No one ever really thought about how indispensable phones are in modern society. It has been around now for over a century and has changed on a dramatic scale. It used to be the number one way of communicating with someone else. There is a large variety of phones that have been out in the world varying from simple household phones, to highly sophisticated smart phones. There are 3 main types of phones out there, the simple household phone, the cell phone, and the current Smartphone and each have different designs and ways to use them.
Household Phone
The first phone to be invented was by a man named Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870s but didn’t become a more common household item until about the early 1900s. In 1903 there was an estimated amount of 3 million phones in America at the time. The most common model of phone was introduced in 1927 when the "model 102" came into the picture. This phone had a rotary dial technique and this style of phone stayed until about the 1960s when the invention of number pad dialing phones were created. The increase in phones in homes sky rocketed and soon became an appliance most individuals couldn’t survive without. The idea of a cordless phone came out in the 1970's but didn’t become more common until the 80's. The common household phone was the only type of phone out at the time, and could be used to make calls to other phones. Then the cellphone and smartphone came out, allowing all three types of phones to make calls to each other. 
Cell Phone
Cell phones are becoming more and more common as the decade progresses. Most people in this day and age need a cell phone just to run their daily lives. Some people even have up to 2-3 phones depending on their job. Companies even lend cell phones to employees to use as their personal work phone. Cell phones shape, size, and weight have slimmed down to a more sleek and easy to use design. When they were first introduced in the 1970's, there were extremely expensive, ranging to easily over a thousand dollars. These genre of phones were the size and shape of a brick and probably could be used to kill somebody. These were called the first generation phones, meaning there was one way to communicate with someone else. You could call someone or receive a phone call, nothing more. The next step from these phones were what are known as second generation phones or "2G" phones. These phones were primarily on a GSM network and were first introduced in 1991. These phones had the capability to talk, receive and send SMS or text messages. When these types of phones came out, the popularity of mobile devices exploded. 
Smart PhoneThe idea of a Smartphone is not that far from what the second generation of mobile devices were. These however had "3G" capabilities and are often referred to as the third generation of mobile devices. What 3G means is basically it being able to access the internet from the phone. The first Smartphone to come out 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in the Tokyo region in May 2001. These phones took longer to grow in popularity due to the expensive costs of having to pay for the internet service fee. Most common data plans coming from Verizon or ATT have a minimum data plan of 15-30$ a month. By the end of 2007, there was a total of 295 million users on the 3G network. The most popular Smartphone to ever come out was introduced by apple in 2007, known as the iPhone. The phone became so widely popular, that swarms of people cancelled their contracts just so they switch over to ATT. Now Apple has come out with 5 devices, the newest one being the iPhone 4s. The first iPhone are iphone 4s are like completely different Smartphone's, the memory, RAM, camera, operating system, and processor have all been redesigned and upgraded.
There is a new kind of Smartphone coming out, known as the fourth generation or "4G". These phones have been reported to have the capability to run at speeds 10 times faster than 3G speeds. However these phones need to be in an area where 4G is available, such as large cities. These kind of phones aren't that popular, but are expected to increase over the next few years. Closing
Phones have changed dramatically over the past century, and in the next hundred years, they will be incomparable to the up-to-date phones of today. Its a wonder what the next generation of phones will be like, if it's anything like the past as brought, there will be yet again another dramatic change in phones. Who knows what the future will hold, and how many types and categories of phones there will be one day.
Phones have changed dramatically over the past century, and in the next hundred years, they will be incomparable to the up-to-date phones of today. Its a wonder what the next generation of phones will be like, if it's anything like the past as brought, there will be yet again another dramatic change in phones. Who knows what the future will hold, and how many types and categories of phones there will be one day.
