10 Phones That We Loved Before iPhone's Arrival

No matter how hard it is to believe but there were iconic mobile phones before the year 2007. Why is 2007 so special in the gadget world? Well that is because Apple launched its first iPhone. The phone that redefined the smartphone arena.

But there were some mobiles before the iPhone that won mass appreciation among the users. So sit back as this article takes you down the memory lane of the phones before 2007.

1.Nokia 6600
Year of Release: 2003

The pudgy phone from Nokia was designed to be the best business phone in the market. When it made its way into the markets it was the one of the most advanced phones that Nokia had launched.  It functioned on Symbian operating system and it also came with a VGA front facing camera which at its time was rare. The phone also has a slot for a microSD card that allowed the user to expand the memory.

Before the iPhone was released, 6600 was considered to be one of the best business phones among its competitors.

2. Motorola Razr V3
Year of Release: 2004

In more ways than one; the Razr V3 which Motorola launched in the year 2004 popularized the phenomena of a flip phone. This concept caught on with the youngsters who found “flipping” the phone exciting. The sleek metallic body of the phone also appealed to the users. In the beginning Motorola marketed this phone as a fashion handset, but slowly they reduced the price and they found that by the year 2006 they sold over 50 million units of the phone and in its four year of existence they sold more than 130 million units.

With statistics like these, this phone till date remains to be the best shelling flip phone in the gadget world.  The small window screen on the flip that showed the receiving of a call or a incoming call was yet another feature that was loved by many, unlike many flip phones of its time, Razr V3 was among the very few who came with this window feature.

3. HTC Touch
Year of Release: 2007

HTC Touch was indeed a phone to reckon with, but unfortunately its release time was the reason it failed to reach its potential.  The phone was launched very close to the time when Apple decided to unleash the iPhone phenomena into the world. But in spite of this problem the phone did win a lot of hearts. The gadget was a Windows Mobile 6 device. Another feature that stood out was that the phone could differentiate between a stylus and a finger.

4. Nokia E90 Communicator
Year of Release: 2007

Nokia E90 Communicator was the fifth generation member in the Nokia Communicator family. The phone came equipped with 3G connectivity. It was unveiled in  February 2007 at the 3GSM show which was held in Barcelona.  In the first half of 2007, the E90 Communicator was way above all its competitors till it meet the same fate as HTC Touch at the hands of Apple’s iPhone.  The phone functioned on Symbian operating system.

5. BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Year: of release:  2006

The Pearl from BlackBerry is no longer in the market as RIM discontinued the production of this smartphone. But at the time when it was released it created quite a flutter in the smartphone market. Pearl was the first handset from Research in Motion (RIM) to come with a camera and a media player. The last Pearl series to be manufactured by RIM was in May 2010 after which they did away with this series.

With the introduction of camera as well as the media player, RIM was trying to expand its customer base from businessmen to the normal person as well.

6. Nokia N-gage
Year of Release: 2004

This has to be one of the first few phones that that brought the gaming world into the phone world. After N-gage many other smartphones were released that brought both these worlds together. But unfortunately the phone did not match up to the hopes of the users especially because of its weird shape which a lot of people found cumbersome. But this handset features on this list because of its innovative design and concept which was much ahead of its times.

7. Motorola StarTac
Year of Release: 1996

Before Motorola released its hugely popular clamshell phone, Razr V3; it has released another flip phone; StarTac. This flip phone made its way into the market in the year 1996.  In fact there was yet another clamshell phone which was called MicroTAC. This phone came with a semi-clamshell design that had been launched in 1989. In the year 2005, PC World listed StarTAC at the number 6^th slot in The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years list.

8. Sony Ericsson W600i
Year of Release: 2005

The shocking bright orange swivel phone did attract a lot of attention when it was released. This phone was also famous for its Walkman feature which was integrated with the device.  This was the beginning of Sony’s successful line of walkman phones. The phone also boasted of certain gaming features.

9. Nokia 3310
Year of Release: 2000

At one point this phone was the first phone for many people. This phone was sturdy and came with amazing battery life.  This phone looked after itself; even a fall couldn’t break its spirit. This phone is still going strong that many people haven’t stopped using it since the day they purchased it.

10. Sony Ericsson K300
Year of Release:

Sony has always won over the customer with its phones. This is evident in this list as well as Sony features twice. Sony Ericsson K300 had the advantage of looks on its side along with amazing sound quality. These two features made it a winner.

From the list we realize that the phones that we all adored the most were from Nokia. But today the scene in the gadget world has changed completely as Nokia is slowly losing the market share to electronic giants like Samsung, Apple and HTC.