How many mobile phones have been released in the world? Even the most senior people in the mobile phone industry may not be able to answer this question, but some people always want to try. Ben wood, an analyst in the technology industry, and Matt Chatterley, a collector, have jointly established a mobile phone museum to collect all kinds of mobile phones released throughout the ages. At present, the mobile phone Museum has collected more than 2000 mobile phones from more than 200 brands. The team classifies these more than 2000 mobile phones according to the categories of the ugliest, best-selling and luxury, including the classic Motorola Razer V3 and Nokia 3310, as well as the first widely used mobile phone Motorola dynatac 8000x in history. After visiting this "digital enthusiast paradise", I seem to find the reason why smartphones are becoming more and more like today. The ugliest mobile phone Due to the epidemic, the mobile phone museum can not hold offline exhibitions for the time being. People can only enter the online virtual museum to feel these interesting mobile phones. After entering the website, the first thing I saw was the "ugliest" category. If it is said that good-looking is always the same, then the mobile phones in the ugliest classification are ugly and have their own characteristics. NTT Personal-Paldio 101Y I believe you are like me. When you see this mobile phone, a question mark will pop up in your mind. Why does Sony want to build a mobile phone with such a strange shape? The huge and round top cover even covers the key area of the mobile phone. It looks like an earmuff with headphones. According to the introduction of the mobile phone Museum, this mobile phone launched in 1995 won the "excellent design award" of that year, but it seems ironic now, because it is commonly known as the "toilet seat" mobile phone in the mobile phone industry. Why? You can see it from the back of the phone. Samsung p110v This is a mobile phone specially designed by Samsung for Vodafone, which also contains the logo of Vodafone group. The shape and color matching is very bright and pink. The only problem is that the huge hinge guide rail on the top of the mobile phone disrupts the integration of mobile phone color matching. In fact, this is also one of the most distinctive designs of Samsung p110v. It can make this flip phone fold in various forms. It can not only fold up, but also arrange the keyboard area and screen area in a cross or even side-by-side manner. It looks very cool. The mobile phone released at the 3GSM World Conference in Barcelona in 2007 is also considered to be one of the most innovative industrial designs in the event. However, it may ignore the practicability. In addition to the upward flip, the flip design in other directions does not improve the experience, and there is basically no scene of stacking the keyboard and screen in parallel in daily use. Nokia 7600 This may be the most controversial mobile phone in the ugliest category. For a long time, Nokia 7600 has been regarded as one of the most personalized and interesting mobile phones designed by the company. As a straight board 3G mobile phone, it adopts diamond design and rarely distributes keys at both ends of the screen. The mobile phone covers at both ends also support replacement like the current mobile phone cases. People can match different cases of the Nokia 7600 according to their preferences to show their personality. There are gains and losses. The radical design of the Nokia 7600 also makes it impossible to install a front camera in the front, but Nokia strongly promotes the video call function, and even says that "the Nokia 7600 opens a new door to the multimedia communication world", which is very strange. In addition, people are used to one hand operation, and the dual row keyboard design of the Nokia 7600 is more suitable for two hand operation. Finally, it can only become a collection of a few digital enthusiasts. ▲ picture from: the vooner The phones in the ugliest category are similar to the above models. They all adopt a "special" design, but most of them have not passed the test of practicability and user habits, and finally become niche products. Even with today's aesthetic trend, they are judged as "the ugliest". Best selling mobile phone After watching the ugliest, let's take a look at the mobile phones with the highest sales. Among them, there are many products with excellent design and outstanding functions. Nokia 3310 As one of the highest selling mobile phones in history, Nokia 3310 has sold more than 126 million phones worldwide. Compared with the competitive products of the same generation, its design is not outstanding, and even the hardware configuration is slightly backward. At that time, Motorola v8088 can already use WAP browser, and the screen definition is higher. ▲ from left to right are classic Nokia 3310 and new Nokia 3310. Picture from CNET The success of Nokia 3310 depends on the popularity and super quality of short messages. Around 2000, the era of the rise of short message service was just around. The short message function of Nokia 3310 supports the input of 459 words, which is three times that of other mobile phone short message functions. It is also equipped with a 9-key input system. Familiar users can even send short messages blindly. Another feature is quality. Now people ridicule that Nokia's Walnut smashing and bullet blocking basically come from this mobile phone. Its strong fall resistance makes it stand out from many mobile phones. Now all kinds of stem pictures and second innovation videos of this mobile phone can be found on twitter, youtube and other content platforms. Even the Finnish government has included it in one of the Emoji expressions that can best represent the country. ▲ Emoji expression of Nokia 3310 In 2017, Nokia also released a classic replica Nokia 3310, which is still in demand in some parts of the world even for function machines. Motorola Razr V3 In the introduction of the mobile phone Museum, Motorola Razr V3 was originally a mobile phone that should not have been born, because at that time, according to the requirements of Motorola's development process, a mobile phone was expected to sell at least 3 million units before it could enter the decision-making process. ▲ the museum team includes senior people in the mobile communication industry, who can often obtain some rare information in the market. The picture is Motorola Razr V3 prototype At the product evaluation meeting, the estimated sales volume of this special mobile phone is only 800000. The manufacturing of Motorola Razr V3 is very difficult. To keep the communication antenna from protruding, the external screen can only use monochrome display, and there is only one supplier for making this mobile phone etching keyboard, and the quantity that can be produced in a short time is limited. More importantly, no operator promised a sales plan. At that time, the operator was the guarantee of mobile phone sales. No one was optimistic about the price of Motorola Razr V3, which was as high as $1000. ▲ Razr v3. Picture from: unsplash Finally, Roger Jellicoe, former vice president of Motorola, overcame all the opinions and promoted this "future mobile phone" in the form of internal secret projects, which was put on sale in 2003. Simplicity, sharpness and coolness are people's first impression when they see it. The weight of the whole machine is only 95g. Even if the price is extremely high, it has also been sought after. Before the sale, Motorola predicted its sales volume of 1 million units. As a result, this goal was soon broken through. In the four years after the sale, its sales volume exceeded 130 million units, becoming one of the highest sales mobile phones in the world. In 2020, Motorola tried to re launch Razr Series in the form of folding screen, which was the folding screen mobile phone with the shallowest crease in that year. Unfortunately, the low configuration and high price delayed it, making it difficult to reproduce the style of v3. ▲ Motorola Razr 5g iPhone 6 Most of the previously mentioned are function phones, and the iPhone 6 series is a rare smartphone in the classification. In the whole iPhone series, iPhone 6 also belongs to a generation with great changes. It changed from the right angle metal of iPhone 5S to a more rounded design. With an enlarged screen and IOS system, the product power was among the top products at that time. The huge changes in product shape, coupled with the popularity of smart phones and the replacement of old users, both inside and outside have contributed to the big sales of iPhone 6 series. As of June 2017, the global sales of iPhone 6 series has exceeded 224 million, and so far there is no new iPhone to break this record. From variety to unity There are more than 2000 mobile phones. The mobile phone Museum almost shows the development history of mobile phones. Here is the first mobile phone in history, Motorola dynatac 8000x, with a shape as big as a brick. It is charged for 10 hours and talked for 30 minutes, and the high price of more than 3000 US dollars. From the current perspective, it is very backward, but for people at that time, it was a high-end product. In the 1987 film wall street, there was a picture of Gordon Gekko using dynatac 8000x, which gradually became a cultural symbol, symbolizing the tools of high-end businessmen, and won the title of "big brother" in China. Motorola dynatac 8000x has become popular rapidly. Since then, mobile phones have officially entered people's lives. After that, the development of mobile phones continued to be lighter and smaller. With the lightweight and solid Nokia 3310 and the advanced Motorola razar V3, mobile phones also appeared in various branches, such as luxury goods. The mobile phone Museum specially formulated a classification for them. ▲ BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 In addition to the more familiar vetu series mobile phones, blackberry, which is famous for its stability, has also launched a luxury version, that is, it costs up to $2300. At that time, because the CEO of Porsche Design Company loved the BlackBerry brand very much, he established contact with the company trying to produce the BlackBerry. The two sides cooperated to launch this product. This mobile phone is made of a whole piece of stainless steel, the complete QWERTY keyboard is also made of metal, and the dialing buttons are made of glass. It is worth mentioning that BlackBerry has also produced a 24 carat gold version of BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981, with a cost price of up to $25000 per unit. Looking back, today's smart phones, whether iPhone or Android, tend to have a unified appearance. Everyone has a whole screen on the front, which is quite different from the style of functional machines such as Nokia 7600 and Motorola razar v3. From various to gradually unified, from the ugliest series to the series with the highest sales volume, it is not difficult to find that the difference lies in whether the design is practical and can really improve the experience. Now, the large screen, high endurance and emphasis on photography almost frame the mobile phone shape. On the premise of meeting the needs of users, manufacturers can make few changes in the shape, A more secure way is often to promote stable and small innovative products. With the global market share becoming more and more fixed and several large manufacturers taking the lead, how many manufacturers are willing to take great risks with Motorola to develop a "future product" such as Motorola razar V3. More importantly, will this product carrying the future be a mobile phone? (Xinhua News Agency)