My Cellphone My Terms

This Top 10 list was put together by the team at myCELLmyTERMS and we had to limit it to the last decade just to stop the internal fist fights – just kidding. It was also put together for the Canadian market despite all of its shortcomings. (i.e. One GSM player up until Q3 of 2009, higher pricing, limited data plans, three main carriers Bell, Rogers, TELUS, and the list goes on and on.)

So how did we define Top 10, well these were devices of their time. They were trendy, they were cool, everyone had one or wanted one and it changed the market by being revolutionary in some way.  So, let’s take a trip down cell phone memory lane.

#	Cell Phone / Smart Phone	Why it made the lists.
10		HandSpring Treo 180 Okay, so perhaps we were just finishing university, but when this phone launched it was the first of its kind. My professor had one of these and we thought he was rich. The perfect blend for its time between PDA, which many people had as a stand alone device, and cell phone. It was capable of running all of Palm OS applications. For professionals the future was looking bright and Palm was quaking in their boots.
9		BlackBerry 5810 The BlackBerry 5810 came along in early 2002, the little Waterloo company wasn’t so little anymore and Research In Motion had become best known for their data capabilities: Push e-mail technology, organizer features, and the now iconic QWERTY keyboards. This was the first BlackBerry to offer voice capabilities.
8		Sanyo SCP-5300 We deliberated on this one for quiet a while. Truth be told I barely remember this phone myself, perhaps because of how basic it looks by today’s standards, but a couple of my team mates believe this phone was the first flip phone with a built in camera available in Canada and that’s what made it special. Next…
7		Motorola Razr V3 This phone was iconic. No doubt about it. Let’s not forget there was a time when a flip phone was king. The mere act of flipping a phone open to make or, better yet, end a call was COOL. Was it not? I remember being in England in late 2004 and seeing line ups out the door to buy this phone for the equivalent of $800 CDN.  Maybe not all at crazy prices like that, but Motorola sold 110 million of these devices worldwide.  This phone was sleek, it was thin and it ushered in a whole new era of design. Damn, how the years fly by!
6		Motorola V600 Everyone was chasing Motorola when this phone was the sh.. It ushered in the era of ring tones. Anyone remember them?  That market all but seems dried up. The V600 was another flip phone in a line up of cool devices from Motorola when it owned the cell phone market with upwards of 45% market share. My, my, my, how things change.
5		Motorola Rokr E1 Okay, i know what your thinking. A brick made the list! When Motorola dropped this phone in 2005 it’s claim to fame was that it synced up with Apple’s iTunes, had a slot for a microSD card (512MB) VGA camera with flash, Bluetooth and I have been cautioned not to forget the rhythm lights. At the time this was the best of both worlds and Apple teamed up with Motorola to release this phone. Having a phone that you could actually listen to your music. Wow! Amazing!
4		BlackBerry Pearl In 2006 all of my girlfriends had one of these phones. It seemed like the perfect purse accessory. This phone made the transition to the consumer space for Research In Motion and all of a sudden owning a BlackBerry wasn’t only about productivity. The Pearl was the first phone where design wasn’t secondary and it was the first BlackBerry to have a camera, an audio/video player and of course BlackBerry’s email services.
3		Google Nexus One Slated as the first “super phone” and the first true iPhone Killer it makes this list with ease. With its Snap dragon 1Ghz processor, 480 x 800 resolution, 3.7″ screen and a 5-megapixel camera make this device special. Google partnered with HTC to bring this device to market, and the Nexus really made Android a buzz word for most. The phone itself set the stage for a show down between Google and Apple and although Google’s direct to consumer strategy failed, and the sales figures may have disappointed the Android movement is in full effect and the sum of the vendor partners are a force to reckon with.
2		BlackBerry Bold 9700 With its sexy beveled edges and ultra neat design the Bold 9700 has remained in the top 2 device requests at myCELLmyTERMS. With Wi-Fi, GPS media player, organizer, bluetooth, expandable memory and tethering capability this device has become phone of choice for millions of professionals and prosumers alike.
1		Apple iPhone Don’t need to say much here. When Motorola and the other phone manufacturers were busy racing to make the thinnest, sleekest device, Apple was busy working on the smartest device, blazed a whole new trail and are yet to look back.

I guess the coolest thing about these phones is that you remember where you were when they were first released or became popular. They helped define a generation -  for 70s babies at least – and paved the way for innovation today that seems common place.

I wonder if there is a market for retro cell phones like retro team apparel and if so would you buy one?

What do you think about the Top 10 list? What did we miss and why do you think it should have made the list?