iPhone, Motorola and Mobile Phones That Changed the Game

The DynaTAC 8000X was truly the first mobile telephone that could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.

Motorola introduced the world to the flip design that would dominate for years. Released in 1989, it was the smallest and lightest phone available at the time.

If you were born sometime in the 1980s, by the time your parents let you have a mobile phone, this was probably your first. Oh, and Snake was, your first mobile game obsession.

Over the Razr’s four-year run, Motorola sold more than 130 million units, becoming the best-selling clamshell phone in the world to date.

America’s first color-screen handset could display 256 colors, measured 2 inches across and sold for $500 when it debuted in 2001.

This model was one of the very first handsets to offer an integrated camera—one of the most important features in the highly competitive smartphone market of today.

Two hundred million 1100s have been sold since its launch in late 2003, making it the world’s best-selling phone handset and the best-selling consumer electronics device in the world.

Back in the BlackBerry’s halcyon days, the 7230, which came out in 2003, was so addictive that it brought a new word—”CrackBerry”—into the tech lexicon.

While Sony claims its recently released Xperia Z is the world’s first water-resistant smartphone, the 5500 sport, which ran Symbian, beat it to the punch by a good six years.

The impact of the first iPhone, released in 2007, is difficult to understate. Even today, while not as slim, fast or unique-looking, it still has the classic design simplicity for which Apple is known.

Marketed as the T-Mobile G1 in the United States, the handset was the first to run Google’s open-source Android operating system—now the most popular smartphone platform in the world.

The Galaxy S3, with its 4G LTE capability, large screen, alluring design and fast processor made this—in many pundits’ minds—the first true challenger to the iPhone.

Still considered the apex of smartphone design, the iPhone 5 sported, at 4 inches, a larger screen than previous models, but lacked technologies found commonly on other handsets.

BlackBerry needs a big boost to regain market share lost to Android and Apple. While early reviews of the Z10, which boasts the new BlackBerry 10 OS, are solid, the effort may be too little, too late.

The unveiling of the latest edition of Samsung’s popular Galaxy smartphone was accompanied by a huge media push in Times Square.