IBM Simon - 1994

Missing some key phones. The Northern Telecom Contempra Phone in the 1960's revolutionized phone design and took them from utilitarian to design statements, and prompted new designs and concepts to flourish.

You iPhoners really are ignorant. The Nokia and Ericsson Symbian line of smart phones predated the iPhone. Like the Ericsson P990i, it was full color, could surf the web, play video and much more. For me as an IT guy, the VPN, SSH, RDP and VNC clients were the real standout. I could my company's server farm from an Airport lounge when my CIO's BlackBerry could not. Yeah, it needed a stick pointer like the Palm Treo, but it had finer control than the lame BlackBerry touch pad. The BB UI is another discussion in itself. Why RIM is dying...

Weak finish. Windows OS Smartphones, while not always a functional OS, with the exception of Mango, is conspicuously absent. Additionally, the first videocall devices are mentioned, but there is no follow up with current video call technology on iPhone and other devices. Or even Videoconferencing technology which has completely exploded. All in all, I was a bit disappointed, though it was still fun.

Western Electric made the dial phones and later the TouchTone models. Those things could be tossed across the room, against the wall and still work. Upon the Ma Bell breakup, the smaller branches got licences to made their own phones to work on the system. Then the system became deregulated and anyone could make equipment to run on the 48 volt DC, ground sieze, two wire systems.

I kind of hope designers do a little more than develop random variations and wait for the market to decide. After all that's the way "evolution" works.

at least seventies