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Constant Touch: A Brief History of the Mobile Phone

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Constant Touch: A Brief History of the Mobile Phone (Hardcover)

by Jon Agar (Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 185 pages
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd (3 Feb 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1840464194
ISBN-13: 978-1840464191

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 221,157 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#33 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Engineering > Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering > Radio Technology

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Product Description

Review
'An excellent treatment... highly readable.' New Scientist

Product Description
From nowhere, it is the land of the Finns, not the land of the free, that is setting the technological pace. The device that keeps us in constant touch has shifted how we live, work and play. Constant Touch tells the historical story of the mobile phone, what happened and why. The next generation of mobile phones is one of the greatest gambles in history, with the existence of major companies riding on the outcome. But are historical lessons being learnt?

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction, 26 Mar 2003

By	Simon Rockman - See all my reviews

Ten years ago I used to commission book reviews as part of my job. I would always look for someone I thought could do a better job of the subject than the author.
I've spent the last ten years writing about mobile phones. I've met many of the people written about in Jon Agar's book and was there at some of the launches he talks about.
I'm the person a ten-year-ago-me would have commissioned to write a review.

It's a good book.

Like a schoolboy going through a dictionary for the rude words I wanted to find mistakes. What I found was a good, clear explanation of the mobile phone as I know it and great background on the pre-history of mobiles. There are some minor mistakes - Sony became SonyEricsson a couple of years ago and officially it's a British company, not Japanese - headquartered in Hammersmith. SIMs can't be cloned and the facts on how the Government chose phone crime as a soft target are an opinion (in my view wrong) not a fact. But this is nit-picking. It's a great overview of how we got to where we are, from the importance of text messaging in the Philippines, to French infidelity and the mess of the American network. He handles one of the toughest aspects - how CDMA works - with aplomb.
There are things Jon Agar hasn't read and should have done, and it could have done with some more spadework on the photographs - just going to the BT Archives and to Nokia isn't full research - but it would not have made a vastly better book.
If you have a general interest in technology and the social effects it has this is a good, easy read.
If you work in the mobile phone industry this is something you should pick up. Everyone will learn something.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History of Technology at its Best, 14 Mar 2003

By	Peter Spark - See all my reviews

This book is a joy to read for anyone interested in understanding the background to the birth of the global communications revolution that is mobile telephony.

Agar provides an example to 'professional' historians everywhere, on how to author accessible, relevant 'social history', without boring the reader to death.

For 'amateurs' such as myself 'Constant Touch' offers an excellent and engaging global, historical, and cultural analysis of the mobile telephony business.

A 'ripping telephonic yarn'.

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