Article by Natalie Aranda
Surprisingly, cell phones have actually been around for a lot longer than most people think. Since the 1970′s, wireless cell phones have been on the market, but no one with the exception of big businesses and the government actually used them. They were impractical devices that would only work when a wireless network was actually in range, and that wasn’t often back in the day. The cell phones back then were impractical and inefficient. They looked like large pieces of equipment that wouldn’t fit into pockets and purses alike, so there really wasn’t a point to carrying one. On top of that, there weren’t any cellular phone accessories at all for the consumer to make their phone their own. But that picture has changed into a much larger one. When the nineties hit, cell phones became a major player in the communications field. People were starting to use them in the main stream population and wireless companies like AT&T were pushing to make wireless phones better and better. The cell phone is based on digital signals instead of the analog signals that were once dominating the communications market. Digital technology has made the wireless conversation a lot more like the wired phone calls that we use at home. It cuts up the waves of sound and sends them in bursts of data to make a clearer sound.
Cell phones were also becoming a lot more affordable for the average Joe. Plans became more and more family friendly and packages were aimed at the regular consumer rather than busy businessmen. Through advertising and improving the technology and reliability of cell phones, the industry has changed drastically. It started out as a three million dollar market and has exponentially grown to a thirty billion dollar market. Now, there are so many cell phone companies and so many choices for phones and phone plans that they make the average consumer’s head spin. Cheaper and better phones, along with their cheap cell phone accessories have flooded the malls and electronic stores within the last ten years. You can now buy anything for your cell phone, from the practical carrying case, to flashing lights on the antenna, all the way to downloading music and hooking it up to speakers.
The cell phone industry has evolved into a profit devouring monster. Consumers, especially the younger generation, are all itching to get their hands on new phones.
Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer.
