Telephones have changed dramatically since Alexander Graham Bell spoke

the first words into a telephone on March 10, 1876. Overall, theyve
improved since then, but the road wasnt always smooth. Heres a look back
at the most important advances in telephone technology and some of the
worst.

The original phone

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his device and said
to his assistant, Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you. In doing so,
Bell launched the telephone era with the first bi-directional electronic
transmission of the spoken word. At least that is how the story typically goes.
While Bell received the first patent for a telephone, the origin of the

telephone is complicated and inconclusive, with Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci

of Italy, and Innocenzo Manzetti each claiming to be the phones true
inventor.

Candlestick
Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s, the candlestick phone was separated
into two pieces. The mouth piece formed the candlestick part, and the
receiver was placed by your ear during the phone call. This style died out in

the 30s when phone manufacturers started combining the mouth piece and
receiver into a single unit. Thankfully.

Rotary
The rotary phone became popular. To dial, you would rotate the dial to the
number you wanted, and then release. Based on my limited interaction with
rotary dial phones, this must have been incredibly tedious. As push-button
phones gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s, the rotary dial phone
thankfully began its slow death.

Push-button
In 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a
keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls. Each key would transmit a
certain frequency, signaling to the telephone operator which number you
wanted to call. While much better than the rotary dial, these dial tones were
subject to spoofing by what were called blue boxes. Using a blue box, you
could make free long-distance phone calls.

Answering machine
The answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to
leave a message if no one was on the other end. Not popular until the
1960s, these phone accessories originally used cassette tapes to record
messages. In the past 15 years, digital answering machines replaced the
miniature cassette tapes, and in the past 10 years, we all just use our cell
phones voicemail.

Portable phones
Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote.
You were no longer physically attached to your phones base station.
Beginning in the 1980s, portable phones were like a small-scale cell phone.
You could talk on your phone anywhere in your house. Now that you can talk
on your phone anywhere in the world, portable phones seem quaint. But at
the time, a well-placed portable phone could save you a trip across the
house.

Motorola DynaTAC
Released in 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially
available mobile phone. In 1973, Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call
ever with a predecessor of this beast. At 1.75 pounds, this phone had 30
minutes of talk time and cost a not-so-modest $3,995.

Nokia 5110
One of many classic Nokia candybar-style phones, the Nokia 5110 was
rugged and had a long battery life. More importantly, you could
play Snake on its 47 84 pixel screen. The 5110 was also customizable,
with replaceable face plates.

Caller ID
There was a time when you had to remember peoples telephone numbers.
And then came Caller ID. You could now decide whether that phone call was
worth answering or whether you could just send them to voicemail. Now
standard, Caller ID changed the way we used telephones.

Motorola StarTAC
The Motorola StarTAC was the first successful flip phone, and in many
ways, the first successful consumer cell phone. Introduced in 1996, Motorola
eventually sold 60 million StarTACs. Weighing in at just 3.1 ounces, and
combined with its innovative clamshell design, the StarTAC was a milestone
in the trend toward smaller and smaller cell phones.

Sanyo SCP5300
Released in 2003, the Sanyo SCP5300 was one of the first phones to
include a camera. It was already clear that digital cameras would replace
film cameras, but it wasnt clear that a camera could fit in a phone. By
todays standards, the SCP5300s camera is pathetic. The SCP5300
could take 640 480 pixel photos and store 10 to 15 of them. It had a builtin flash with a range of only three feet. Still, this phone broke ground, and
today it is clear how central cameras are to our phones.

Palm Treo
With the Treo, Palm expanded its popular PDA line to become one of the
first smartphones. The Treo looked very similar to Blackberrys phones, with
a tiny keyboard at the bottom. The Treo ran Palm OS, and like many leading
phones at the time, began to lose its appeal after the introduction of
touchscreen smartphones. In 2009, the Treo was replaced with the Palm
Pre, Palms failed response to the iPhone.

Motorola RAZR
The Motorola RAZR represented the culmination of the flip phone. Unable or
unwilling to experiment with new designs, mobile phone companies
continued their push for smaller and smaller phones. With the RAZR,
Motorola perfected the flip phone design. At just 0.54 inches thin, the RAZR
was as much a fashion device as a cell phone. Announced in 2004, Motorola
would eventually sell 130 million RAZRs. However, the RAZRs popularity
rapidly declined in the face of a new generation of touchscreen
smartphones.

BlackBerry
Canadian-based Research in Motion, now BlackBerry, was by far the
leading smartphone manufacturer in the 2000s. With their advanced email
capabilities, BlackBerry Messenger, and physical keyboards, BlackBerry
smartphones were the ultimate business phone. When the iPhone was
announced in 2007, many BlackBerry fans scoffed at its lack of a physical
keyboard. Now that touchscreen smartphones have proved themselves
worthy, BlackBerry has fallen rapidly, with many failed attempts at
touchscreen smartphones, and is currently struggling to survive.

iPhone and Android

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to
the masses. With its intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek
design, the iPhone has been an incredible success. The iPhone quickly
showed just how clunky previous smartphones and flip phones were. While
initially lacking some basic features such as copy-and-paste, the iPhone has
consistently improved with annual updates to both its hardware and software
and runs a mobile-optimized version of OS X, the companys desktop
computing operating system.

Then a year later, the Android juggernaut would begin its climb to the top.
Founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Android sought to create a modern
operating system that would compete with Windows Mobile, Symbian, and
BlackBerry. Google bought Android in 2005, and in November 2007,
unveiled the Android operating system. The first Android phone, the HTC
Dream, was launched almost a year later in October 2008. Android has
adapted to its competition, developing an app-based operating system for
touchscreens. Android has certainly improved since its clunky early days
and is now the leading alternative to Apples iOS.