Just as a marketing message is only as powerful as the network sending it, it is only as powerful as the handset that is receiving it. The capability and evolution of mobile computing has always been directly tied to the handset. Before you launch a mobile marketing campaign, you must understand what type of devices will be displaying your marketing message.
The true predecessor of the mobile phone is actually the two-way radios used by sea captains, ambulances, and police cruisers. These set the groundwork for the first mobile phones, which also operated on radio signals through the Gl mobile networks. The first mobile phones were large and cumbersome, and not at all intended for mobile computing. They simply tapped into analog radio frequencies to receive and send calls. The first commercially available cellphones were designed to be permanently installed in cars, drawing power directly from the car battery. Later models—the size of a briefcase—were "transportable" and could be plugged in to the cigarette lighter in the car to get power, but they were quite heavy, usually weighing in at about 15 pounds.
The next evolution of the mobile phone was apparent with the introduction of a truly handheld cellphone, affectionately referred to as the "brick phone." In 1983 the Motorola DynaTAC was the first mobile phone to receive FCC approval in the United States. It weighed about 2 pounds and cost about $4,000, and had a battery that would last for about half an hour without recharging.
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1983: Motorola's DynaTflC 8000X "brick phone" was the world's first commercially released mobile phone. Photo courtesy of Motorola.
As technology improved, cell phones switched from 1G analog radio signals to a 2G digital signal, which allowed them to become much lighter and smaller. The addition of GSM technology also enabled newer phones to send the first text messages
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The first phones capable of text messages—two 2Q QSM phones with chargers and base stations. Photo courtesy of Clemens Pfeiffer via Wikimedia Creative Commons License 2.5, a freely licensed media repository.
Mobile computing was actually a reality long before mobile phones were deeply integrated into our society. It began with the first laptops, when the idea of mobile computing was quite revolutionary. Laptops allowed people to take their computer with them instead of having to save information on disks and rely on accessing a desktop PC wherever they went. This was important for people who required a specific set of software to perform certain tasks, but in many cases, laptops were too cumbersome for people to lug around on a daily basis. Despite the drawbacks of these first laptops, they were the genesis of all other types of "mobile" data technology.
Mobile computing hit a new plateau with the evolution of personal digital assistants, otherwise known as PDAs. Businesspeople commonly used PDAs to keep track of their calendar and address book. The first PDAs were not Web enabled, but usually included simple software to help their owner keep notes, set reminders, and perform simple calculations.
As time moved on and technology improved, mobile carriers began offering PDAs that were both voice and data enabled. In 1993, IBM and BellSouth launched the Simon Personal Communicator, the first mobile phone to add PDA features. It was a phone, pager, calculator, address book, fax machine, and email device, and was the predecessor to what we now call the smart phone.
The term "smart phone" was coined long after the first smart phones were commercially available. There is no agreed-upon definition for the term "smart phone," but it generally refers to a phone that has an operating system that allows applications to be added or removed, that can take and send data, and that can access Web content. The first true smart phone was the Nokia 9210, which offered an open operating system and a color screen, as well as email, text, and voice communication capabilities (see Figure 2.4). Palm also offered a series of Palm Pilots that ran the Palm operating system, had PDA features, had a full QWERTY keyboard, and were capable of sending data and voice transmissions.
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The first true smart phone—the Nokia 9210. Photo courtesy of Nokia.
In 2001, Research In Motion (RIM) released the first BlackBerry. The BlackBerry was the first smart phone that really focused on improving the usability of mobile email communication. It ran the Symbian operating system, which could accept third-party applications, and it was widely adopted by business professionals who needed access to their email when they were not in the office. In 2002, Handspring launched the first Treo, and Microsoft launched the first Pocket PC, which ran the Windows Pocket PC operating system, now referred to as Windows Mobile. Both of these handsets offered a full QWERTY keyboard, making text and email communication much easier.
The Windows Mobile operating system now runs on many devices and is frequently used by Palm instead of its own operating system. In general, Windows Mobile devices provided much of the same functions as the previous smart phones, with a much nicer interface, similar to the desktop version of Windows. The Windows Mobile operating system also provided simplified versions of Microsoft software, such as Word and Excel, which were quite handy for power users.
Although these original smart phones were important to the advancement of mobile computing and quite useful for businesspeople, they were not widely adopted. These first smart phones and voice-enabled PDAs were quite expensive (between S400 and S800), and many of the functions were considered unnecessary for the normal user. In terms of mass adoption, the "candy bar" phone first offered by Nokia in 2003 was very popular; it offered some of the advanced features of the more capable phones yet sold for only SI50 (see Figure 2.5). Text messaging or navigating the Web on this phone required users to type letters using the traditional phone keyboard. Users pressed number buttons multiple times, to represent different letters in the alphabet. Many users, and especially teens, became quite adept at this kind of text communication, but it was less than ideal.
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The first widely adopted and lower priced smart phone was Nokia's "candy bar" phone. Photo courtesy of Nokia.
The first SideKick was launched in 2002 as a means of targeting more capable phones to the younger generation. It offered a full QWERTY keyboard, which made it much easier to send text and email. It had a large monochrome screen that slid up to reveal the keyboard, and it had a touch-pad that worked much like a mouse on a computer. It could surf the Web with the ability to render HTML, and it also introduced "chat," otherwise known as instant messaging, which had previously been accessible only on traditional computers. This was the first smart phone to be considered "cool" and was popularized partially because of its appearance in multiple rap and hip-hop music videos.
The Razr (see Figure 2.6), launched in 2004, was the next phone to be considered "cool." It had fewer capabilities than the SideKick, but it also had a much lower price point, which made it accessible for a larger demographic. Unlike the SideKick, it had a slim profile and was intended mostly for calling and texting. By 2007, the Razr was the single most widely distributed handset in the world.
The first-generation iPhone was launched in the United States in 2007 (see Figure 2.7). Considered a "multimedia smart phone," the iPhone made mobile computing much easier and more interactive than any previous phone, and it raised the bar in terms of the phone "cool factor." In 2008, the second-generation iPhone was launched, adding GPS and other services to the mix. The third-generation iPhone will launch later in 2009. Apple has seen the same success with the iPhone that it did with the iPod, creating a wide-spread cult following and truly raising the bar for the rest of the industry. In a pure evaluation of revenue, Apple is now the third-biggest manufacturer of cell phones worldwide, after Nokia and Samsung, and in 2008, the iPhone 3G surpassed the Razr as the most widely distributed handset in the world. The iPhone runs on its own Apple operating system that is easy to use and fun.
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The Razr had fewer capabiiities than the SideKick but was much more affordable. Photo courtesy of Motorola.
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The iPhone is considered the first true Web browsing phone because it can display full HTML Web pages almost exactly as they would be displayed on a traditional computer. It is highly customizable and has a large screen that adjusts itself based on whether you are viewing it in landscape or portrait mode. The iPhone has done so much to change the landscape for mobile marketing that I've dedicated an entire chapter in this book to understanding the technology (see Chapter 4, "Everything You Need to Know About the iPhone"). It is one of the best things that has ever happened to mobile marketing.
Since the launch of the iPhone, many carriers have begun offering iPhone clones that purport to offer a similar mobile experience, especially in terms of providing true Web browsing. In 2008, Google, T-Mobile, and HTC joined forces to launch the Dream, which was the first phone to run the Android operating system, created by Google. The Dream phone and Android operating system were meant to rival the iPhone in terms of Web browsing, the capacity for third-party applications, and the "cool" factor. Palm launched the Palm Pre in mid-2009, which also is intended to compete directly with the iPhone (see Figure 2.8). Despite much fanfare, it missed the mark, and none of the iPhone clones have yet to prove much of a threat to the iPhone.
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