Latest Mobile Phones

Latest Mobile Phones Advancements

By: Philip Liu

Mobile phones have come a long way since the early days of the 1980s when they were the size of a brick and weighed almost as much. Today, mobile phones come with built-in cameras, polyphonic ring tones, and high-tech games. New “3G” mobile phones are also capable of downloading full motion video and full spectrum music. Whereas there were only a few manufacturers of mobile phones in the 1980s, today there are many. In addition to original manufacturers such as Motorola and Siemens, today phones are manufactured by Sony-Ericsson, LG, Toshiba, Samsung, Hitachi, Danger, Palm, HP and others.

As wireless mobile phones use increases around the globe, the old CDMA and TDMA standards are being replaced with GSM, the global standard outside of North America. Relatively new mobile phones companies such as Vodafone and T-Mobile in Germany and NTT DoCoMo in Japan have taken advantage of increased mobile phones use by expanding their mobile phones offerings and plans world-wide. Also, traditional computer companies are moving or have moved into the mobile phones industry—PalmOne manufactures the Treo 650, HP is coming out with its own smartphone PDA and Microsoft powers the operating systems of many of the latest mobile phones on the market.

In addition to being used as a method of wireless voice communication, mobile phones have within the last decade morphed into mobile computing platforms. These new mobile phones are powerful enough to power many applications that only a few years ago required one to be stationed at a desktop computer.

Concurrent with technological innovation and increased adoption worldwide, prices for both hardware and service plans have dropped steadily over the last decade. Whereas only a few years ago most mobile phones service providers required 3 year contracts with heavy penalties for early cancellation, now one can get a free state-of-the-art phone with only a one year contract.

Beyond the mobile phones hardware, whole new industries have sprung up catering to the needs of mobile phones users who demand accessories such as mobile phones covers, screen-savers, and ring tones. As well, SMS (simple messaging system) and MMS (multimedia messaging system) lingo is slowly entering the mobile phones society vernacular. Use of shorthand abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), SWAK (sealed with a kiss) and G2G (got to go) has become second nature to teenagers who are the main users of latest mobile phones messaging globally.