The earliest mobile phones are now known as first generation (1G) mobile phones.

The first handheld phone to be released on the US market was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X in 1983. The mobile phone began to become popular in the eighties with the introduction of cellphones that were based on cellular networks. Mobile telephones were initially somewhat larger than current ones, & they were first made for installation in vehicles only, which is why they were called car phones. These chunky devices were later converted for use as transportable phones the size of a briefcase & the rest is history.

Second generation, also known as 2G, mobile telephones were introduced in the 1990s. 2G telephone systems were characterised by their use of digital transmission & the introduction of advanced & fast telephone to network signals.

The introduction of 2G systems saw telephones move from large 1G telephones to little hand held devices, which were far more portable. This change was possible through technical improvements including more advanced batteries & energy saving electronics.

The second generation mobile telephones had several advantages over 1G devices. These included text messaging, which became possible on GSM networks initially & eventually on most digital networks. The earliest machine-sent SMS message was sent in 1991 in the UK. The earliest person-to-person text message was sent in Finland in 1993. SMS messaging soon became the preferred method of communication & the public now prefer sending text messages to placing voice calls.

The first pre-commercial 3-G mobile phone network was launched in Japan in May of 2001. 3G was later commercially released in Japan on 1st October 2001.

3-G is the third generation of mobile phone standards & technology, which succeeded 2-G mobile technology. The arrival of 3-G technologies enabled network operators such as Orange to give their users a wider range of advanced services. This includes broadband wireless internet, as well as high-tech video calls.

Despite the success of 3G, there's also been a number of complaints about it. These include criticism over the cost of 3-G phones, a lack of network coverage & concerns over the amount of power that 3G phones use.

Following 3-G, we can look forward to the birth of 4-G technology, which should be the best and most advanced mobile phone technology to date.

Thank you for browsing our article about the invention of the mobile phone. As you've probably guessed by now, the mobile phone has come a long way since it was first launched and there's a chance that it'll be developed even further still.