Do  you remember when cell phones first came  into the market in the late 90s ?EXIT land lines and  having to  wait hours to receive a phone  call-ENTER Mobile  phones- your  own  shiny personal gadget   to call  whenever you wanted to (and  mostly  just  show  off )Back  then  it   didn’t   matter that  your  cell  was  just  as  huge  as  the old telephone booth  handsets .It  was probably  the one  time  that   size  really  didn’t  matter-and  the  size  was HUGE!

What was your first? The Ericson Model? Ericsson A1018s. A Black bulky box with a solid antenna  sticking  out  which  gave  you Excellent  reception  but that  thing   couldn’t  fit in your  pocket  you  literally  had to strap it to  your belt!

Or was your  first  purchase  the  Nokia 2110 -Slightly  smaller, but  by  smaller   I mean you  still couldn’t wrap  your  fingers all  the  way  round your phone.

And  trust  me you needed to  have a  firm  grip on  your cell  phone

1. Because   Cell  phones were so  costly  you  couldn’t  afford  to  lose one  to  the phone  snatchers   who lurked  at every  street   corner( kind  of like  air- you knew   they  were always  there   you  just  couldn’t spot  them   but they  could  spot  you!)

2. Phone Tracking hadn’t yet been invented   so phone ikienda imeenda Kabisa!   and  thank  heavens  now for   tracking  and   such  like technology  because at the  time  it seemed like  all phone  manufacturers  had the  same  Memo;The  bulkier, The  better.  But   thank  heavens that  technology  is  driven by  the people’s needs  (not  to  be  so  bold  as to  think  the  Nairobi   phone  snatcher  necessitated the  demise of  huge  and  bulky phones…

But  when  you   finally  got  rid  of  your 90s phone , or more  likely  some  street   thug   took it  off  you-The Phone Manufacturers  were  reading  from a  New  Memo:  SLIM,SLIMMER ,SLIMMEST.And  the  commercials   gave us  comparative  graphics showing  us the super  slim phones  against the palm  of  your  hand-  Take  that  phone snatcher!

And  so   the  Ericson   morphed  into  the Sony Ericson,  shrank  in  size, lost  the antenna,  fit  into  your pocket  ,but  did  it  still give  you  excellent  reception?  Well whether  or  not the  reception was good or  lousy  can  be pegged on  this logic: When  you  had  that stone-age  phone you were  sharing   your  network with only   a handful of  people.  Then   every Tom, Dick and Njoroge suddenly flooded your network… enough said

At this point you wouldn’t  be  caught  dead  with  those  awful  eh  cell phone  wrappers   you know  the  clear plastic bags that  clung like a second  skin  to  your phone-. By now your phone was your second skin already- so attached!  You   couldn’t afford to leave it at home because it was your life! FB, Diary, Mail, Organizer. Also on the off chance that you lost your skin- you could track it pap! Look at the Nokia phone size reduction on the pic below

But that  was then and  this  is  now when  your  phone  isn’t  just   your  second skin its  your second  brain.Enter Smart  phones it  thinks  for  you! Look away from your…Samsung   and it automatically registers that you are distracted.

New Memo -Sizeable yet not bulky. It needs to announce its presence   to all and sundry   let’s call it show-off –ability.  Enter Tablets  something that  you  fill  you  can  type your assignments  and company reports , do  your  spell check , print  if  you needed to   and mail  them all as if  you were  doing it  on  your PC.  Is it a phone? Is it a computer? It’s still a mobile…well a mobile eh device. A Tablet    they call it hmm didn’t the Biblical Moses write   the Ten Commandments on a TABLET. Feels  like  history  repeats  itself we  started  out big then went  small  and  now back to the bigger and better.

So Size does matter sometimes you will like it huge sometimes you will like it small.