discussion. Over several decades of technological telephone boom, designers and engineers have developed more than a dozen different types of private and office telephony sets. So, the first models were divided into wall and desktop; for horn, for devices with a fixed microphone, devices with two auditory tubes, devices with a bucket tube. Wall phones, in turn, were divided into models such as "cathedral", "stand" and "mold", and desktop phones - into a post with a column (otherwise "candlestick" or "stand"), into a "brick" (or "coffin" ), "sewing machine", "violin" and "lyre". L.M.T. also released a desktop version inspired by the Normandie. The bodies were made of solid wood, mostly walnut and akazhu and varnished, and from the 1920s glossy ebonite and bakelite models came into fashion. In the early 1930s, the first models with rotating dials appeared.
The price of telephones of the late 19th-early 20th century varies from 150 to 700-800 euros, depending on the condition of the device, its manufacturer and the rarity of the object. And the cost of some of the most rare and unique specimens can reach 2,000 euros.
One of the finest telephones by Berthon-Ader, 1897
Legendary type telephone« sewing machine» by Ericsson L.M., 1910
Telephone set type« music stand» by Mors Abdank, 1894
Desk horn type« Column» firm Berliner, 1912
Aboilard horn table apparatus, 1904
Wall Mount Type« Cathedral» companies Berliner, 1916
Tabletop model with two eustachian tubes and a fixed microphone from Burgunder, 1908
Desktop machine type« candlestick» from Grammont, 1920s
Wooden model from 1924, completed in the 1930s with a dial, Dunyach et Leclert
Desktop model type "brick» from Ericsson France, 1930
Iconic bakelite model« Normandy» from L.M.T., 1934, art deco style
Almost no modern person can imagine his life and work without a phone.
However, quite recently, on a historical scale, there were times when the phone was considered a luxury. Who invented and introduced the telephone to the general public?
Content:Fixed line
As everyone knows, the era of telephone communications began with wired telephones that could transmit voice messages using technologies that were significantly different from modern ones.
Such a device was a major breakthrough and the first "bell" of an active scientific and technological revolution, which began almost immediately from the moment such an innovative device was created.
History
The first telephone was created in an era when the telegraph was the only way to more or less quickly transmit messages over long distances.
At that time, the telegraph was considered a perfect and fully functional means of communication with remote regions.
However, the invention of the telephone revolutionized the use of the telephone rather quickly.
It is worth noting that the invention of the telephone could not even be conceived until the moment when electricity was discovered.
When electricity became more or less widely used, the telegraph appeared - morse presented to the public in 1897 not only his alphabet, but also a broadcasting device.
The appearance of the world's first device capable of quickly transmitting information without a physical carrier over a greater distance proved that such a method of transmission is possible in principle, and gave the scientists of that time an impetus to develop methods for its improvement.
First apparatus
And at the end of the 19th century, scientists managed to significantly improve the method of transmission, give it a new format. It is believed that the telephone was invented by Alexander Bell, but this is not entirely true.
The appearance of the device would be impossible without Philip Rice- German scientist.
It was Rice who created the very basis of the future telephone.- a device capable of transmitting a recording of a human voice over some (rather large for that time) distances using galvanic current conductors. Rice's development saw the light in 1861, and during this period Bell took it as the basis of his future invention - the telephone, in the form in which it is known to us now.
So, 15 years later, namely in 1876, the first telephone based on galvanic current appeared, the inventor of which was considered Alexander Graham Bell.
At this year's World's Fair, a Scottish researcher presented his apparatus for transmitting voice messages at a distance, and also applied for a patent.
Specifications
What technical characteristics did this first device have?
It was significantly inferior not only to devices that spread in the 20th century, but also to subsequent models created by Bell a few years later.
However, at that time, its characteristics were considered premium.
The distance that the device could transmit sound was 200 m, which was a lot.
Initially, he had a strong sound distortion, but with the next improvement, Alexander Bell eliminated this problem.
And in this form, the device, invented and improved by him, existed for almost 100 years.
History of creation
Like many famous inventions that changed not only the course of scientific and technological progress, but also the course of history, this was created by accident.
Initially, Alexander Bell's goal was not to create a device that transmits a voice message, but to create a telegraph machine capable of transmitting several telegrams simultaneously.
In the process of experiments on such an improvement of the telegraph apparatus, the telephone was created.
The telegraph worked using pairs of records, and for their experience, Bell and his assistant prepared several pairs of such records, which were tuned to work at different frequencies.
As a result of a slight violation of the technology of the experiment, one of the plates got stuck.
The inventor's assistant began to express his opinion on what had happened, while Bell himself at that moment carried out some manipulations with the receiving device of the telegraph apparatus.
A few seconds later, scientists heard sounds coming from the transmitter and resembling a voice recording, albeit with very strong distortion. From that moment the history of telephone communication began. After Alexander Bell presented his device to the public, many eminent scientists began work to improve the existing device.
The Patent Office issued hundreds of patents for devices that could modernize and improve the created phone. The most significant of them are:
1 Call T. Watson, which replaced the whistle that was originally installed on Bell's apparatus, which appeared in 1878;
2 Carbon microphone M. Michalsky, which allowed to improve the quality of transmission, and created in 1878;
3 Automatic telephone exchange for 10,000 S. Apostolov numbers which appeared in 1894.
The importance of Alexander Bell's invention can also be assessed in terms of financial parameters.
This patent became one of the most profitable in the world, it was he who made Bell a world-famous and very rich man. But was it deserved?
Meucci's contribution
In 2002, the US Congress recognized that this patent was issued undeservedly, and the true discoverer of telephone communications should not be considered the Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell, but the Italian inventor Antonio Meucci, who created his device for many years of Bell's dot telephone.
In 1860, he actually created the first apparatus capable of transmitting sound over wires. Meucci's device was called the telextrophone.
At the time of the creation and improvement of the invention, Meucci lived in the USA, was already almost an elderly man and was in a very poor financial situation.
At this stage, his invention and interested in a large company Western Union.
Its representatives offered the scientist to sell all his developments for a substantial amount, and also promised to assist in obtaining a patent.
The poor financial situation forced Meucci to give in to the company's demands. He received his money, but he did not get any help in obtaining a patent, so he applied himself, but was refused. And in 1876, Alexander Bell received a patent for an almost completely similar device.
This was a serious shock to Meucci, and he tried to challenge the decision to award the patent to Bell in court.
During the first stages of the proceedings, Meucci did not have enough finances to deal with a huge corporation.
As a result, the right to a patent was nevertheless returned to him in court, but only when the term of this patent had already expired.
Important! It was only in 2002 that a resolution of the Congress of the United States of America came out, according to which it was Meucci who was officially recognized as the inventor of the telephone.
The twentieth century
Apparatuses similar to those invented by Meucci were used throughout most of the twentieth century.
They were constantly improved, and if the first models that became widespread could only communicate with the called subscriber through the telephone exchange, which required manual connection, then later these stations became automatic, subscribers were able to communicate almost directly.
The advent of such an automatic communication system was a big step towards the invention of the telephone as users know it today.
The first telephone that brought scientists closer to the invention of cellular communications was the radiotelephone.
After that, the first cell phone appeared, and relatively recently, satellite telephony.
The newest of the existing developments can be called, which already has little in common directly with the phone, but performs the same functions.
mobile connection
The history of cellular communications began with radiotelephones, the first tests of which were carried out in 1941 by G. Shapiro and I. Zakharchenko in the USSR, and by AT&T Bell Laboratories in the USA.
The system worked on the basis of radio communication and was supposed to be used for communication between cars (in the modern sense, it was more like a walkie-talkie than a telephone).
In both superpowers, the tests were successful and the system fully met the expectations of the inventors.
And already in 1947, the concept of using hexagonal cells for communication was first proposed in the United States. It was proposed for use by Douglas Ring and Ray Young, inventors working for Bell. The tests were also successful, and it was on the basis of this technology that mobile communications were further developed (and it was on the basis of this technology that it got its name).
But the real birthplace of mobile communications is still considered not the USA or the USSR, but Sweden.
Here, in 1956, a communication system between cars was launched and successfully operated, which became the first such system in the world.
Initially, the project was implemented in the three largest cities of the state - Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
Telephone sets of Kupriyanovich
The first telephone set that could be truly mobile and used in field devices was invented in the USSR.
The subscriber could carry it with him, it did not need to be built into cars and transported, like earlier models.
The apparatus was presented to the public by L.I. Kupriyanovich, a Soviet engineer, in 1957.
The weight of the device was 3 kg, which was very small by the then standards, while it operated over fairly long distances - up to 30 km, depending on the terrain.
The operating time of this device without replacing the batteries was 20-30 hours, depending on the operating conditions. The inventor received a patent for the engineering solutions of the apparatus in 1957.
This engineer continued to work in this direction until 1958.
This year, he created a more compact mobile phone that works on the same principles as the previous device.
The new device weighed only half a kilogram, and did not exceed the size of a cigarette box.
Kupriyanovich does not stop his work in 1961.
This year, he creates a device with the same principles of operation as the previous two, but weighing only 70 grams and fits in a pocket. It is capable of communicating over a distance of up to 80 km.
According to the inventor, this device could well be adapted for serial production in order to mass-equip heads of departments and enterprises with it. Some time later, in one of his interviews with periodicals, he declares his readiness to design 10 automatic TV stations for portable phones throughout the country. But this project was never carried out in reality.
Bulgarian developments
Although Kupriyanovich himself will soon stop working, his system, in various variations, continues to be improved by other companies.
So, in 1965, the Radioelectronics company from Bulgaria presented at the Inforga-65 technology festival a system from the main telephone exchange for 15 subscribers, and 15 telephones themselves.
At the same time, they mention that the project was developed precisely on the principle of Kupriyanovich's equipment.
Work on such technology in this organization continues into 1966. At the scientific exhibition Interorgtekhnika-66, they present a set of mobile phones and a station designed to work with six devices. An industrial model is presented, ready, to a greater or lesser extent, for mass production.
In the future, the company works with this particular model, which is already significantly different from Kupriyanovich's devices.
They first create a station for 69 numbers, and then for 699.
The system became widespread, became a substitute for intercom and was widely produced by industrial enterprises to equip departmental institutions with communications, and was actively used in the country until the beginning of the 90s.
Car phones
At the same time, the development of radiotelephones for cars is being actively carried out.
They are implemented using a different technology, different from the technology of Kupriyanovich, but they are relatively popular and widely distributed in the USSR and the world at the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century.
In 1958, work began on the design and creation of mobile phones designed to equip civilian departmental vehicles.
These phones are called "Altai" and could only be used in a car.
In 1963, the Altai was already introduced into more or less mass production and relatively widely used, the technology is so far only distributed in Moscow, and then begins to be used in St. Petersburg.
Only by 1970 it was put into operation in 30 more large cities of the Soviet Union.
Commercial Cellular
The first steps towards the widespread introduction of cell phones and the commercialization of the industry were taken in 1982 by the British company Pye Telecommunications.
They demonstrated an automatic mobile phone that works as a set-top box for a walkie-talkie. Pocketphone 70. Theoretically, the device could be introduced everywhere.
Motorola
In 1983, Motorola introduced the first model of a truly commercial mobile phone, intended not only for organizations and departments, but also for individual users who simply could afford to buy a device.
The model of the device was called DynaTAC 8000X, and it took the company almost 16 years to create it.
At the same time, a huge amount of money was invested in it, according to some sources - more than 110 million dollars.
The device weighed almost 800 grams, had a length of 33 cm, a thickness of 4.5 cm, and a width of almost 9 cm.
The battery could work autonomously for up to 9 hours of standby time or 1 hour of talk time, and it was the first phone with a battery charged from the mobile network.
The device was sold at a price of almost 4,000 US dollars.
Spreading
The technology quickly became popular despite the fact that the first devices were very expensive for the average user.
But already in 1984, more than 300,000 subscribers used such phones (and the mobile communication format).
In 2003, this figure exceeded one billion two hundred million subscribers - it is generally accepted that it was in this year that the technology really became widespread throughout the world and firmly entered the life of an ordinary user.
And on July 1, 1991, the first call made in the GSM format was made in Finland. And it is this date that is considered the birthplace of a common format that we use to this day. Even with the introduction of other wireless communication technologies and networks of other types, it is this communication format that still remains the most widespread and is characterized by the largest coverage area on the globe.
In 1998, a prototype of the first device of this type with a touch-sensitive screen appeared.
This was an important step towards a qualitatively new type of mobile devices for communication, including smartphones.
This first touch phone, in fact, became the progenitor of the devices that we use today.
During the 80s and 90s, the price of mobile phones fell, and by the early 2000s, although still expensive, they were becoming available to most users.
And after 7-8 years, mobile communication almost completely replaces the stationary one.
"Watson, says Bell! If you can hear me, then go to the window and wave your hat." This phrase, spoken 141 years ago, on March 10, 1876, was the first to be spoken over the telephone. The speaker - Alexander Graham Bell - became known to the whole world as the inventor of the device.
According to statistics, the residents of Russia alone now make 144 million calls a day. And the average person makes almost one and a half thousand phone calls in one year.
Discord Phone
In fact, with the history of the invention of the telephone, not everything is so simple. In the early 1850s, New Yorker Antonio Meucci discovers that electric current supposedly has a positive effect on people's health. He designs a generator and opens a private practice. One day, Meucci connected the wires to the lips of the patient, and he himself moved to a remote room where the generator was located. When the doctor turned on the device, he heard the patient's cry as clearly as if he were standing next to him.
Meucci gave up medicine and began to experiment with the device. By the beginning of the 1870s, he had already created drawings of the apparatus, which he called the telephotophone. In 1871, the Italian was going to register his invention, but he did not succeed.
According to one version, poor Meucci did not have enough $250 to pay the fee at the Patent Office. According to another, the papers sent by mail were lost somewhere. The third version says that the documents were stolen by order of the Western Union company, for which, by the way, the same Alexander Bell worked. Another competitor to the "well-known" inventor of the telephone was a man named Elisha Grey. He filed an application with the Patent Office two hours later than Bell - subsequently, a lawsuit between the two innovators dragged on until 1893. The American Themis eventually delivered a verdict in favor of Bell.
The very first telephone did not have a ringer - it was later invented by Bell's assistant, the same Thomas John Watson. The microphone was modified by Thomas Edison. He also came up with the idea to start a conversation with the word "hello", that is, hello ("hello" in English). However, the Italians and the Japanese answer calls differently: the inhabitants of the Apennines say "pronto" ("ready, I accept"), and the citizens of the Land of the Rising Sun - "mosi-mosi" ("I say, I say").
The history of this invention was not without the Russians. In 1895, Mikhail Freidenberg proposed to the world the concept of automatic telephone exchanges (ATS), which connected subscribers to each other without the help of a female operator. The offer turned out to be unclaimed, the profession survived - and became a thing of the past much later, in the middle of the 20th century.
"Hello, young lady!"
Telephonization was rapidly spreading around the world. The first city where devices began to appear in the apartments of wealthy people was Boston, where Bell lived and worked. In 1879, the invention "swam" the Atlantic: a telephone exchange appeared in Paris, and in 1881 it became possible to talk with a friend without meeting him in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Berlin, Riga and Warsaw. By the beginning of the 20th century, international and intercity lines began to entangle the planet, and by 1910 there were already more than 10 thousand stations around the world that served more than 10 million subscribers!
The phone in those days consisted of several devices at once with a total weight of more than 8 kilograms! The Bell apparatus itself looked like an iron box with a lever and one or two tubes. In the first case, there was only a speaker in the handset, and you had to bend over to talk, in the second, the microphone was installed in an additional horn. A signal board was attached to this device, which called, as soon as the telephone operator called the subscriber. To use the device, it was necessary to pick up the receiver, twist the lever, which gave current and "informed" the typist at the station that it was necessary to start a conversation. This is what a typical dialogue looked like:
To call the subscriber, the "lady" stuck the plug into the corresponding socket on the panel in front of her. A good telephone operator managed to connect subscribers in less than 8 seconds.
In 1882, three-digit numbering was used in Moscow, while the first subscribers were only 26. Over the next 10 years, the network grew to 1892 numbers. The numbering became four digits. Owning a telephone in those days was very expensive. Payment for a month of use - 250 rubles. For comparison: the monthly salary of a teacher is 25 rubles, a paramedic is 55. For the cost of installing a telephone, you could buy a complete set of clothes or, for example, two excellent horses.
With the beginning of the 20th century, Swedes, the Ericsson company, began to deal with telephones in Moscow. They presented a new model of the device: the handset took on the usual form with two holes, and instead of a lever, a regular button appeared, or rather two - for getting in touch and for hanging up. The Scandinavians were able to reduce tariffs - a month of owning the device began to cost 63 rubles.
In 1903, the telephone was installed in the Kremlin. Emperor Nicholas II, who arrived in Moscow for such an occasion, was presented with an ivory telephone inlaid with gold.
Telephone installation throughout the country
On January 1, 1917, there were 232 thousand subscriber numbers in Russia, the numbering became five-digit. During the revolution, Lenin ordered his supporters to seize the post office, telegraph office and telephone exchange in the first place. After the victory of the Bolsheviks - already in 1919 - the connection was nationalized. Private phones were also confiscated - they were handed over to police stations, military commandant's offices, institutions and enterprises of the city. Communication has become a rarity, accessible only to the party nomenclature and the heroes of the Red Army, as well as doctors.
The pre-revolutionary volume of subscribers was restored only by 1923, moreover, through the efforts of the same Swedes from Ericsson, as well as the Germans from Siemens. At the same time, the construction of automatic telephone exchanges began, which did not require the work of telephone operators. The first station in the USSR appeared in 1926 in Rostov-on-Don.
One of the reasons for replacing human labor with a "soulless machine" was secrecy - in an atmosphere of constant spy mania, allowing "young ladies" to listen to telephone conversations would be inexcusable irresponsibility. However, the profession of "telephone girl" for intercom finally became a thing of the past in the forties.
The appearance of automatic telephone exchanges led to a change in the appearance of the devices themselves - a disk for dialing appeared on them. One of the first such devices was installed, of course, in the Kremlin - it received the nickname "turntable". This word is still used today - to refer to a government phone.
On the disk, in addition to numbers, there were also letters of the Russian alphabet - A, B, C, D, D, E, F, I, K and L. The letter "Z" was absent, since it visually resembled a three. The numbers themselves were of the A-21-35 format.
In the United States, letter numbering is still used today. Even on the first American telephones, there were rows of letters near each number. If you have a "push-button" landline phone, pay attention - they are written there even now. Even on the screen keyboard of mobile phones there are still letters - and they are not intended for typing SMS at all. This was done for the convenience of remembering the numbers, for example, instead of the long and complicated number +1-888-237-82-89, the combination 1-888-BEST BUY is used.
In Russia, this tradition did not take root due to the similarity in the pronunciation of Russian letters. Until the mid-1960s, telephone numbers in the USSR contained both numbers and letters, and then the latter were abandoned.
Officially, the first conversation on a mobile phone took place in 1973 in New York. But there is a version that the world's first wireless devices did not appear at all in the USA, but in the Soviet Union. Back in 1961, TASS reported that radio engineer Leonid Kupriyanovich had developed a model of a telephone that could transmit voice via radio to a base station located no further than 25 kilometers. The device weighed 500 grams and could work in standby mode for 20-30 hours. It looked like a box with a license plate, a pair of toggle switches and a plug-in handset. The owner of such a device had to either hold the case in one hand and the receiver in the other, or hang the box on his belt.
The author of the invention writes in the magazine "Young Technician": "Wherever you are, you can always be found by phone, you just need to dial the known number of your radiophone from any city phone (even from a pay phone). You have a telephone in your pocket." call, and you start a conversation. If necessary, you can dial any city telephone number directly from a tram, trolleybus, bus, call an ambulance, fire or emergency vehicle, contact the house ... "
Alas, after 1965 no one else wrote about this invention, and Leonid Kupriyanovich himself began to develop medical equipment.
Another thing is the apparatus "Altai". This full-fledged mobile communication system was deployed in Russia in the early seventies. But the phones themselves did not look much like the cell phones we are used to: a large box - about 5-7 kilograms - with a tube. Carrying this in your hands was problematic, but the devices were equipped with cars of special services and party nomenclature. The era of Altai ended already in the 21st century, in 2011.
Mobile at the price of "Mustang"
On a clear day on April 3, 1973, an elderly man named Martin Cooper walked out of Motorola's office in Lower Manhattan, New York. In his hand he held a strange light beige object. Moving away from the building, he pressed some buttons on it.
Almost immediately, a phone rang at the headquarters of rival Bell Laboratories - the phone in the office of the head of the research department, Joel Engel, rang. Picking up the phone, he heard Cooper's voice: "Do you know where I'm calling you from? I'm calling you from Manhattan, from the world's first cell phone." In his memoirs, the researcher could not give Engel's answer, but he said: he distinctly heard him grinding his teeth.
It took 10 years to "debug" the device - the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X appeared on the free market only in 1983. The device weighed about a kilogram and was 25 centimeters high. In talk mode, it worked for 35 minutes, and charged for 10 hours. The price was astronomical - more than $3500, but despite this, a line of buyers lined up behind the phone. For comparison: for $6500 in the USA you could buy a brand new Ford Mustang.
Full-fledged cellular communication in the form in which we know it came to Russia in 1991. Data transmission was carried out through the Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) standard, and the Finnish Nokias were the most popular phones. According to their technical characteristics, they lost to Motorolas - they weighed about 3 kilograms. The price also bit - with the connection the device cost $ 4000, and a minute of conversation cost $ 1.
By this time, the Motorola MicroTAC 9800X had already been released overseas - a phone with a flip cover that fit in the palm of your hand.
EPOCH GSM
By 1993, four mobile communication standards were operating in Russia at once: NMT (operator Delta Telecom), D-AMPS (BeeLine, which was then written that way - in Latin), the already mentioned Altai and GSM (MTS and a little later North -Western GSM"). The last one won - until now, voice communication is transmitted using this format.
At this time in the UK, Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old Sema Group employee, was testing the capabilities of the GSM standard. Engineers were already able to implement the possibility of determining the number of the calling line and a service that allowed this feature to be blocked. But in his free time, Papworth was engaged in other work - he tried to achieve the ability to transmit not only voice, but also text over mobile lines. And in December 1992, he succeeded: the world's first SMS (Short Message Service) was sent. The text is simple and uncomplicated: "Merry Christmas!" The inventor was sure that his brainchild would be used exclusively for sending service messages, but it turned out differently: in 2015, 20,000 text messages were sent every second in the world.
Telephone sets at that moment began to decrease in size. Displays, on the contrary, grew. If in the first "Motorola" there was only one line on the screen, then on the Nokia 2110 released in 1994 there were already three of them. This device has become to some extent a cult - an alarm clock, a calculator, a stopwatch and an SMS function have been integrated into it. When calling, that phone emitted the well-known Nokia Tune melody, which was installed in the standard package on all devices of the Finnish company.
This phone turned out to be very popular in Russia - and even earned the fame of "mobile for the new Russian."
1">
1">
(($index + 1))/((countSlides))
((currentSlide + 1))/((countSlides))
From Java to AppStore
Almost all the functions familiar to us appeared in phones at the turn of the century. In 1999, devices learned to access the Internet using the WAP protocol. At the same time, web developers took care of creating mobile versions - without pictures. In the same year, a phone appeared that used two SIM cards. True, switching between them had to be done manually. In 2000, mobile phones played MP3 tunes, took pictures, and even picked up GPS satellite signals. In 2002, Siemens released the SL45 with Java technology. It was possible to download third-party applications on this phone. Mostly games and also ringtones.
The design of the phones tended to be miniature - some models were created as ladies' ones. As a result, there were such "kids" as Samsung SGH-A400 or Panasonic GD55 - the size of a matchbox. Moreover, both of these models quietly went online, even if they had only a monochrome screen.
Nokia 9210, announced in 2002, is considered the world's first smartphone. It was running a rare Series S80 operating system (OS). Subsequently, it, as well as other operating systems from Nokia S40 and S60, became part of the general Symbian OS, which was installed on their products not only by the Finns, but also by Motorola, SonyEricsson, Siemens, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Samsung, Sony, Sharp and Sanyo. The presence of "OSes" made it possible to create a more convenient interface and work in multitasking mode.
In January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world. Apple's smartphone was not the first device with a touchscreen function (that is, it could be controlled by touching the screen with your fingers), and certainly not the first touchscreen phone. But this model, due to its wild popularity, made smartphones the way we know them now: a large screen and a minimum of buttons. The device with an apple on the back panel has an alternative operating system - iOS. A year later, a third player will appear, which now occupies almost 80% of the market - Android OS.
The latest revolutionary change was the wireless battery charging scheme. It appeared back in 2009, but gained popularity only in 2015. Another innovation is the AppStore and GooglePlay app stores, which emerged in 2010. You can also add NFC technology here, which allows you to pay by touching the phone to the terminal.
All other characteristics of phones have evolved. Let's take built-in cameras as an example - the first of them had a resolution of 0.3 megapixels, and now you can find devices with 41 megapixels on the market. The latest trend is the double flash. The Internet has also accelerated - if on the first phones with WAP, downloading occurred at a speed of 10 kilobits per second, now, with LTE technology, it is already measured in gigabits.
The design, in turn, has been simplified: after the riot of form factors of the 2000s, now the vast majority of models are the usual rectangle with a thin body. After miniaturization, phones began to grow again - up to a seven-inch screen diagonal!
Experts interviewed by TASS argue that in the coming years, smartphones are unlikely to change their appearance, but they have every chance of squeezing laptops and cameras out of the market.
Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, believes that phones will turn into full-fledged portable computers, to which it will be possible to connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. They will have a large amount of RAM (there are already eight-core processors with more than 4 GB of RAM). With the advent of the 5G standard (data transfer at speeds up to 7 Gb / s), people will begin to abandon Wi-Fi.
Murtazin believes that people's "dependence" on phones will also increase. Bank cards and magnetic passes will become a thing of the past: they will be installed directly in the phone (such technologies already exist). Perhaps the YotaPhone experiment with two screens will be repeated: "Everything else, such as flexible displays, is exotic, and they are unlikely to be massively on the market."
