Just after posting on one of the most anticipated phones for this year I though it would be a great time to take a look back at what was hot on the mobile phone seen from times gone by.

Pictured on the left is the Ericsson GH337 released in 1995 - Capable of Sending and Receiving SMS! Replacement aerials were a hot item for this phone too.

Pictured on the right is the famous Motorola Brick released in both analogue and digital.

I wonder if the old classics could make a retro come back? It has been tried with the brick being juiced up with a color screen a few updated features ( released under the name Micro T), but how about a bag phone?

The good old Motorola Bag phone, trusted by tradespeople and farmers for years. But could you paint it white, stick it in a Louis Vuitton leather bag, add some funky features and have a retro hit??

What about these beauties, forget mp3 and touchscreen! It was hi tech just to have a last dialed number list!

The Nokia 101 was one of the first ‘candy bar’ style phones to hit the market and was jam packed with features for the time.

The Motorola Micro Tac flip phone was a hugely successful analogue handset receiving various model updates right through into the age of GSM. Remember those keysounds and the rickety flip hinge!!

It’s far from new news that there is a covergence of the mobile phone and the internet with the coming of faster data access available for mobile phones particulary with the emergence of HSDPA and 3G networks but what is that going to mean.

Having fast (or reasonably fast anyway) data access on a mobile opens up a lot of possibilities for services.

Internet Access: Cool to have net access from a mobile device although sites need to be designed for a mobile experience. Viewing a normal web page (like this one) on a mobile device would be and is hideous, that’s really a no brainer as something that’s made for a 17inch screen probably isn’t going to scale to well on a 2inch screen! Also take into account there isn’t a full keyboard just a ‘designed for phone’ keypad and it all gets a bit too hard. Web developers are finding solutions to this through device detection and intuitive interfaces so when you visit their site it will detect the type of device in use ie pc, handset, smartphone etc and adapt the site accordingly to provide a user freindly experience. Although for the developer this is a challenge in itself with the boundless amount of devices on the market utilising differing screen sizes and operating systems. (more…)

There has been a lot of talk recently about Apple taking their succesful iPod product to the next level by releasing a ‘music phone’. Sales of mp3 compatible mobile phones with inbuilt music player software and expandable storage have been strong and no doubt chipping into Apple’s iPod sales.

Think about it, they have to. Carrying an iPod and a mobile phone around is a real drag, then add the fact that you’ve got two battery lifes to worry about, two chargers to misplace and when your listening to tunes on your iPod your phone has to be pretty handy to not miss a call.  (more…)