Compared to my current phone which has the usual smart phone features, my first mobile phone looks like a mere toy on sight. It was a Siemens A35 and I remember the day I got it clearly. My preference at the time was actually the Nokia 3310 but the Siemens was what was within the price range. I loved that phone, mostly because it was my very own and in those days, you get excited at the idea of having a phone you can carry around in your pocket or purse, choose your ringtone and phone settings, you can store your numbers in it without the hassle of looking them up from a little book and best of all… the novelty of “texting” if you don’t have enough money to make a call. Back then, a phone was simply a handy gadget one used to make calls and send texts and with some of the old models play games in; for example the Nokia 3310 had the classic ‘snake’ game.
My A35 didn’t have games, which pissed me off a bit but I was too excited at finally owning a cell that it didn’t bother me… at least until I came across the Siemens C-35 some time later; which not only had games in it but also a model you could compose ringtones, with it I was able to compose Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” and Missy Elliot’s “Git Ya Freak On”. What made the next model different in those days was the size, the games in it and being able to compose your own ringtone using what you can get from “ringtone” websites. Camera phones were yet to happen, at least in the mind of the unsuspecting public. Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson however… they had other ideas of course.
Several phones later, I now use a second hand Samsung Duos; camera, music player, e-book reader, Bluetooth, radio, video player- you name it. Smart phones have out sat the features phones and as more models are brought into the market, the more the older ones are cast aside.
My little Siemens A35 is still with me, and will stay with me for a long time- God Willing. Every time I see it, I look back at the day I first held it in my hand and feeling so proud I was finally a cell phone owner. And it reminds me of simpler times; when the only thing we had to worry about is having enough phone credit to make calls and keeping the battery full.
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