Phones that changed the industry?

[tony bag o donuts]

If you were to compile a list of phones that changed the smartphone genre, for lack of a better term, what would they be?

It would be interesting to see what Phil, Kevin, Dieter, etc. would say at the next round robin, but here are my picks:

Palm: Treo 650. Despite it's MANY flaws it was a great PIM and had the infamous toggle for the volume control.

Windows Mobile: Moto Q/q9m/c/h series of phones brought a BB like form factor to wm platform.

Blackberry: Curve 8330 set the standard for size, features, etc. and brought BB to consumers in droves.

IOS: Iphone 3g. Why not the original? Because only diehards bought the original and the 3g is when more people got their hands on the next generation device.

Android: The original Droid. Not until the Droid appeared on Verizon was the os only a niche among techies who loved the concept of the G1, but not the hardware or network it was on.

Thoughts?

 

[Kyle Gibb]

I would also say the original RAZR, it made phone lust mainstream.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

Good point.....and I never owned it because everyone else did

 

[dude0909]

Yeah I never owned a RAZR but I did have a Katana... it was horrible.

I think the EVO 4G could possibly be added to the list.. It started a generation of large handsets. That generation hasn't necessarily been extended past the DroidX as of now, but I feel like there will be more of a want for 4 inch + screen sizes on phones now.

 

[cr3amy]

Original iPhone was far more important than the iPhone 3G. Everybody and their mom had the original iPhone.

Even ignoring sales, the original iPhone proved that consumers really do want all-in-one devices, not just business/communication. It also proved that hype could do anything.

 

[PvilleComp]

What about the Handspring Visor! It wasn't a huge success, but it really made Palm step up their game in the very early days.

 

[jdbower]

The Sony Ericsson P800 was the first all touchscreen phone I know of. At the time it had great apps, a slick UI, and just wasn't marketed well at all in the US.

 

[88 FLUX]

The Sony Ericsson P800 was the first all touchscreen phone I know of. At the time it had great apps, a slick UI, and just wasn't marketed well at all in the US.

I loved my P800. So much so that I paid just cents under $1,000 to have the P900 delivered to me on launch day with overnight AM delivery from a supplier in Cali. (Ordered 5:00 PM eastern night before launch and had it 9:15 AM the following morning). And then got the P910a later on. Thanks for the flashback.

 

[mikestorm]

Although technically fictitious, it's hard to dispute its impact on mobile telephony.

 

[Flawson]

I agree with all above suggestions, and I will throw this out there...
Not a phone, but the palm tx really sent me on the path to owning the dx I have now. It was the first pda to use flash memory and not a physical hard drive, and really brought me into the culture of mobile app lust. The form factor, being so thin, is basically the spiritual parent of today's touchscreen smartphones, down to having 4 keys at the bottom like our androids. It's hard to look at it now and think that it's not a phone! Myself and several people I know were convinced to jump into pda use and ownership by this device, and now we all have android phones or iphones. As I said, I know it's not a phone, but it seems hard to talk about the evolution of smartphones without talking about pda's a little as well!
Confession: I was still using the tx around the house on wifi instead of my blackberry as late as this year. That either says something about the palm or the blackberry!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[BetaRoc]

The J-Phone had the first ever camera built into a phone. (Japan only though)

And a phone that I owned way back in the day when I was with Sprint.(and I still have sitting in a drawer somewhere, lol)

Sanyo's SCP-5300, America's first wireless phone with a built-in digital camera

 

[crutnacker]

It's a bit of a cheat since it isn't a smartphone, but I think the Nokia 5110 is the first phone to really transcend being a giant plastic brick you held to your ear and actually show some personality. Granted it was all because of the face plates, but it seems as though 75% of the cellphone owning public had one of those at some point. Those faceplates are the precursor to customized wallpaper.

 

[Mike20PR]

is say that the original RAZR and the first iphone were the biggest impact.

Although the first iphone wasn't the big seller like the 3g, it revolutionized the phone industry with its superior ui, browser, touchscreen, music player etc. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have what we had today when out comes to user experience.

 

[DrewCSchultz]

I like your thread, OP. I know you the title called for the best smartphones, but I think I'll throw in some notable cellphones anyway.

This is the Motorola DynaTAC... the first commercially available cellphone small enough to be carried without a car or a bag.

And this is the phone that changed my life. The Motorola StarTAC was the first clamshell phone, and really impressed people when I'd whip that thing out of my pocket.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

yeah I had a few phones but what really started it all for me was the moto talkabout, which was right before the startac I think....
I never owned the Nokia, because verizon didn't have it....but snake was THE game to play on a phone.

 

[BetaRoc]

It's a bit of a cheat since it isn't a smartphone, but I think the Nokia 5110 is the first phone to really transcend being a giant plastic brick you held to your ear and actually show some personality. Granted it was all because of the face plates, but it seems as though 75% of the cellphone owning public had one of those at some point. Those faceplates are the precursor to customized wallpaper.

I agree. Those phones were EVERYWHERE. I still have one around here somewhere, with a bright yellow faceplate on it.