Pro Cellular history

1926: The first successful mobile telephony service was offered to first class passengers on the Deutsche Reichsbahn on the route between Berlin and Hamburg.

1946: The first calls were made on a car radiotelephone in Chicago.

1956: The first automated mobile phone system for private vehicles launched in Sweden.

1969: The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) Group was established.

The first portable cell phone was invented in 1973 by Motorola.

1985: Comedian Ernie Wise made the first “public” mobile phone call in the UK from outside the Dicken’s Pub in St Catherine’s dock to Vodafone’s HQ. He made the call in full Dickensian coachman’s garb.

A year later, in 1988, Samsung developed its first “handphone" — The SH-100.

In 1992, the next big innovation came in the form of the Nokia 1011, which was the first mass-produced GSM (2G) phone.

Released in 1994, IBM’s Simon was the first device to feature apps and a touchscreen, thus it is considered the world’s first smartphone.

In 1998, Siemens launched a game-changer — Siemens S10 – the first cell phone to feature a color screen.

The first BlackBerry phone was also unveiled in 1999.

Over in Japan, the first commercially available camera phone The Sharp J-SH04, launched in November 2000 in Japan.

When it launched in 2001, the cell phone came at a cost of $500.

Then in 2002, innovation came in the form of the Sanyo SCP-5300, a phone which allowed photos to be seen on the screen, rather than having to plug the device into a computer.

2003: The 3G standard started to be adopted worldwide, kicking off the age of mobile internet and paving the way for the rise of smartphones.

The first waterproof phone popped up in 2005.

It came with the longest list of features you could imagine at the time: wifi, web browsing, a five-megapixel camera and even built-in GPS. It wasn’t until the N95 in 2006 that Nokia released what could truly be termed a smartphone.

Announced in January 2007, the original iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs as a combination of the iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet communicator.

The first release of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard was commercially deployed in Norway and Sweden in 2009 and has since become common throughout most parts of the world.

In 2011, Xiaomi launched their first phone — the Xiaomi Mi 1 — which was only available in Asian markets.

Apple’s co-founder passed away the day after the announcement of iPhone 4s, though he did oversee the development of iPhone 5, which would eventually hit stores in September 2012.

In 2013, Apple dropped the iPhone 5S (their first phone with a fingerprint sensor), LG launched the G2, and Sony launched the Xperia Z.

In 2014, the OnePlus One was launched, followed by some innovation by Korean giants Samsung and LG. LG launched the G3, the first flagship with a QHD screen, while Samsung launched the Galaxy S5, the first smartphone to feature a heart rate monitor.

A year later, in 2015, they launched the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, the first phone with curved display edges that allowed additional functionality.

In 2017, the Asus Zenfone AR launched as the first phone with 8GB of RAM, and LG upped the display game by releasing the LG G6 smartphone featuring Dolby Vision.

2018 brought us the first triple camera smartphone, the Huawei P20 Pro, which had one 40 MP lens, one 20 MP lens, and one 8 MP lens.