Five devices that changed the phone market

So with last week’s Samsung Galaxy S5 announcement the Korean company have received a lot of criticism for not having a particularly big leap in innovation, the main design change has be

So with last week’s Samsung Galaxy S5 announcement the Korean company have received a lot of criticism for not having a particularly big leap in innovation, the main design change has been the replacement of their much-loved menu button with the de facto standard multi-tasking window, 

 

Apart from the standard upgrades, and the notable lack of 4K recording (guess the future isn’t here yet), you could be easily forgiven for thinking that the Samsung Galaxy S5 is just a thicker, wider, incredibly heavy version of the S4.

 

So after Samsung’s criticised innovation let’s take a look at some of the phones that changed the market: 

 

 

Back in the not too distant future (well 1999) Nokia released the 3210, the ground-breaking piece of kit is one of the best selling mobile phones of all time and even came with three games pre-installed, the massively popular Snake, Memory, a pairs-based memory game, and Rotation. The addition of games was to help Nokia reach a younger audience. 

 

The Nokia 3210 was the predecessor which lead to the equally successful Nokia 3310 that was released in the early 2000s. The 3210 however was the first released mobile phone to have an internal antenna as well as the cutting-edge T9 predictive text and as such was a game changer.

 

 

Never one to shy away from innovation, whilst the Nokia N-Gage wasn’t a commercial success upon its release, it showed us a part of the market that we didn’t even know we wanted. Gaming on your phone, absurd we thought, mocking the fact that a phone could be used as a handheld gaming device. Cue Apple – well later. 

 

One definite flaw for the N-Gage was that it didn’t quite work as either a gaming device nor was it able compete with its obvious gaming competitor, the Game Boy Advance. 

 

 

One of the best selling mobile phones of all time it seemed like everyone and anyone owned the 130 million selling Motorola Razr V3. Its design was cool, being one of the thinnest phones ever released, and it had a flip design straying away from the standard candybar phone and avoiding the sliding style that many of the rivals went to. 

 

The Motorola Razr V3i was released in 2005 with some pretty big additions from the previous models. An iTunes edition was released that could store up to 100 songs and there was even an added SD Card slot that could take a whopping 512 mb SD Card. To think now we toy with 16 or 32 GB!

 

 

The iPhone was a game changer. The whole iBrand managed to spur Apple to become the forceful company that they are now. They were always playing second-fiddle to Microsoft with only hardcore fans relishing from the Apple world but the iPhone catapulted them to become a household name like Brillo pads or Cif. 

 

Apple focused on making their phone multi-functional. They took the success of their iPod brand and decided to simultaneously release the iPod Touch and iPhone at the same time. Consumers saw the design and the campaign to have just one device was released. 

 

The iPhone also built the foundations on which the iPad was born continuing the legacy of innovation started by team-Jobs. Of course the Apple’s stubborn desire to stick with the same design has, like Samsung, found themselves under some criticism.  

 

 

Samsung have always held a relatively successful place in the mobile phone market. Devices such as the Tocco Lite were best-sellers in their time but the rise of Apple left a direct competitor to team iPhone and iOS. Samsung saw a chance and took the bull by the horns with their Galaxy S series teaming up with Android. 

 

Before the S3 the series still managed to cement itself as Samsung’s flagship high-end product but the S3 really saw the Korean firm lodging a bid to become the direct rival to the Apple machine, subsequent released have seen launches and announcements that you come to expect from Apple fans. 

 

So there we go. Whilst Samsung have been criticised for their innovation in the S5 they’ve always been keen on releasing a new product. Throughout the history of mobile tech though we’ve seen Nokia pushing the boundaries and since Microsoft’s acquisition they’ve led the resistance with Windows Phone 7 then 8 before surprising the world with an Android handset.

 

Motorola’s RAZR managed to help their sales but in the end team Apple managed to explode onto the market and became a game changer.