Diffusion of innovation: Cell phones

The cellphone was first created by Martin Cooper in 1973 and was shown in NYC to hundreds of people. Most of the people who were aboard were government officials, business men, and the rich because they were one of the few people able to afford the phone.

Early adapters came during the 80’s with the popularization of the DynaTAC in TV shows such as saved by the bell. The phone was too expensive for the average American so only the rich had the luxury of using the DynaTAC.

It was until the early 90s that people started to really get on board thanks to smaller and more portable and affordable phones. So flip phones came into popularity.This is where the early majority came in, most Americans were able to purchase a cell phone and were not restricted to a landline anymore.

By the early to mid 2000s everyone had some sort of iteration of a cell phone whether it was your standard flip, a blackberry, or a stylus phone everyone from adults to children owned one. The late majority was part of this stage. My great aunt didn’t get a cell phone until this period of time because she realized she was lagging behind everyone else and couldn’t get in contact with family as quickly as she wanted to without it.

During this time, Seniors and young children were able to contact each other even easier with there being specific models made for their demographics.

And of course you had the laggards, these individuals used landlines despite the popularity of cell phones. In my house growing up we had a landline but everyone except for me had a cell phone because I was too young so I was a laggard because I had no other choice but to use a landline to call.

Diffusion of innovations(source)