The Progress of Technology

Earlier this week, I got a new cell phone. My contract was up and Verizon was offering some great incentives to entice me to stay with them. (It's a win-win as I had no plans to move to another carrier.) Anyways, I chose the new LG VX8600. I was putting this phone in my pocket earlier this evening and was struck by the tremendous evolution of cell phone technology over the last 20 or so years.

Here is one of the first popular cell phones. It goes without saying that this phone was "portable" only in a narrowly technical way.

I don't remember specifically, but this phone weighed several pounds, had minimal functionality (I can't recall, but don't even think it had an address book). Moreover, once unplugged from an outlet, it's battery life was an hour or two at most.

As some of you know, I used to work for Motorola's cell phone division and can remember when some of our competitors didn't even have "portable" phones. In fact, I can remember inserting a "spy" photo of one of competitors "mobile" phones which weighed 25 or more pounds and took up the entire passenger seat of a car into a proposal to drive home how "high tech" our bag phone was compared to the competition. :-)

Now check out this phone. As mentioned, it's the new LG VX8600. Instead of pounds, it weighs 3.2 ounces -- it is 3.9 inches tall, 1.9 inches wide, and a whopping .6 inches thick! It is so small and light, I don't even notice it when I put it in my pocket. A pack of gum would feel bulkier in my pocket than this phone (likely why they have it placed next to a pack of gum here :-). It takes pictures and videos, it has an MP3 player, it has Bluetooth, it can access the internet, holds 500 contacts, etc., etc. It's battery will last for days, not hours, before needing to be recharged.

It is incredible how this technology has advanced. What kind of communications devices will we be using 20 years from now?