Here’s a visual history of the last twenty years of cell phone design. Now this only shows a smattering of the thousands of phone designs of the last two decades, but it’s striking how designs have shifted over the years. Long gone is the antenna, and nowadays the design of phones seems to be a simple rectangular slab.
Japanese communications company NTT docomo celebrates its 20th anniversary with an exhibition showcasing the evolution of mobile phone culture starting from 1987 to the present day. The extensive chronological display of cell phones on view at tokyo designers’ week, offered a visual documentation of the progress made in terms of size, shape, form, color and materials used in the design of today’s mobile devices.
1987 – 1997
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
1997 – 2000
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
2000 – 2003
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
2003 – 2005
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
2005 – 2007
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
2007 – 2010
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
2010 – 2012
Timeline of cell phones from the exhibition edited by DesignBoom
