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What's Happened In Mobile Over the Past 10 Years

Posted by timothy on from the oh-nothing-much dept.

andylim writes "recombu.com has an article examining what's happened in mobile over the past ten years, including BlackBerry launching its first smart phone in 2002, Motorola launching the Razr in 2004 and Apple launching the iPhone in 2007. As a commenter points out, the first camera phone (Sharp J-SH04), which was released in 2000, featured a 110,000-pixel (0.11MP) CMOS image sensor, and a 256-colour (8 bit) display."

19 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by djupedal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's happened is that countries without legacy copper and overbearing telcos have leapfrogged the US in terms of, well....pretty much everything mobile.

    1. Re:In other news... by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oddly enough, the "bazillion-pixel camera" still takes crappy, "cell phone"-quality pictures.

    2. Re:In other news... by CAIMLAS · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, the nice thing about mobile technologies is that they've got a relatively low infrastructure cost compared to wired technologies. The spiderweb of cable needed is significantly less dense, and it can piggy-back on existing data telcom lines.

      Cellular tech also benefited in much of the world because they didn't have the initial 'heavy' cellular infrastructure to contend with - the legacy analog cellular crap. They also had fiber optics at their disposal, making the line cost significantly lower if anything did need to be laid.

      And most countries, particularly much of the European ones, have the advantage of having higher population density and smaller area. Even in countries like Albania (which I doubt has much for any connectivity) getting the whole country covered with modern data cellular would be much easier.

      Even still, it's possible to get a cellular connection of one sort or another pretty much anywhere in the US. I'm in one of the least sparsely covered parts of the US (from all carriers), which also happens to be one of the least populated. I can be tens of miles from the nearest person (forgive the hyperbole, but 1+ miles) or 30+ miles from the nearest town over 500 people and still get an SMS (or maybe a phone call) out. That's impressive.

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    3. Re:In other news... by segin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, what can you expect with a camera with a single fixed aperture and speed? Almost every cell phone camera out there is f/2.8, although if you are (un)lucky, you might get one with f/5.6. Whatever the aperture is, however, is what you are stuck with, for the most part (unless you are a super-wiz hardware hacker and can replace most of the camera...).

      The second factor in determining image quality is shutter speed, but since in this day and age, there is no physical shutter, "shutter speed" refers to how long the image sensor senses for image data; 1/400 shutter speed on a cell phone means that, actually, the sensor is only "looking" at the world for 1/400 of a second. While this is quite similar to a real camera, the fact that the sensor is "always exposed" means that it is always at odds with the world, in terms of lighting (being left camera-side up on a sunny day is not good for the phone's camera at all)

      So yes, megapixels don't mean shit. A decent camera with an adjustable aperture and shutter speed (possibly even a real shutter) makes for a better picture.

    4. Re:In other news... by Fred_A · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, what can you expect with a camera with a single fixed aperture and speed? Almost every cell phone camera out there is f/2.8, although if you are (un)lucky, you might get one with f/5.6.

      But whatever their so called aperture, the physical aperture is still a pinhole lens that is a couple millimetre across. My proper f./2.8 lens have a diameter of 77mm (and can close to f./22). Which actually lets some light in.

      There's probably a physical limit under which you cannot go and still have a reasonably decent lens (not super studio high-end flawless quality, just decent). At a guess from the various compacts I've seen, I'd say it's around 1.5cm. Maybe a wee bit less.

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    5. Re:In other news... by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 4, Informative

      And most countries, particularly much of the European ones, have the advantage of having higher population density and smaller area. Even in countries like Albania (which I doubt has much for any connectivity) getting the whole country covered with modern data cellular would be much easier.

      Worth mentioning is that the countries in Europe furthest ahead in cellular technology, the Scandinavian countries, have very low population density even when compared to the US. And still they have coverage in pretty much all of the country. (Including many remote mountainous regions)

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    6. Re:In other news... by obarthelemy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not quite true: I leave in France, where, when Al Gore invented the Internets, we where in a rather worse situation, telecoms-wise: single, nationally-owned carrier, high prices, quite good service, though.

      What they did, as in much of the EU I think, is force deregulation by
      - selling 3 nationwide GSM licenses, so there was competition right from the start
      - forcing standardization and interoperability by enforcing the GSM standard for all carriers, which helped with coverage and provider switching
      - Carriers also had to commit to cover an increasing percentage of the population, which is admittedly easier to do than in the US (France is a bit smaller than Texas, but has more than twice the population).
      - later, forcing number portability (you can switch provider and keep the same number)
      - above all, agreeing that the caller pays for calls, with mobile numbers set apart by a different prefix (06 = mobile, 01 = Paris, 04 = south east...). You used to be able to figure out which carrier someone was using by looking at the second couple of digits, but with number portability that is no longer 100% true.

      The one remaining issue, apart from Texts pricing, is pricing legibility: telcos are free to set up there tariffs as they wish, so it's very hard to come up with an apples-to-apples comparison.

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  2. featured a 110,000-pixel (0.11MP) CMOS image senso by homey+of+my+owney · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which is still more than I need

  3. Hmm by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 5, Informative
    An article? Hah. More like "ten bulletpoints that will take you a good 20-30 seconds to skim, but get us several ad impressions", including "insights" such as:

    2003 The Windows Mobile brand is launched with Windows Mobile 2003. Windows Mobile is widely used by businesses to do work on the move.

    Wow. Or:

    2005 Sony Ericsson launches a superb new camera phone called the K750i and a great music phone called the W800i. These two handsets establish Sony Ericsson as a serious consumer player.

    Awesome. Just awesome. If you think there's more depth than this, there's not. That is the sum total of the analysis of those two years.

    1. Re:Hmm by andyjb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yes, petty poor in terms of insight. also a bit US centric really. I'm pretty sure Nokia released a product before 2006, and that they've been more than just an entry level phone manufacturer before and since (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nokia_products). Of course this was before they seemed to stop bothering, or got stuck chasing apples tail depending on your point of view. IMO windows has never released a noteworthy phone either.

  4. Re:Smartphones and Flip Format by peragrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    hey designers the flip phone is so last century. The brick format is far superior, allowing larger screen size, larger batteries, and larger buttons. not to mention the abaility to push a button to accept a call, not to have to use both hands too open the damned thing.

    flip phone suffer from breakage, and weak points in their overall designs(hinges can break) As much as I like retro old school toys please stop making them.

    Not everyone likes the same things. I have owned several of each style and i always seem to fall back to brick phones.

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  5. Notable hardware by ickleberry · · Score: 4, Informative

    This deserves a mention, the legendary Nokia 6310i still has a thriving refurb market to this day. That thing is probably the highest quality mainstream phone ever made. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/20/nokia_breakthrough_phone/

    3G (UMTS) turned out to be a bit of a disappointment with the required cell density there are only a few 3G-only networks in densely populated places like South Korea, 2G GSM is likely to stay around well into the LTE era.

    Satellite phone networks have also come a long way since the initial bankruptcies and unreliable services. There are now at least 4 Geosynchronous orbit satellite phone networks with handheld phones and the two LEO networks that went bankrupt both recovered and are planning to launch new satellites. The phones themselves also not half the size they used to be.

  6. Nokia N9000. by Luarvic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They missed the most important event of the year: launch of Nokia N900.

    1. Re:Nokia N9000. by kurt555gs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Interesting isn't it. I have been a fone geek since my my first in the trunk 3 watt analog radio shack branded Car phone. I have had at least one of every important cell phone as technology advanced. I never (before the N900) had one that would truly free me from a laptop.

      The N900 IS the most advanced (mobile computer that also has cell and viop phone functions) of the decade.

      I really do not understand why I am not seeing more about it.

      The reviews I do see are done by iPhone fanbois that can't get past the capacitive screen multi-touch which is not all that great for everything.

      I have chatted with many N900 users that after a month or so, are still finding new things.

      And, the N900 has one thing you can't find any where else. Real freedom. /rant off

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  7. The inevitable Slashdot response... by jregel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whenever mobile phones are mentioned on Slashdot, something akin to the following comment will inevitably appear:

    'All I want is a phone that makes calls.'

    I've never quite got my head around a tech site like Slashdot, where the demographic is almost certainly interested in new technology having such a negative response to technological advances in what our phones can do. You rarely [never?] hear this with other technology on this site:

    'I wish Windows 7 had less features. All I want is the ability to write a letter'
    'This 4Ghz Core 2 Due Hyperfighting Special Edition is too fast for me. I want a 68030 at 25Mhz'... instead we get 'Imagine a Beowulf cluster of...'

    Is it because the non-techie crowd have embraced mobile tech, in some instances more than us (given that some teenagers seem to text more than they speak) and we've been out done? Are the non-techies better at mobile tech than us?

    (Yes, I know that Slashdot doesn't speak with one voice, but I bet the comment appears somewhere in this article).

    1. Re:The inevitable Slashdot response... by vadim_t · · Score: 4, Insightful

      On my part, I used to be of the "All I want is a phone that makes calls" kind, but since then dropped that attitude.

      Years back, a phone could have a web browser, and a camera, but it was very likely that both things were going to be very half assed. So you'd get an expensive phone with bad battery life that'd be a pain to do web browsing on, and which would make really horrible photos. Also they were quite closed, and often the only option you had is to use the included crappy software or nothing at all.

      These days though, phones are shifting towards being a mini computer that just happens to make calls, such as the N900 for instance. And that is cool, and I'm looking forward to getting one. The ability of being whatever I want to do with it, including using skype is a huge advantage, and couldn't be had at any price just a few years back.

    2. Re:The inevitable Slashdot response... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've never quite got my head around a tech site like Slashdot, where the demographic is almost certainly interested in new technology having such a negative response to technological advances in what our phones can do. You rarely [never?] hear this with other technology on this site:

      The moderation system is largely responsible for this sort of noise. Lots of people raise popular-beat-to-death issues or post contrarian views just to get that +5 Insightful next to their name.

      I know this because I'm guilty of it.

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  8. Re:Smartphones and Flip Format by feepness · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not everyone likes the same things.

    Which is why they should stop making flip phones?

  9. The cool thing about phone cameras... by DG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is not quality, but immediacy.

    I don't always have my camera on me, but I ALWAYS have my phone. The ability to grab a quick snapshot or video clip when something unexpected happens is priceless.

    And the further ability to get that shot out on the network, before it can be censored... I've never had to rely on that, but it has done great things for other people.

    And while it will never compete with a SLR bodied, pro camera, I've been pleasantly surprised by just how good a RAZR V9 can be. "Cell phone quality" need not mean "horrific".

    And it works through the daysight on a TLAV 1m turret. That has proven useful.

    DG

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