Phones that had a lasting impact
Motorola engineers Martin Cooper and John F. Mitchell
likely had no idea what impact their invention, the cellular phone, would have on all of humanity when they made that first call on April 3, 1973. The original cell phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, was a massive brick of a thing that was all battery and cost $4,000. While the DynaTAC introduced people to the very idea of the cellular phone, the mobile devices we all carry in our pockets were popularized over the years by smaller, more affordable fare.
What makes a phone influential? Not just sales. A phone has to introduce a new feature, a new functionality, or an entirely new way of doing things to be considered influential. It has to have a lasting effect on what comes after it. The following devices make Android Authority‘s list of most influential phones for their impact on the greater market.
Nokia 3310 (2000)
The Nokia 3310 stood out for two reasons: its legendary durability and its instant messaging-like chat function. The 3310 was an update to an already popular device, the 3210, but it took things a step further.
The phone smartly added a chat app that permitted people to send longer messages than your typical text message.
Nokia didn’t market the 3310 as a rugged phone, but surely it was. Its outer plastic shell could handle all sorts of abuse. The Nokia 3310 also featured swappable Xpress covers that allowed owners to customize their phones with different colors and patterns. The phone smartly added a chat app that permitted people to send longer messages than your typical 160-character text message. This made the phone extremely popular with texting enthusiasts. Nokia tossed in several other nice-to-have features, such as a reminder app, a stopwatch, a calculator, and several games, including Snake.
With global sales of 126 million, it wasn’t quite the success of the 160-million-selling 3210, but it was a more influential phone overall thanks to its messaging tools.
Motorola RAZR (2004)
The Motorola RAZR was one of those phones that everyone lusted after, earning it a well-deserved place on our list of most influential phones. It took the clamshell form factor to the max with svelte lines and a metal build. The RAZR retailed for $400.
It was among the most important fashion phones and went on to sell more than 130 million units. Like the StarTAC, it was popular with celebrities and in Hollywood. It was mimicked by competitors, which later came out with their own trim clamshell designs. The Motorola RAZR was an icon in its own time. Motorola recently resurrected the RAZR to hop on the foldable bandwagon.
BlackBerry Curve (2007)
Similar to Palm’s line of Treos, we could debate all day which was the most influential BlackBerry. Was it the 6210, or the 7290? For our money, we peg the Curve as the most important ‘berry because it was parent company Research In Motion’s first real stab at appealing to the mass market. And appeal it did. The Curve was a big seller for RIM, which went on to make a wide variety of Curve devices over the years.
The BlackBerry Curve was many peoples' first smartphone.
The Curve took the popular trackball feature from the BlackBerry Pearl and stuck it in a more user-friendly device than older BlackBerries. It featured a full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a color screen. Some specs included a 312MHz processor, 64MB of storage, 16MB of RAM, and a camera. Some variants had Wi-Fi and others had GPS. The BlackBerry Curve was many peoples’ first smartphone.
Apple iPhone (2007)
The original Apple iPhone is perhaps the most influential phone to ever reach the market. It wasn’t the biggest seller, nor the best piece of hardware, but it was a collection of ideas that were executed well for the first time in a single device.
The big change introduced by Apple was the all-screen design apple cell phones. Sure, other phones of the time had big screens, but many still relied on a series of buttons to control parts of the user interface. With the iPhone, the entire user interface was dealt with on the touchscreen itself. The home button only served to exit out of apps and take you back to the home screen. Another big advancement introduced by the iPhone was the (nearly) full-powered browser. It delivered a much richer web browsing experience when compared to other phones on the market, which often defaulted to text-only representations of websites. It also integrated with the iTunes Music Store, which was a big deal at the time.
Google Nexus One (2010)
The Nexus One, also made by HTC, was commissioned by Google and debuted in the early months of 2010. The phone was the first to really tout the idea of pure Android, as it shipped with a clean version of the operating system unskinned by Google or HTC. Google’s Nexus One enjoyed some other firsts. Google sold the phone directly to consumers, unlocked, and allowed them to use their own SIM card. It laid the foundations for the online Google Store and the entire line of Nexus (and later Pixel) phones over the years. In the Android space, it was a very influential piece of hardware.
Samsung Galaxy Note (2011)
Last, but not least, we have the Samsung Galaxy Note This phone was a big leap for Samsung, literally. The company went rogue with the idea of a phone that had a giant screen and supported a stylus. Samsung has given us a new Galaxy Note each year since, and the phone continues to be the pinnacle of design, technology, and software from the Korean company.
Not long after the Note’s arrival, the average screen size for smartphones began to creep up. Even Apple decided to follow the Note’s lead: it later introduced the iPhone 6 Plus, which was the first big-screened iPhone. The Samsung Galaxy Note makes our list of most influential phones for ushering in the era of big-screened smartphones.
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That concludes our list of most influential phones. What do you think? Did your favorite make our list? Be sure to add your own in the comments below.

I can never forget 3310
The undisputed indestructible phone GOAT

The Original Galaxy Note should be prominent among this list..
It popularize the large screen phone craze and that is a major contribution to the smartphone world..

Vikag:
Phones that had a lasting impact
Motorola engineers Martin Cooper and John F. Mitchell
likely had no idea what impact their invention, the cellular phone, would have on all of humanity when they made that first call on April 3, 1973. The original cell phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, was a massive brick of a thing that was all battery and cost $4,000. While the DynaTAC introduced people to the very idea of the cellular phone, the mobile devices we all carry in our pockets were popularized over the years by smaller, more affordable fare.
What makes a phone influential? Not just sales. A phone has to introduce a new feature, a new functionality, or an entirely new way of doing things to be considered influential. It has to have a lasting effect on what comes after it. The following devices make Android Authority‘s list of most influential phones for their impact on the greater market.
Nokia 3310 (2000)
The Nokia 3310 stood out for two reasons: its legendary durability and its instant messaging-like chat function. The 3310 was an update to an already popular device, the 3210, but it took things a step further.
The phone smartly added a chat app that permitted people to send longer messages than your typical text message.
Nokia didn’t market the 3310 as a rugged phone, but surely it was. Its outer plastic shell could handle all sorts of abuse. The Nokia 3310 also featured swappable Xpress covers that allowed owners to customize their phones with different colors and patterns. The phone smartly added a chat app that permitted people to send longer messages than your typical 160-character text message. This made the phone extremely popular with texting enthusiasts. Nokia tossed in several other nice-to-have features, such as a reminder app, a stopwatch, a calculator, and several games, including Snake.
With global sales of 126 million, it wasn’t quite the success of the 160-million-selling 3210, but it was a more influential phone overall thanks to its messaging tools.
Motorola RAZR (2004)
The Motorola RAZR was one of those phones that everyone lusted after, earning it a well-deserved place on our list of most influential phones. It took the clamshell form factor to the max with svelte lines and a metal build. The RAZR retailed for $400.
It was among the most important fashion phones and went on to sell more than 130 million units. Like the StarTAC, it was popular with celebrities and in Hollywood. It was mimicked by competitors, which later came out with their own trim clamshell designs. The Motorola RAZR was an icon in its own time. Motorola recently resurrected the RAZR to hop on the foldable bandwagon.
BlackBerry Curve (2007)
Similar to Palm’s line of Treos, we could debate all day which was the most influential BlackBerry. Was it the 6210, or the 7290? For our money, we peg the Curve as the most important ‘berry because it was parent company Research In Motion’s first real stab at appealing to the mass market. And appeal it did. The Curve was a big seller for RIM, which went on to make a wide variety of Curve devices over the years.
The BlackBerry Curve was many peoples' first smartphone.
The Curve took the popular trackball feature from the BlackBerry Pearl and stuck it in a more user-friendly device than older BlackBerries. It featured a full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a color screen. Some specs included a 312MHz processor, 64MB of storage, 16MB of RAM, and a camera. Some variants had Wi-Fi and others had GPS. The BlackBerry Curve was many peoples’ first smartphone.
Apple iPhone (2007)
The original Apple iPhone is perhaps the most influential phone to ever reach the market. It wasn’t the biggest seller, nor the best piece of hardware, but it was a collection of ideas that were executed well for the first time in a single device.
The big change introduced by Apple was the all-screen design apple cell phones. Sure, other phones of the time had big screens, but many still relied on a series of buttons to control parts of the user interface. With the iPhone, the entire user interface was dealt with on the touchscreen itself. The home button only served to exit out of apps and take you back to the home screen. Another big advancement introduced by the iPhone was the (nearly) full-powered browser. It delivered a much richer web browsing experience when compared to other phones on the market, which often defaulted to text-only representations of websites. It also integrated with the iTunes Music Store, which was a big deal at the time.
Google Nexus One (2010)
The Nexus One, also made by HTC, was commissioned by Google and debuted in the early months of 2010. The phone was the first to really tout the idea of pure Android, as it shipped with a clean version of the operating system unskinned by Google or HTC. Google’s Nexus One enjoyed some other firsts. Google sold the phone directly to consumers, unlocked, and allowed them to use their own SIM card. It laid the foundations for the online Google Store and the entire line of Nexus (and later Pixel) phones over the years. In the Android space, it was a very influential piece of hardware.
Samsung Galaxy Note (2011)
Last, but not least, we have the Samsung Galaxy Note This phone was a big leap for Samsung, literally. The company went rogue with the idea of a phone that had a giant screen and supported a stylus. Samsung has given us a new Galaxy Note each year since, and the phone continues to be the pinnacle of design, technology, and software from the Korean company.
Not long after the Note’s arrival, the average screen size for smartphones began to creep up. Even Apple decided to follow the Note’s lead: it later introduced the iPhone 6 Plus, which was the first big-screened iPhone. The Samsung Galaxy Note makes our list of most influential phones for ushering in the era of big-screened smartphones.
________________________________________
That concludes our list of most influential phones. What do you think? Did your favorite make our list? Be sure to add your own in the comments below.

I think the 2007 influential phone is wrong...judging from Nigeria market. 2007 was still the Nokia era. Iphone became prominent and influential in Nigeria from iphone 4...which was 2012.

3310 be the bomb....

Still making verified Paypal Business account for your business that can send and receive money from anyone in the world.


Hit me up via my signature to order yours.

3310 will remain the greatest phone ever made, I don't think that phone was made by humans.

From casing to battery to buttons... It was superphone.

NOKIA 3310 is the winner in my opinion.
That device will literally stop an AK 47 bullet.

Nokia 3310 best Nokia phone ever... O ja bo ko fo