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Mobile Phones: It took 26 years to reach 3.3 billion sold

Categories: Technologies
By: , IntoMobile
Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 11:48 AM

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In a piece by the Washington Post, which doesn’t really give us any new news, but more of a history lesson into how things started, where things are today and a possible picture of the future, one quote stood out more so than the rest:

“From essentially zero, we’ve passed a watershed of more than 3.3 billion active cellphones on a planet of some 6.6 billion humans in about 26 years. This is the fastest global diffusion of any technology in human history — faster even than the polio vaccine.”

I’ve ran into this scenario several times, I’m sure the other Into Mobile writers have as well, where people ask me why I’m so interested in these damn Snickers Bar (Mars Bar for the UK audience) sized pieces of plastic. Another quote from the article that sums up my reasoning for lusting perfectly:

 ”An iPhone now has more processing power than did the North American Air Defense Command in 1965, the functions of smart phones are limited only by imagination.”

It took 26 years to make something like the iPhone, something like the Nokia N95. Thinking about what kind of hardware will be in my pocket and the new capabilities it will possess in 5 years is hard enough, thinking about the next 26 years will make your head explode.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Topy

    Imo mobile phones will be the gadget that bring all features to one packet. How it currently stands mobile phone market is booming and we havent seen anything yet what these blastic things can do.
    Cant wait till iphone 10 and Nokia N200i is out :lol: