The Cell Phone: From a Brick Size Clunker 40 years ago to a Major Marketing Tool Today

May 9

posted by Dr. Herbert Brotspies in Innovation | 19 Comments

It is hard to believe the first cell phone call celebrated its 40th birthday on April 3, 2013. It then took 10 years to develop the first Motorola cell phone prototype into a commercially feasible phone gaining government approval in 1983. It weighed 2 ½ pounds and the cost was slightly under $4,000.

Today, the cell phone has dramatically shrunk in size and moved beyond its first purpose of telephone calls to a device for information consumption, information creation, and life management, driven by consumers, marketers, and rapid changes in technology.

The numbers are staggering. A recent study shows 87% of adults have a cell phone with about half using a smart phone allowing for full Internet connectivity. In fact, about a third of all cell phone users use their cell phone as their major connection to the Internet with apps accounting for the major portion of their Internet time. Two-thirds of smart phone users say they could not live without their smart phones.

The cell phone has become the consumer's tool for instant information from checking the weather, finding and reviewing a restaurant, comparing prices while shopping, to calling friends for advice on a purchase decision. Searching on PC's has been declining while mobile searching is increasing dramatically.

The iPhone began the age of mobile computing five years ago. Marketers have responded by developing customer friendly apps from the local bank to the largest airline. Apps for games, entertainment, news, weather, utilities, and music now carry ads targeted to specific consumers. As part of their overall marketing communications strategy, marketers must seek ways to understand mobile search behavior and how consumers use the software and apps on mobile devices.

Marketers will also need to innovate new ways to use the cell phone to improve customer experience for both products and services, going well beyond mobile banking or the ability to adjust the thermostat in your home. With its geo-positioning capability to determine your location, perhaps the mobile phone of the future will provide you with a coupon for ketchup as you walk down the aisle in the supermarket or send you an invitation to see a local veterinarian because your location showed you were in a doggy park.

Thirty-five years from now, when the first iPhone is 40 years old, will we be looking at the iPhone the same way we look at the first Motorola clunker cell phone?

Herbert Brotspies, D.B.A., is an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University. He may be reached at brotspie@nova.edu.

This entry was posted on May 9, 2013 at 8:58 AM and has received 5517 views. There are currently 19 comments. Print this entry. Download attachment.

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• #1 by ketoles on 5/16/13 - 8:41 AM

  

  Can you explain the use of coupons in the world in marketing, and the extent of its benefits for marketing?

• #2 by Dr. Brotspies on 5/16/13 - 11:32 AM

  

  Couponing is part of the sales promotion tools a marketer uses to gain short term share of market and sales increases. The benefits include providing an incentive for consumers who have not tried your brand to purchase your brand at a discount, as a defensive technique when faced with a competitive new entry to load your customers with your brand so they are less likely to purchase your competitor, and to ask retailers who sell your brand to stock up and display or feature the brand as part of the coupon promotion. Couponing is not without its issues. First, the marketer runs the risk of rewarding your own customer who might have bought your brand anyway without the coupon. Second, if coupons are used too often, then your customers might wait until they have a coupon before they purchase your brand. And third, coupons are costly and subject to mis-redemption. That is, a retailer accepts the coupon without the purchase of the brand.

• #3 by Tiffini Redler on 6/1/13 - 12:47 PM

  

  Smartphones have drastically changed the way we access information and communicate as a society. Speaking on the phone seems to be becoming obsolete, as more people utilize the convienence of texting, emailing, tweeting, etc. Younger generations are less communicative with their peers verbally; I personally, prefer an old fashioned telephone call.

• #4 by Nina Chandler on 6/2/13 - 7:29 AM

  

  I use to have a Motorola clunker about 25 years ago and I now have a smartphone. I am so spoiled with my smartphone compared to the clunker that I had 25 years ago. I enjoy the apps and all of the features that comes with the smartphone. It is so convenient to check the weather, navigate GPS when I'm unaware of my surroundings, read the newspaper, check for coupons, take clear photos, and much more. However, I don't think we will be looking at the first I-phone 35 years from now how we looked at the Motorola clunker 40 years ago because technology has improved tremendously and it will continue to improve with society. If its what the customers want and they create ideas to improve technology, then manufacturers and businesses will strive to put it on the market as long as the idea is a successful and innovative idea and it will make them money.

• #5 by Nurylin Rivera-Weinstein on 6/2/13 - 6:53 PM

  

  Definitely, cell phones have revolutionized the market, and there is so much to do with a cell phone. Coupons can be shown in a restaurant or grocery store in order to get discount. Directions on how to get to a place, photos, videos, face to face conversation with someone, texting, music, movie and so on. Today, it is incredible to see the changes of the cell phone and any electronic devices. It will be interesting to see what the cell phone would be in 50 to 100 years more, or what other electronic devices would be at that time. Probably, a combination of cell phone, Internet, and TV together in one electronic device, or even more.

• #6 by Nurylin Rivera-Weinstein on 6/2/13 - 9:18 PM

  

  In reality, cell phones have become so popular, that when people feel alone, they are calling someone, or checking their text, or searching any information on the phone. Coupons, Internet, photos, videos, locations, music and more are know in the cell phones. The competition is so great that people have to search information in order to find out which cell phone to buy and have. I wonder what the future will bring and in fifty to hundred years, what the cell phones are going to look like?

• #7 by Dr. Brotspies on 6/3/13 - 9:02 AM

  

  Tiffini,
  Good observation about peer to peer texting among teens. Recent research shows 67% of teens would rather text friends than call. When it comes to parents, teens prefer to call, 78%, probably because parents prefer the call.
  
  Texting is growing as a marketing tool. It has to be used carefully. Companies must make sure the person receiving the text message has opted-in, that is, agreed to receive texts. The text message should be targeted to the need of the customer and have a sense of urgency—to motivate action quickly. For example, a retailer has a one day sale, or to provide information on a delivery, or an ordered item is now available at the store, or to confirm an appointment. Texting connects to the customer 24/7, and if used properly, can be a powerful marketing tool because of the immediate and direct relationship it provides.

• #8 by Gregory Rodriguez on 6/3/13 - 2:42 PM

  

  I think it so amazing how far we have come with technology. Cell phones now-a-days are not what they were 40 years ago. I have even heard of cell phone being carried around in a suit cases because of how heavy and inconvenient they are to carry around the whole day. To know that now you can just carry your phone in your pocket, receive and make phone calls ,and access the internet at the same time is above and beyond what we expected. I agree with the author on how 35 years from now we will be seeing not just the iphone but other cell phones as being old clunkers. I really can't wait to see what the future holds when it comes to the innovations of technology in the 21st century.

• #9 by Mike Azarigian on 6/3/13 - 5:58 PM

  

  As a kid I can recall when cell phones became popular. Now it is amazing to see how the phone industry has changed faster since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Since Apple has changed the way we communicate with our mobile devices they have been able to secure brand loyal consumers as they have found a unique value in their products.

• #10 by Samar Akbarian on 6/3/13 - 8:48 PM

  

  Over last 40 years, we can see how the bulky, heavy cell phones had been transformed into small and light ones like iphone. The market need to innovate new technologies to satisfy customer experiences.

• #11 by Tiffany Toyloy on 6/4/13 - 11:25 AM

  

  I agree 100% on how smartphones have revolutionized the world. The smartphone has become an essential part of my life and I do not think I would be able to live without it. From school updates to news being broadcasted via twitter and even Instagram, smartphones has helped us stay connected with the world. I stay connected to important information via my email also and it has helped me accomplish so many important tasks such as reviewing and editing school papers. As more and more apps are being developed, it will only become easier for companies to conform.

• #12 by Luis Lopez on 6/4/13 - 11:46 PM

  

  Cellphones are right now, as stated in the article, one of the greatest inventions ever created. From my point of view,due to technological and design characteristics, smartphones now create an emotional relationship with the owner, where, the better the smartphone the better image it adds to to the owner, this characteristics add value to the user; the idea behind this is to develop marketing oriented applications that will be very attractive to the consumer not only for the idea of the application itself but from the emotional relationship existent between the owner and the smartphone.

• #13 by Krystal Martin on 6/5/13 - 4:35 PM

  

  I feel that it is amazing how the cell phone and its capabilities has changed over the decades. What a cell phone offers now, far more out weighs its functions about 40 years ago.
  I feel that with all the functions a phone offers now companies should put emphasis on the customers' mobile activities. The society, and technology are always changing, its the responsibility of marketers to stay abreast to all these changes, so that they can cooperate the changes into their business. We have seen to many times, companies losing relevancy and revenue, when falling short to keep up with the new "in thing". Companies should realize the potential in cell phones as a means of marketing and generating revenue.

• #14 by Ralph Cadet on 6/5/13 - 4:57 PM

  

  Yes, 35 years from now we will be looking at the IPhone as an old clunker. As matter of fact due to innovation, Samsung has been able to create a prototype as to what the cell phone of the near future would look like. No hard shell, bendable and as effective and more efficient than today's phone.
  
  Technology is continuously evolving and must do so in order to meet the need of the mass. Modern society crave innovation and expect the best from those in the cell phone industry. IPhone being the leader in the industry of smartphones, app and innovation is under much pressure to stay competitive.
  
  The cell phone industry is constantly evolving and companies are always looking to push the bar to bring innovation to the mass whether its through app, software or hardware. I can't wait to see what the future of cell phone will look now 10 years from now instead of 35 years.

• #15 by Donnajean Wellington on 6/19/13 - 12:34 PM

  

  Imagine a coupon app that uses location services to send a customized coupon book for the specific store based on a shopping list the consumer makes on their smartphone? That type of customization is value creation for the consumer, for the grocery store and for the manufacturer of the goods the consumer purchased. We will indeed look back at the iPhone 40 years from its inception in much the same way we look at the original Motorolla phone; they were both ground-breaking for their respective times however as technology rapidly advances new innovations make the future look brighter. The today's smartphones make the original iPhone seem significantly outdated; when the Samsung creates a function that is designed to pause playback of video when it's user turns their head it lets you know that the we've only reached the beginning of what the smartphone is capable of.

• #16 by zscs on 2/11/14 - 3:45 AM

  

  Nice post

• #17 by Rochelle Dsilva on 7/3/14 - 2:11 AM

  

  We are all going back to olden days. Not even a decade ago, we all fancy tiny small devices, but just withing few years we are not looking for bigger and bigger phones! No wonder we are going back to brick-size age.

• #18 by mobile phone on 2/15/15 - 10:45 AM

  

  mobile technology is changing rapidly and also changing this world.

• #19 by Kevin Lujan on 1/12/16 - 4:34 PM

  

  Being a young adult (born in the 90's), it is almost impossible for me to fully understand life without a cell phone. The gradual technological rise amazes me. Can you imagine getting around without a GPS? For some it may be harder than others but in my personal opinion I would be lost on the streets. Smart phones have shaped the world and will most likely continue to shape our future, as babies and young children have never seen a world without them.