The Motorola StarTAC, released in 1996, was the first phone
with a clamshell or “flip” design that protected the keyboard while
significantly reducing the overall height. Motorola not only
invented the flip phone, but 8 years later designed perhaps its
most iconic representation, the Motorola RAZR V3. The thin
design, innovative use of materials, and durable flip action
helped the V3 model become the best selling flip phone of all
time.^16
The flip design made mobile phones more sensorial. Answering
a call with a bar shaped phone was a matter of pressing a
button, but on a flip phone the conversation could begin with a
physical action, a satisfying flick of the wrist to split the clamshell
as you lifted the handset to your ear. Given that people carry
their mobile phones with them everywhere, it’s no surprise that
this flipping action became an addictive transition that people
repeatedly performed even when not answering a call.
Mobile phone manufacturers, keen to capitalize on the success
of the flip phone, began a rapid exploration to patent and release
phones with unique and innovative form factors. By the time that
touchscreen devices eclipsed the market there was a nearly
exhaustive set of possible transition types available. Phones
could flip, slide, and swivel, but also half-swivel, flip both ways,
and bottom pivot.^17
Figure 2.x Motorola RIZR Z3 slider phone (composite image with
two states, open and closed)
(^16) "The 20 Bestselling Mobile Phones of All Time." The Telegraph. Accessed January 25,
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/9818080/The-20-
bestselling-mobile-phones-of-all -time.html?frame=2458999.
(^17) "Mobile Phone Evolution: Story of Shapes and Sizes." GSMArena.com. Accessed
January 25, 2015. http://www.gsmarena.com/mobile_phone_evolution-review-493.php.