The mobile phone industry has come a long way in the last decade or so since the advent of mobile phones. Some may not appreciate the revolutionary changes that the industry has seen over the years except they have been actively involved in the process or have the opportunity to see vestiges which embody the changes that have taken place.
The Dobsina Museum of Old Mobile phones located in the town of Dobsina in Slovakia is the perfect place to get to understand the monumental changes that have taken place in the industry over the years. The museum houses a large cache of old mobile phones, including models which had ruled the airwaves in the past, long before the advent of smartphones.
The museum’s collection is made up of a total of 3,500 mobile phones, which are from 1,231 different models. They models cut across 14 different brands from Alcatel, Sagem, Siemens, ZTE, Ericsson, Samsung, Trium, Nokia, Panasonic, Motorola, Mitsubishi, Bosh, Sony-Ericsson right to Philips. These brands were all popular ack in the days but today a good number of them have closed shop or have been sold to bigger brands. Only brands like Samsung, ZTE, still exists as solid brands but the others have not been so lucky. Nokia has exchanged hands severally, Motorola was recently bought by Lenovo, Alcatel is now owned by TLC. The story goes on and on.
Presently smartphones hold sway and the advent of smartphones may be responsible for the demise of some of the brands. In a way, the museum shows the role played by Chinese brands in the entire process. If you take note, only ZTE and Alcatel are the Chinese brands which are among the collector’s items but presently, Chinese brands occupy strategic positions in the top 10 smartphone brands globally. Perhaps the model which would elicit nostalgia is the Nokia line up comprising models like the legendary Nokia 3310, Nokia E-series, N-series and other range of business phones which held sway before the death of the brand.
Make no mistake, the museum isn’t state-owned but the brainchild of 26-year-old Stefan Polgari who spent the last 2 years collecting a large number of the phones. Stefan bought someone’s collection of 1,000 old phones for a few thousands of euros 2 years ago and has been hunting for missing models to add to his already impressive collection ever since until he was able to amass 3,500 “ancient” mobile phones, about half of which still work.
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So, want to travel down memory lane and bask in the euphoria of the feeling which enveloped you when you first had your first mobile phone? Even if you can’t head down to Slovakia, we have you covered with photos of Stefan’s collection.
(source)
