By Morgan Kelly
Compared to the glacial pace of the development of the
conventional telephone, the evolution of mobile and smartphones has
moved at warp speed.
Since the emergence of the first commercial – but
somewhat unwieldy – portable handset in 1973, we have
seen our phones become pocket-sized offices, with access to the
internet, email, their own GPS, camera, sound system, global maps,
barcode readers – you name it.
Evolving in tandem, we have seen cellular networks grow from the
original 1G network launched in Japan in 1979, through the
introduction of the digital 2G networks in 1991 and 10 years later
to the emergence of 3G. It was 3G that provided us with our first
true taste of internet access on the move, which drove the
explosive growth in demand for smartphones, tablet devices and
mobile connectivity.
