As The World Waits For The iPhone 5, A Look Back At Past Mobile Phones

Trying to compile a definitive list of the most important mobile telephones is no easy task, but certain landmarks must be noted; the arrival of mobiles into the market, the moment they became affordable, and the period when they stopped just being mere portable telephones and became something much more important.

Hopefully, we've managed to cover this, and with news - one way or the other - regarding the potential release of the iPhone 5, now is a good time to look back and see how mobiles have evolved over a period of nearly thirty years.

Good or bad, we've got twenty one of the beasts on display here. You would have owned many of them, no doubt, through the years - cherished items that you can't wait to dispose of after twelve months. From Motorola to Nokia, Ericsson to Blackberry, iPhone to HTC, we've got them covered, as we look back at the history of the mobile telephone.