Let’s imagine a kilogram of weight in our pocket, I tried it
and it felt extremely awkward. That was the approximate weight of the first
wireless mobile phone developed on 3rd April 1973, but the positives
were that it built a massive platform to open several avenues in massive mobile
technology enhancements to always stay wirelessly connected to people around
the globe. Today, we have approximately 64% of the world using mobile phones
for several purposes, right from the basic usage of making calls to constantly monitoring
your heart rate. The mobile phone has become an extremely integral part of our lives,
so much so that I am a Nomophobic, and weirdly don’t mind it at all.
Reminiscing the time when pixelated black text on a 96 by 65
pixel screen with a green back-light that alternately worked as a lethal
attacking device or for some as a device that enhanced their sexual desire due
to its unnecessarily high vibrations that notified an incoming call or a
message. Major changes in technology have enabled us now to answer a call without
physically answering it. The perpetual need of a mobile phone have led to
several brands venturing into this market, with Nokia, Alcatel Samsung, Sony
Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, Blackberry, Xiaomi among others changing hands in
dominating the mobile phone markets in various countries. Technology
development in the mobile industry has been extremely quick, a company like
blackberry that once managed to sell 15 million handsets and a must have device
for most mobile users in one quarter of 2009 to becoming a social joke just 4
years later.
The cannibalistic war for the top spot is always on, and
this is not restricted to only the companies that produce these products but for
most consumers as well. Every consumer has a set perspective and belief of
their device he/she owns. For me as a consumer and a technology buff with a
strong opinion, I would blatantly state that I'm a huge Nokia/Windows Phone
believer. With phones like the HTC one, Samsung S5 and the Nexus series, it’s
hard to hold my ground and in spite of all the major competition I foresee
Windows Phones to dominate the market again, with its mobile-first, cloud-first
strategy among other major developments, over the next couple of years. Some
might point out that I have left out the unintentional flexible screened IPhone
6 and IPhone 6 plus, the reason being from my point of view, apple have started
focusing way too much on the design and less on the functionality on their
devices.
Getting in and getting out of the hardware phone market is
an extremely difficult task, but Google managed this well. Google faced a lot
of criticism due to its more than $9.5 billion loss while changing hands from Motorola
to Lenovo, but many people ignored the fact that Google managed to earn
approximately 17,000 patents, 7,500 applications, a large cash pile and a large
amount in deferred tax assets from Motorola and with technology moving faster
than light, patents possibly hold way more future value than running a hardware
mobile business. This has just helped in increasing the patents battle between Microsoft,
Apple, Samsung and Google.
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