We've Come a Long Way Since Car Phones!

[Brad Wasson]

<p>Hello readers! If you're on this site you're either a Windows Phone enthusiast, a smartphone aficionado, interested in understanding where Microsoft is taking this platform (or is that "platforms"?), or stumbled across the site while surfing. In any of these cases, I would like to introduce myself as a new Contributing Editor for Windows Phone Thoughts. I have&nbsp; been frequenting this site for some time, and have found it to be informative and insightful, two characteristics I hope to continue with my writings and analysis.</p><p>My first mobile phone was a car phone in an HP company car, way back around 1995, and I've been intrigued with mobile phones ever since. Do you remember that first feeling of awe as you made your first phone call <em>not </em>in a phone booth or not from your land line in your house or office? Fifteen years later I still see lots of room for innovation in this wonderful communication technology, and, if you're like me, you love to track the developments and to experience the benefits. I have been working in the technology field for 25 years, as a software developer, systems engineer, architect, process consultant and for the past 10 years as a management consultant. I'm interested in both the consumer and business application of technology, and will endeavour to bring both perspectives to this site. I'm looking forward to some lively discussions, so please join in as we follow this marketplace and the technologies that pervade it.</p>

[Fritzly]

Yes I rememebr the phone in the car: I had one in 1975, I could not receive just place calls and I had a huge metal box in the trunk......................................... but I was twenty years old............

[Jason Dunn]

Welcome to the team Brad! :)

[Brad Wasson]

Hey Fritzly - your post made me chuckle a bit, and reminded me of the era when cars had those cell antennas on them. Every once in a while you'd see a really different antenna, like a unicorn horn coming out of the molding at the top of the back window. A car with a cell antenna would drive by and you'd think "hey, that guy's got a mobile phone in there". I've even heard stories of people buying an antenna for their car just so it would look like they had a phone in there, when in fact they didn't have one! Seems like a long time ago now!

[egads]

The thing I remember about those old phones is that you turned them on and they were ready in seconds. My HTC Diamond II takes at least two minutes before I can use it...

[Jon Westfall]

Welcome to the Team Brad!

I remember the bag phones, and those permanently installed in cars, despite never having owned one myself (my father had one though). Great memories of using it only in "emergencies" or "work" due to the high rates!

[Jason Dunn]

The thing I remember about those old phones is that you turned them on and they were ready in seconds.

Yeah, but do did DOS-based computers...but they couldn't do as much as modern machines. Old phones booted fast because all they could do was make calls. How boring. :D

[yawanag]

First, I want to Welcom you, Brad. You've come to a good place. Doesn't matter how you got here just that you're part of our family now.

Egads, I feel your pain. I have an HTC Touch Pro and it's good for everything but making phone calls. I keep getting a dialing #777 message. When I called tech support someone told me to pop the battery out and put it back in. How absurd! I'm a senior and I feel uncomfortable taking a battery out, putting it back in, waiting for it to boot before I call 911. I can't wait until my contract expires. I have US Cellular and I'll go back to T-Mobile where I never had a problem in 9 years.

[John London]

My first cellular phone was the Motorola Flip phone. That cost few hundred dollars and only could make calls, and it was only analog. Of course it was 25 cents a minute on top of the monthly bill. Fortunately, the company I worked at picked up the cost as they insisted I have it, not a pager, but a phone so they could get a hold of me to support a few critical systems. Now, I just got the HTC HD2 and it is just unbelievable how far the industry has come since those days. :D

[Fritzly]

What is the Motorola "Flip"? Is the Star Tac"?

The company I worked for bought a StarTac as soon as the deployment of the TACS network was complete in Italy in 1990: the phone costed $5,000..............
After two years everybody was using a cellular phone and prices had dropped to $600/700.......