The first step on the road to mobile communications came into being with the old "pager" machines that used the emerging microwave radio technology to alert a user that they had received a phone call and gave them a number to call back when they reached a landline phone.



While this helped speed up the rate of business a bit, it was just a small step toward what was really needed - full wireless telephone access. As satellite access became more widespread, the technology to transmit digital data streams brought forth the first true wireless cellular telephones.

Using low power radio transmission a growing network of receiver stations allowed increased range for these battery operated phones to connect to landline systems and deliver an actual spoken message to the receiver wherever they happened to be at.

The early 1980's saw the first regional cell phone networks being deployed in urban areas. This system allowed a person's phone connection to switch from cell tower to cell tower as they moved between the ranges of different pick-up points without interruption of service. All these early mobile cell phones were rather large and were generally installed as "car" phones. However, miniaturization of the components began shrinking the size of these phones as the new millennium approached.

With the turn of the twenty-first century, cell phones had become pocket-sized and new features were beginning to be deployed within the phone. Wireless internet technology bean to merge the traditional cell phone with portable computer services and cell phones came into being that could access the internet directly for the purposes of checking e-mail and exchanging text messages.

This function soon led to the development of mobile phone web browsers that would allow a user to actually access the World Wide Web and browse in much the same was as a portable laptop computer. Small digital cameras began to be placed in cell phones and not long after still photo capabilities emerged, video cameras were developed that could also fit into the confines of a cell phone casing.

The current pinnacle of this mobile technology is embodied in Apple's new iPhone. A mere phone call is the least of its features. As well as internet access to web sites, e-mail and streaming video, the new iPhone has an onboard still photo and video camera. Music download, storage and playback capabilities like an iPod are standard as well as ringtone creation features.

Ringtones were originally developed for cell phones as a way to identify an individual's phone from others in the same area. Soon these short musical sound files were used to identify an individual caller. With the ringtone creation feature in the new iPhones, one can custom make ringtone files from existing downloaded music or through the built-in microphone.

The newest generation of cell phones and especially the iPhone have gone beyond inputting data through buttons and have become almost exclusively touch screens. The latest developments in virtual touch screen keyboards coupled with spelling auto-correction programs have made the iPhone not only fast but also accurate. With its many features it has taken the old mobile phone concept to the point of being very close to a fully functional pocket sized computer.