What Happened to Cool Mobile Phone Hardware?
Every once and a while I get to thinking or talking about all the phones I have owned (something like one every three weeks for the last 8 years if my math is correct) and I get this nostalgic feeling about the hardware designs of yesteryear. Before the iPhone, we had design that were really different from each other. Some were really cool and useful, others were just plain ridiculous. The point is, they were different. Very different. Manufactures were differentiating with hardware in ways I can only dream of now. Square, big touch screen. That’s what I get to choose from. My only decision is how big of a screen I want. So come, take a trip down memory lane with me as I look back on when hardware was cool and no so damn boring.
Remember physical QWERTY Keyboards on cell phones that wasn’t a BlackBerry? There was a day when almost every “smartphone” came equipped with one. If your phone didn’t have a physical QWERTY it wasn’t considered “smart”. We had clam shell designs, slider designs, crazy hinges, and everything in between. Manufactures always found new and unique ways to cram a keyboard onto a phone’s hardware. Now we all mindlessly jam away on glass and accept it as if making a phone with a good physical keyboard and big screen is some remarkable feet only achieved in myth.
Flip phones were even “cool” at one time. Now you see a flip phone and you point, laugh, and throw tomatoes at the owner. Just a few short years ago, a flip phone could be a powerful productivity tool wrapped in an elegant easy to pocket form factor. One part everyday phone, one part smartphone. These devices would be perfect for today’s kids’ obsession with “skinny jeans” (I’m looking at you Ray). They slid into jean pockets with ease, but packed all the power of their QWERTY smartphone cousins.
Another forgotten form factor is the portrait QWERTY. What once was the dominant form factor for smartphones, has now become the sign of low end hardware. Let us also not forget the portrait QWERTY slider. This design gave users the best of both world by equipping a touch screen and a slide out keyboard. Both version of the portrait QWERTY designs were excellent for “one handed” use and messaging. I was sad to see the Palm Pre fail the way it did, as it represented the last of the portrait QWERTY.
Last but not least I bring you to what I like to call “the communicator” form factor. Yeah I stole the name from Nokia’s line of phones. These devices weren’t your typical QWERTY or slider devices. They had massive keyboards, big screens, sometimes dual screens, and were meant to be a powerful business tools. They were definitely a niche product as most people gasped when they saw me whip out my Qtek 9000, but for a select few, they were amazing. This is where manufactures really let loose with design ideas. They were always competing to make the next “it” form factor standard. These devices were never cheap and made from very premium materials. They made you feel proud and like a giant nerd all at the same time. Of all, I am saddest to see these types of phones disappear from the market.
As you can see hardware design has gotten pretty boring. I’m no longer WOW’d by what I see. Sure processors, screens, network connections have all advanced tremendously over the years, but all wrapped inside a square slab. Hell, having a color choice for a device these days is even a stretch. I understand that the market has pushed towards this “slab” design in light of the iPhone’s massive success on the market, but I would like to see a return to the days of originality and differentiation by design. Maybe those days will never return or maybe we are just at a junction where these companies are still trying to gain some traction in an ever changing market.
Mobile Mike
Mobile Mike, “The Boss Guru”, is a connoisseur of mobile technology, specifically smartphones. Name a phone or platform and he’s probably used it. His love for tech led to the creation of this site and The Gadget Gurus Podcast. You’ll see many of his reviews right here on the blog and hear him trying to keep the other Gurus inline on show.
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