Page 1 of 5

Collins Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language

Student Book

Chapter 5
5.1

Sami: Hey, Yara. Guess what? My parents got me the new MOB phone for my birthday.
Yara: Lucky you, Sami! Let’s have a look. The first phone looked sooo cool. It was soooo
popular – everyone wanted one. . I thought the touchscreen wasn't that responsive
though. Is the new one better?
Sami: Yes. When we went to buy it, the man in the shop said the makers have updated it.
Now it’s even better than awesome.
Yara: It looks so cool.
Sami: Yes I know. Look it’s got a 5-inch touchscreen – it’s perfect for me because I watch
movies on my phone all the time.
Yara: Can I have a look? Have you set up Snapchat and all your apps yet?
Sami: Yes, sure. In fact, all my apps were backed up in the cloud so they downloaded as
soon as I registered my user ID. See? All my photos and chats and stuff are on it
already.
Yara: Okay Cool! I won't look at your messages, I promise! Here let me take a selfie of us.

Sami: That was another advantage – the man in the shop says the front camera is 5-
megapixels with autofocus and flash so the selfies should be pretty sharp. And it's
got way more storage than the last phone – 16GB so you don't have to delete
photos. Not for a long time anyway! You have to agree, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
Yara: Yes – I’m going to ask my parents for one!
 Page 2 of 5

5.2

The first phone looked sooo cool.

[pause]
I thought the touchscreen wasn't that responsive.
[pause]
The Sense interface lets you flick from one screen to another by touching the image on the
screen.
[pause]
The makers have updated it.
[pause]
Now it’s even better than awesome.
[pause]
It’s got a 5-inch touchscreen.
[pause]
It’s perfect for me because I watch movies on my phone all the time.
[pause]
All my apps were backed up in the cloud.
[pause]
The front camera is 5-megapixels with autofocus and flash.

[pause]

It's got way more storage than the last phone.

[pause]
It’s a pretty sweet deal.
 Page 3 of 5

5.3

Interviewer: Good morning. Today we are finding out more about the history of the
mobile phone. And to help us, I will be interviewing a member of the
research team of the first mobile phone, which was the Motorola
DynaTAC. So, Dr Suhuyini, can you tell us more about the Motorola and
then how mobile phones developed?

Dr Suhuyini: Well, the first Motorola mobile phone came out in 1985. And it was a big
turning point because before this, mobile phones needed chargers that
were the size of a briefcase. Our phone changed that, as the battery was
small enough to go inside the phone, it would last more than one day
and it could fit into the briefcase.

Interviewer: And what has happened since then?

Dr Suhuyini: Mobile phones have got smaller and lighter and because of this the
popularity of mobile phones has grown like wildfire.

Interviewer: What numbers are you talking about?

Dr Suhuyini: Well, in the 1980s one mobile phone company forecast a world market
of 900 000 phones by the year 2000. But they got it really wrong – their
estimation was wildly incorrect. By 1998 more mobile phones were sold
worldwide than cars and PCs combined. Today, about 1.2 million mobile
phones are sold every three days.

Interviewer: And tell us more about the design of the mobile phone. How has that
changed?

Dr Suhuyini: Okay, the first clamshell handset – they are the ones that fold shut –
appeared on the market in 1996. That design copied the phone used on
the inspirational science fiction television series Star Trek. It was also
the first phone to feature a vibrate function.

Then in 2000 the mobile phone lost its antenna. Before that all phones
had an external antenna – a bit like a radio antenna. But in 2000 the
 Page 4 of 5

Nokia 3210 was the first handset to have an internal antenna. That
phone was also the first to use predictive texting.

After that, the first cellphone to have a camera was released in Japan in
2001. These days you’d be lucky to find a phone without one!

And, of course, there have been models of phones specially designed for
different markets. So, for example, Nokia designed a mobile phone to be
cheap and dust proof for citizens of developing countries. And that
phone did very well. The billionth Nokia handset ever sold was
purchased in Nigeria in 2003, where over 200 million of the dust-proof
models have been sold.

Interviewer: Of course, the big design change was the Apple iPhone. What was
different about that phone?

Dr Suhuyini: The Apple iPhone burst onto the market in 2007. The biggest design
difference was that it the first multi-touchscreen phone. The design with
the big screen made it look cleaner and neater. Its ease of use made it an
instant hit in the USA. It was so awesome that several hundred people in
New York camped outside the Apple store for over 100 hours in order to
have one of the new ‘smartphones’.

Interviewer: So, give me and our listeners a few staggering facts about phones to go
away with.

Dr Suhuyini: By 2017, over a third of the world’s population is projected to own a

smartphone, an estimated total of almost 2.6 billion smartphone users
in the world. The phone is now used more for texting or messaging on
apps than making calls. In 2000, 17 billion text messages were sent
worldwide. But 2001, 250 billion were sent, in 2004, 500 billion were
sent and in 2007, 1.9 trillion were sent. That was 8.3 trillion by 2015,
mostly because of smartphones. Today, 60 billion messages a day are
sent using just WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Interviewer: And who owns mobile phones?

 Page 5 of 5

Dr Suhuyini: That’s a good question. And the biggest ownership is not in America, as
you might think. Only 72% of Americans own a smartphone. But in
Korea, it's estimated that 88% of people have one. The world's largest
market for smartphones is China because, although only 58% of people
own a smartphone, the population is enormous. As you might expect,
people in richer countries are more likely to own smartphones, whereas
in countries like India, regular mobile phones still account for 61% of
phones. In Ethiopia, only 4 % of people own a smartphone, while 44%
have a mobile. In some countries, numbers of mobile phones exceed the
population. For example, 150% of people in Singapore own a phone of
some kind – this means that each person owns one and a half phones. In
Saudi Arabia, 199% of the population owns a mobile phone and in
Macau, a massive 259% of people own a mobile phone.

Interviewer: Well that’s all we have time for today, so thank you to Dr Suhuyini for
her insights and now it’s time for the news.

5.4

Dr Suhuyini: That’s a good question. And the biggest ownership is not in America, as
you might think. Only 72% of Americans own a smartphone. But in
Korea, it's estimated that 88% of people have one. The world's largest
market for smartphones is China because, although only 58% of people
own a smartphone, the population is enormous. As you might expect,
people in richer countries are more likely to own smartphones whereas
in countries like India, regular mobile phones still account for 61% of
phones. In Ethiopia, only 4 % of people own a smartphone while 44%
have a mobile. In some countries, numbers of mobile phones exceed the
population. For example, 150% of people in Singapore own a phone –
this means that each person owns one and a half phones. In Saudi
Arabia, 199% of the population owns a mobile phone and in Macau, a
massive 259% of people own a mobile phone.

© HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017