It was reported that this is the year where there will be more mobile subscriptions than people in the world.
The International Telecoms Union predicts that subscriptions will pass seven billion early in 2014. To date they are 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions and 7.1 billion people.
This got me thinking about how far mobile phone has progressed and had to innovate to survive in the game.
The mobile phone seems like such an everyday invention and when one thinks about their origins it conjures up images of pinstripe suits and briefcases, huge bulky things with extendable aerials looking at the one you possess now it is easy to see they have came an awfully long way.
And it’s not just for making phone calls; mobile phones now act as a wallet, a digital camera and even a device to game on. I remember reading a great article last year about how nobody looks up anymore; a mobile researcher captured images on how mobile phones have changed the way we interact with the world around us. In the article it explained how people don’t really pay attention to the world and surroundings and instead have their heads bowed down, mesmerised by technology. To view the photographs click here.
The first handheld phone was developed by Marty Cooper for Motorola back in 1973 at 2.5 pounds, 9 inches long our smartphones seem considerably light in comparison. Just this month Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun Hee urged workers to adopt new ways of thinking and move beyond their focus on hardware as the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and television seeks to maintain growth. Lee was quoted saying “We have to change once again we must give a bigger push for innovations, including in business structure so that we can lead industry trends.
I think that Nokia is a great illustration of a company which failed to innovate, despite having an impressive history of innovation, it was a pioneer in wireless infrastructure and dominated the share of the worldwide mobile market at 40 per cent in 2008 (which happens to the be the same year the iPhone sales began to soar) and Samsung debuted its first android device and after that it never really successfully transitioned into the new age. Nokia was a phone company in a world that stopped buying phones; instead we bought small computers…that could also make calls.
Apple evolved, the iPhone was a mobile phone, yes, but it was a device created with the explicit intent of syncing with iTunes and other Apple computer apps. In spirit, its form and function descended as much from the iPod as much as any phone that preceded it. It could access actual web pages. And once the second generation 3G model debuted along with the Apple app store, owners suddenly found themselves with a seemingly limitless range of software a few finger swipes away.
What does the future look like for mobiles? Mobile financial services have already started; will the devices take over from money? Will they be even smaller? Charging phones a thing of the past? Will they even be accessed through sunglasses, no typing required? I jest…but only slightly and I wait to see what the next generation of mobile phones look like as like Lee Kun Hee understand that they must keep innovating to go forward for to not innovate is to stand still.