It's Time to Return to a Simpler Time - the Days of the Disco, Hippies... and the First Cell Phone
posted Sunday Nov 8, 2009 by Nicholas DiMeo
There isn't anybody these days that owns a cell phone that can't send a text message, isn't able to get on the Internet, or is incapable of sending picture mail (well, the iPhone was a little late on that.) Bottom line, the mobile phone has evolved drastically in the last ten years alone, and even more so since the creation of the device.
Martin Cooper, one of the creators of the original mobile phone has announced that cell phones simply do too many things. Now eighty years old, he stated "Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well," at a privacy conference in Madrid this week. We may appreciate the convenience of having the whole world at the tip of our fingers, but Copper made one very good point, and that was criticizing the iPhone for being "overly complicated." Take that Apple!
Although Copper believes cellular phones should return to their original state, describing the first cell phone model as "weighing over one kilo and you could only talk for 20 minutes before the battery ran out, which is just as well because you would not be able to hold it up for much longer," sales prove otherwise. Many consumers are searching for devices that possess a range of features, including Internet, text messaging, picture mail, and of course the ability to make phone calls.
Over the past year, sales of mobile phone handsets decreased 10%, while smartphones increased a whopping 140%! According to a research company known as GfK, 1 in every 10 phones purchased is a smartphones. "The market has more than doubled in size in 12 months," said Aaron Rattue, business group director of the company.
Dr. Jon Agar, senior lecturer in science and technology studies at University College London, made a great point many can agree with, "Mobiles are far more than mere phones - they have the capabilities and flexibilities of a computer. Designers have made use of these capacities, and will continue to do so. The future of technologies is ultimately in the hands of users - and the vast majority of users have historically been loath to add to the very small number of technologies that we carry around with us."
Martin Copper may be stuck in the simpler times of the first cell phone, but technology has advanced and there is a very slim chance it is ever going to slow down. Once the convenience has been exposed, there's no turning back!
