The seven most influential mobile phones EVER made

I was wandering about online, today (as one does), when I came across a story on Mobile Gazette about the three most influential mobile phones of the last five years. Now, granted, that post they did is nearly a year old, and if you were to update it today, I reckon it’d pretty much have to have an Android phone in there, as well.

But it got me thinking…

If you look at the entire history of mobile phones, not just the last five years, what phones, in that case, are the most influential? Which mobile phones are the ones that have shaped the entire history of the industry? Well, for starters, you’d still need to include the ones Mobile Gazette picked out. There’s the Motorola RAZR V3, and if you were watching the mobile world back in 2004, there’s simply no way you could have not noticed it. It was a phone built out of wow factor, and stood out because at the time, there was nothing that looked like that on the market. Evidence? Look how slim modern phones are, and look how many now have metal cases. The RAZR set that standard, it did.

Next up, there’s one no-one can argue with: the original Nokia N95. When it first came out, that was the first time anyone had seen so many features in one phone, and what the RAZR did for phone design, the N95 did for phone features.

The final one they pick out is one you might expect me to disagree with, ‘cos it’s the iPhone. And I don’t like it, nor have I ever liked it. But that doesn’t change the fact it absolutely deserves to be on this list, because of the effect it had on other mobile phones. It gave manufacturers a massive kick up the backside, and as a result, we the end users now have a plethora of awesomely cool touchscreen phones. Oh, and it more or less directly caused the Palm Pre to get developed, so we have it to thank for that, too. I may not like the iPhone (and I don’t, as should be blatantly obvious to anyone who reads this blog), but I can’t deny the impact its had.

So, that’s their choices; now it’s time for mine, and first up is a true dinosaur, a phone from the very mists of prehistory (ish). The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. And the reason behind me picking it is simple. It was the first mobile phone EVER. Without it, we wouldn’t have any mobile phones today. Well, alright, we probably would, since making a mobile phone is such an obvious idea someone would have done it, but if it hadn’t happened when it did, it might have taken many more years for phones to get popular, and their evolution wouldn’t be at the point it is today.

So, yes, because of that (and just because Motorola deserve some kudos for giving the world its first mobile), the DynaTAC 8000X has to be on this list.

Next up is one of the most popular phones ever made. If you’re over a certain age, you should be able to remember a phone from Finland, that pretty much changed the mobile landscape overnight. It was stupendously sleek for its time, it was one of the first with an internal antenna, making it looks even nicer, and to top it off, you could even change the cover of the phone, and completely change the way your phone looked.

Oh yeah, you know the one I mean. It’s the Nokia 3210. Everyone had one of them, or knew someone who had one, or had seen it close up in the street. They were everywhere, with their Xpress-On covers making each one individual. And that’s why it’s on this list; no other phone in history has done so much, in such a short space of time, to popularise mobile phones, as the 3210 did. I reckon that it, more than any other phone, is responsible for how popular the little mobile gadget in your pocket is today.

Next on the list is one that, if you’d asked me about it a couple of years ago, I never would have pegged has being such an unstoppable force. But then, back then, it was just a corporate email tool (and that should give you a massive hint as to what it is). Yes, it’s a Blackberry, but the one I’m thinking of, however, is the first of RIM’s devices to really make it into the consumer world, the first one to step out of the business arena, and make people say “hang on, this is really nice!”

Yup, it’s the Blackberry Pearl, as popularised by Sex And The City. With that phone, they went mainstream, and that led to consumers getting the same kind of instant email access as business users, and we all know how mobile email is one of the current big things in the industry. The Blackberry Pearl, I reckon, is a big reason for that.

And so, we come to my final pick. And, let’s not beat about the bush, you know it’s gonna be an Android phone. Many people have said that Android is a game-changer, and I’m inclined to agree. However, the final phone on my list isn’t my favourite Android phone, the HTC Hero, because by the time that was recently released, everyone already knew the potential Android has.

No, you have to go back to the source, to find the final phone on this list; the original… the first ever Android phone… the T-Mobile G1. That’s the final phone on this list, because it was the first, and because when it was released, we got our first glimpse of the way the mobile industry is going to change. You can even see the changes already happening, what with the Symbian Foundation producing a new, open source OS, and Nokia making the N900, which is based on another open source OS.

Android is having, and will continue to have, a huge impact on the market, and it all stems from that first phone, the T-Mobile G1.

So, that’s my picks. I reckon those are the phones that’ve done the most to change the industry they were, or are still, evolving in. Now, you may notice I haven’t put in things like Walkman phones, or Sony Ericsson’s first camera phone, and there’s a very good reason for that: I’d have been here all chuffing night writing this blog post, if I had.

And I have to go and play Batman: Arkham Asylum, which just arrived today, and as much as I love mobile phones, beating up The Joker trumps it, I’m afraid.

Besides which, now it’s your turn to pick what you think are the most influential phones in history…