06 April 2010
The MicroTAC lingers on
Are you nostalgic for the mobile phones of yore, which weighed a lot, had little battery life and could only access patchy coverage? Strangely enough, almost 5% of respondents to a recent survey expressed a preference for Motorola's MicroTAC, pictured, a 20 year old analogue mobile phone.
The survey, conducted by the University of Salford to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the mobile phone, looked to determine the nation's favourite mobile of all time. No real surprise, then, to find the iPhone topped the list, with two Nokia models reasonably close behind.
Professor Nigel Linge, head of the Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research department at the University of Salford, said: "The Apple iPhone is a design classic and has truly transformed the design of mobile phones. Personally, I'm nostalgic for the Motorola StarTAC, which was the world's first clam shell phone, but it fell outside of our top ten."
There's a fascination with lists of all kinds nowadays; some tv channels would be strangely empty at times if it wasn't for programmes expounding at length various Top 50s.
What was interesting in this particular exercise was to see the iPhone only grabbing 13% of the vote. Perhaps users of mobiles are less susceptible to fashion and hype than might have been thought.
Author
Graham Pitcher
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