- Mobile phones are now the most common device in the world, with over 8.5 billion connections globally as of 2017. - The development of mobile phones was enabled by earlier innovations in electromagnetism and radio in the late 19th century, but mobile phones did not become practical until the 1980s with the invention of the microchip. - Mobile technology has advanced through generations from analog 1G networks in the 1980s, to digital 2G networks in the 1990s incorporating texting, and 3G packet switched networks in the 2000s enabling more data and applications.