They were not only big. Not only Large. And not only heavy. But the most they accomplished was allowing you to make a phone call, moreover to only within a limited radius!
How on earth, you now wonder, did that even excite you?
But your imagination was blown. Even at ear-short distance, the thrill was to dial and hold the phone to your ear and speak, a privilege, for which you gave anything, did anything!
Then came the functional improvement; the ability to send a text message, moreover with a limited word count!
How on earth, you again wonder, did that excite you?
But it did, impacting on your relationships and interactions in arguably the most definitive of ways to date. Yes, for the thrill of text messaging, you traded the centuries-long cultures of the love letter?
What would you not have given or done, to connect with the distant and dear, the distant and duty bound, in real time?
When next the game-playing function was incorporated, never mind that it was only four dimensional, utilizing the basic four-key control that even children now frown upon, the Brick size Nokia or Alcatel started to take the place of your companions, with you allocating hours to games of snakes and bricks!
How on earth, you again ask, did the basic games of snakes and bricks excite you? But they did.
And it wasn’t centuries ago, but only yesterday! Yes, it is only about 3 decades since the since the first mobile phone went on sale, and only decades through these basic modifications.
That heavy brick size Nokia or Alcatel, ugly and limited in features, which was then your pride, the possession of which defined your status in society now lies in the heap of artifact and in its stead is now a sleek, beautiful one stop feature handset: the Smart Phone.
So how and why on earth did just being able to make a phone call to a limited radius, sometimes only after climbing a tree or an anthill to find network, excite you? How and why did just sending a text message of limited word count excite you? Why and how did the basic games of snakes and bricks even excite you?
All these questions you now ask, and with good reason: Your Smart phone not only incorporates these features, but includes an array of features and capabilities accomplished without limitation. And it has more advanced mind blowing capabilities technology as yet knows of.
It includes almost every feature yet imaginable, compounding in its small size, and to near functional dexterity, features of individual gadgets.
It can play music of quality extent and output almost as well as an iPod, serve as a digital Camera with resolutions hardly any different from that of a Camera gadget, browse the internet as well, if not as fast as a Computer, play multi-angle definition games such as football, car racing, etc., as well as a play station, etc
What can possibly surpass these, you ask?
But with Apple and Samsung locked in an epic battle for control of the mobile phone industry, who is to say mobile phone technology has seen its best or highest potential?
Who is to say, the smartphone of your highest excitement today, will not, not so long from now, belong to the heap of artifact as the Nokia and Alcatel of the 1990’s?
Because if the trend of technological progress is to go by, then this reality is not even far off. And the smart phone you are using to view this post, touching and swiping to scroll rather than press and hold, will soon be artifact.
Yes. Imagine the possibilities. Your current Smart phone is destructible, but what if the future brings one that is unbreakable? With waterproof handsets already in vogue, are not indestructible devices, able to regain original shape if dented, a mouthwatering idea for which you will relegate the current smart phone into the heap of artifact?
What about the prospect of a super high resolution, maybe even cinema-quality display device? Is it not for the current high definition smartphone display that you look back on, and frown on the monochrome, one-line display of the phones of the 90’s? Because yes, in only a short while, a handset with a full 4k screen could become reality. Will you not for its sake, frown back upon the high resolution screen of today’s smartphone?
A few years from today, will you not for the sake of a wireless mobile network quick enough to download a high definition movie in just seconds, look back to today’s acclaimed 4G browsing capability of your Smart phone?
What if you didn’t have to worry about storage space for your music and movies and apps etc? Imagine the likelihood that you could, actually in as early as the year 2010, be able to access all these from the cloud within an eye’s blink! Because yes, infrastructure for such technology could soon hit the free world. Will you not for its sake abandon today’s Smart phone and all its SD card, Storage and memory space bother?
Only recently the selfie capability became an instant phenomenon. But what if a device with a Camera capable of doing more than the standard selfie, one with 3D technology anchored on wide angle lenses and sensors, were to hit the market today, would you not for its sake, dump your current smart phone?
Is not one of, maybe even your biggest bother with the Smart phone of today, the problem of battery life? It runs out as fast as you use your phone. If a handset capable of being charged only once in say 20 or 30 years were to become available in future, would you not for its sake, dump your current Smart phone?
And then, just as your smart phone came in vogue upon successfully ensuring the disappearance of the hardware of things like MP3 players, watches, compact cameras, wallets etc, will you not be willing to, in a few years, trade it for the capability to not carry a phone in your pocket altogether?
Imagine having your screen displayed on glasses, lenses, projectors as you wish anywhere any time! Is not that a mouthwatering prospect for which you will readily trade the touch and swipe of today’s Smart phone?
Today you pride in the touch and swipe of the Smart phone, but you can bet, a few years from now, you will be the same one laughing at how, and why we even have to actually hold our phones to operate them.
So yes, the phone you are using to view this post, be it an iPhone, Windows Phone, Android or Amazon’s fire phone, irrespective of whether or not it is an apple or Samsung brand, will soon join this heap!